In Google Analytics, when you need to report on segments of users defined by more advanced conditions than the ones supported in the comparison feature, you can leverage audiences. Once created, these audiences can be used to define comparisons in your reports, enabling you to analyze the performance of your website or app, for different groups of users.
Create an audience
An audience can be created with a set of advanced conditions including event based, sequencing and exclusions. After you create an audience, it accumulates users who meet the conditions from that point onward.
To create an audience:
- In Admin, under Data display, click Audiences.
- Click New audience.
- You have three options for creating an audience:
- Create a new audience by defining all the parameters yourself.
- Use a template and modify the existing parameters.
- Select a suggested audience. You can use it as is, or modify it to suit your needs.
Use an audience to create a comparison
- In Admin, under Data display, click Comparisons.
- Click New comparison.
- Set the comparison condition as dimension = “Audience name”, match type = “exactly matches” and value = the name of the audience you created.
- Click Save and give the comparison a recognizable name.
Now, across all reports, you can apply the comparison you just created to analyze how this group of users behaves compared with other users.
Note:
- Comparisons with an audience condition only include data from the moment the audience was created. This is different from regular comparisons, which can be applied retroactively to all your GA4 data.
- For example, if you create an audience named “foo” on February 1st and create a comparison with the condition "audience name = foo" on February 5th, the comparison will only show data from February 1st onward.