Custom Tables

• Even with Premium, sampling can be a problem in GA when using custom reports. • Custom Tables allow a combination of metrics, dimensions, segments, and filters to be

processed unsampled on a daily basis. • Any report that matches a subset of a Custom Table will access that table by default,

giving fast, unsampled data in reports that may otherwise be sampled.• This includes:

• Custom Reports and Dashboards• Standard Reports with secondary Dimensions added• API requests

• This excludes:• Flow Visualization, Search Engine Optimization, Multi-Channel Funnels, and Attribution reports.

Introduction

• A Custom Table can include more metrics, segments, and filters than are specified in your target report, but it must include all of the target report's metrics, segments, and filters.

When Will a Report Be Unsampled

Page City Page Views

Unique Page

Views

Avg. Time on Page Entrances Bounce

Rate % Exit Page Value

Page City Page Views

Unique Page

Views

Avg. Time on Page Entrances Bounce

Rate % Exit Page Value

Page City Page Views

Unique Page

Views

Avg. Time on Page Entrances Bounce

Rate Exits % Exit Page Value

Custom Table

All Pages with City added

Custom Report 2

Unsampled

Unsampled

Sampled

Page City Page Views

Unique Page Views

Avg. Time on

Page

Custom Report 1 Unsampled

To view reports go to

Customization > Custom

Tables

•After creation it can take up to two days for unsampled data to appear in the Custom Tables reports on the Customization tab

Populate required

fields and Click Save

Click +New Custom Table

Go to Admin > Property >

Custom Tables

Request ‘Edit’ level

permission at property level

•Users with Read & Analyze access to the view in which you've created a Custom Table can see the report generated from that table.

Active by default within

Premium properties

How to Get Started

• 100 Custom Tables per property.• Assigned to specific views.• Up to 6 dimensions and 25 metrics per Table.• The Users metric cannot be included• User based segments cannot be included.• Filters contribute to the 6 dimension limit:

Configuration Limits

Dimensions Filters

Page Page

City City

Country

Source

Medium

Campaign

Dimensions Filters

Page Page

City City

Country Traffic Type

Source

Medium

Campaign

• A maximum of 4 segments can be applied to a Custom Table.

• These can be Default or Custom Segments (available to the selected view).

• IMPORTANT:• If a Custom Segment is applied to a Custom Table

and later amended in the main interface it will have no impact on the configuration used within the Custom Table.

• The Custom Segment configuration is effectively frozen at the point the Custom Table is created.

• All non-Custom Reports will use the latest version of the Custom Segment. This may mean that reports that previously made us of the Custom Table will no longer be unsampled.

Including Segments

• Custom Tables can contain 200k unique rows per day i.e. before aggregation into (other).

• This is 125k higher than the 75k rows for standard Premium reports!

• Segments applied to Custom Tables cannot be removed or altered.

• Data will populate immediately but will be unsampled for up to 48 hours.

Reporting

Sampled data Custom Table created

Sampled Data in Custom Tables

30 days 2 days

The Custom Table will back-fill data to the point the view was created.

However, data will only be unsampled from 30 days prior to the date the Custom Table was created.

• The dimensions and metrics available were previously more limited e.g. no Total Unique Searches which is now supported.• Often exceed the daily rows limit because Custom Tables include unwanted rows with

empty Custom Dimensions i.e. where the Custom Dimension value is (not set).• RegEx filtering in the Custom Table settings didn't work as expected:

• RegEx (CV21): position -> no data• RegEx (CV21): ^position.* -> data

• RegEx filtering from within a Custom Table was excluding data that we believe should have been present.

Issues GDS Have Found

Pros Cons

• No coding changes are required• Unsampled data without using unsampled reporting• Unsampled data accessible within other reports• Influences API data accuracy• 100 table limit per property• 200k unique rows• 30 days of back-filled unsampled data

• Tied to specific views• Not compatible with the User metric • Not compatible with User based segments• Buggy filtering• 200k unique rows still not enough• Data still subject to sampling if date range spans a time

period greater than 30 days prior to table creation

Summary

Create and use Custom Tables

About Custom Tables

Useful Links