Google analytics has both custom and user-defined variables that allow you to manage the scope of your analytics management. These preset variables include dimensions and events that allow you to get much more details into your data.
Below is a list of the popular Google Analytics variables.
| Variable | Type | Description |
| User | Dimension | A user is either a new Visitor or Returning Visitor. It indicates whether a user is new or returning. |
| Count of Sessions | Dimension | This is the user’s session index. Every unique user’s session has its incremental index, which starts at 1 for the initial session. The indices of earlier sessions are not changed by subsequent sessions. If a person visits the website four times, the session count for that user will have four separate values of ‘1’ through ‘4’. |
| Days Since Last Session | Dimension | The number of days since a user last visited the property, which is used to determine user loyalty. |
| User-Defined Value | Dimension | The user Defined Value is provided when creating custom user segments for a property. |
| New Users | Metric | The number of sessions that’s marked to be from a first-time user. |
| 1 Day Active Users | Metric | This is the total number of 1-day active users calculated for each day in the requested period. To query this metric, at least one of ga:nthDay, ga: day, or ga: date must be given as a dimension. The total number of unique users for the 1 day ending on the specified date will be returned for a particular day. |
| 7 Day Active Users | Metric | This is the total number of 7-day active users. It’s calculated for each day in the requested period. To query this metric, at least one of ga:nthDay, ga: day, or ga: date must be given as a dimension. The total number of unique users for the 7 days ending on the specified date will be returned for a particular day. |
| 30 Day Active Users | Metric | This is the total number of 30-day active users. It’s calculated for each day in the requested period. To query this metric, at least one of ga:nthDay, ga: day, or ga: date must be given as a dimension. The total number of unique users for the 1 day ending on the specified date will be returned for a particular day. |
| Session Duration | Dimension | This is the length of a session. It’s measured in seconds and reported in second increments. |
| Sessions | Metric | The total number of sessions. |
| Avg. Session Duration | Metric | The average duration of users’ sessions (it’s computed in seconds). |
| Bounces | Metric | The number of single interaction hit or single-page sessions for the property. |
| Bounce Rate | Metric | The percentage of a single-page session. That is a session whereby the visitor left the property from the first page. |
| Referral Path | Dimension | The path of the referring URL (e.g., document. referrer). If someone places on their webpage a link to the property, that will be the path of the page containing the referring link. |
| Campaign
|
Dimension | This is the value of the utm_campaign tracking parameter when tracking a manual campaign. In regards to Adwords auto-tagging, it’s the name(s) of the online ad campaigns you use for the property. If you don’t use either, then its value will not be set. |
| Source | Dimension | This is the referrals source. It’s the domain of the source referring users to that property. If a user arrives at the property without a referrer, the value is considered “direct”. |
| Keyword | Dimension | For manual campaign tracking, the keyword is the value of the campaign tracking parameter. When the traffic is from AdWords, it contains the best matching targeting criteria. If it’s a display network with multiple targeting criteria, the keyword is the best matching targeting criteria as selected by Ads. |
| Ad Content | Dimension | For manual campaign tracking, the ad content is the value of the campaign tracking parameter. For AdWords, it’s the first line of the text for the specific online Ad campaign. If you didn’t use any of those, its value is (not set). |
| Social Network | Dimension | This is the social network name. It’s related to the referring social network for traffic sources; e.g. Blogger, Google+. |
| Social Source Referral | Dimension | This is a Boolean. It’s either Yes or No, indicating whether or not sessions to the property are from a social source. |
| Organic Searches | Metric | The number of organic searches that occurred in a session. This metric is search engine reliant. |
| Search Query | Dimension | The search query triggered specific impressions. |
| Placement URL | Dimension | The content network’s URL where the adverts were placed. |
| Targeting Type | Dimension | This (placement, keyword, or vertical targeting) indicates how the AdWords ads were targeted. |
| Destination URL | Dimension | The URL to which the traffic from the AdWords ads is referred (channeled). |
| Impressions | Metric | The total number of campaign impressions. |
| Clicks | Metric | The total number of times users clicked on the ad to reach the property. |
| Cost | Metric | This is the derived cost for the ads campaign. The cost is paid in the currency you set in the AdWords account. |
| CPM | Metric | Cost per thousand impressions. How much one thousand impressions will cost an advertiser. |
| CPC | Metric | Cost per click. This is the cost the advertiser has to pay for each click. |
| CTR | Metric | Click-through-rate. The CTR is gotten by dividing the total number of clicks for a page by the total impressions for the same page. It tells you the number of times users clicked on any of the pages. |
| Cost per Transaction | Metric | The cost per transaction for the property. |
| Cost per Goal Conversion | Metric | The cost per goal conversion. This is how much money it takes to achieve a unit of your set goal for the property- whether it’s ads sales, signup, or form filling. |
| Cost per Conversion | Metric | The cost per conversion (including eCommerce and goal conversions) for the property. |
| Landing Page | Dimension | The first page in users’ sessions or the landing page. |
| Unique Pageviews | Metric | Unique Pageviews are the number of sessions whereby a specified page was viewed at least once. A unique pageview is counted for each page URL + page title combination. |
| Time on Page | Metric | This measures how long (in seconds) users spent on a particular page. It’s calculated by subtracting the initial view time for a specific page from the view time for a subsequent page. |
| Avg. Time on Page | Metric | The total average time users spent viewing one page or a set of pages. |
| Exits | Metric | The number of exits from a property. |
| Search Term | Dimension | The search term used within the property. |
| Page Load Time (ms) | The total time from page view initiation (e.g., a click on a page link) to page load completion in the browser. It is calculated in milliseconds. | |
| Transactions | Metric | The total number of transactions. |
| Revenue | Metric | The total sale revenue of the transaction (excluding shipping and tax). |
| Unique Purchases | Metric | The number of distinct purchases. For example, if users purchase 2 shoes and 5 rackets from a site, the unique purchases will be 2. |
| Hits | Metric | The number of hits for the view (profile). This metric sums all types of hits, including pageviews, eCommerce, custom events, and others. Because this metric is based on the view (profile) and not on the property, it’s not the same as the total property’s hit volume. |