Google Analytics Breakthrough

9 View Settings, View Filters, and Access Rights

In this chapter, we’re going to learn about the settings and view filters that you can apply to the raw, unfiltered property to modify, consolidate, or completely rewrite the incoming data and to create focused subsets of the data.

Since you may want to provide certain individuals with access only to the subsets of your data rather than to all data that you collect in the property, we’re also going to discuss Google Analytics (GA) access rights at the account, property, and view level.

Why Do We Need Multiple Views?

In Chapter 4, “Account Creation and Tracking Code Installation,” we learned that:

• A GA property normally corresponds to a single website or mobile app.
• Data collection is associated with a specific property ID (also called a tracking ID or UA number), and website and mobile app data therefore flows into GA at the property level (rather than at the account level).

Since data collection occurs at the property level, we might at first wonder why we need multiple views at all, but, as we learn some of the basic concepts behind views, we soon realize the critical role played by the view level of the account hierarchy.

As demonstrated in Figure 9.1, views allow us to alter the raw, underlying property data in the following ways:

• Data cleanup and consolidation. Exclude your own internal website traffic from tracking, consolidate URLs and case variations, and rewrite any dimension value.
• Configuration for additional ...