Google Analytics: Unlocking the insights in the Audience Overview Report

Published on
October 27, 2015
Contributors
Leslye Schumacher
Leslye@vicimediainc.com

Leslye Schumacher is a Founding Partner with Vici. Leslye’s background in media spans 25 years and includes working for both large and mid-size television, radio and newspaper companies. She has held positions in sales, management, marketing and NTR. Leslye has extensive experience in training salespeople and coaching managers. She is Google Analytics Advanced Certified, a Certified Radio Marketing Consultant and a Certified Sales Talent Analyst, having assessed over 10,000 media salespeople and managers. Leslye was the Vice President Of Talent Services for The Center For Sales Strategy before going on to start TalentQ Consulting and then Vici Media.

Subscribe to our newsletter
Read about our privacy policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

If knowledge is power than knowledge of Google Analytics is a super power. In a previous post I covered how to understand the Home Page of Google Analytics. In this post, we’ll tackle the Audience Overview Report. This report gives you basic information about a website’s performance and traffic. You can navigate to this report by first logging in to Google Analytics:1. Click on the top tab “REPORTING.”2. Click on “AUDIENCE” on the left side column3. Click on the date range you want to look at. Make it one year to get a look at monthly traffic patterns.4. Click on “OVERVIEW” on the left side column.5. Click on “MONTH” on the right side of the graph (or hourly, day, week).6. Click on “USERS” in the drop down box above the graph.

Google Analytics Audience Overview Report

When looking at the graph line you can hover over each month’s circle and one of the white boxes will appear which shows you the exact number of users for that month.Below the user’s graph are some key stats:SESSIONS are how many times the website was visited over the selected period both new and returning visitors.USERS are how many unique visitors came to the website over the selected time period.PAGE VIEWS are the total number of pages viewed on your website during the selected time period.PAGE/SESSION is the average number of pages a person views when they visit – ideally this should be a 2 or higher for most types of businesses.AVERAGE SESSION DURATION is the average amount of time a person is on your website – obviously the longer it is typically the more engaged they are.BOUNCE RATE is how many people looked at one page and left. Click here for more info on “what’s a good bounce rate?”% OF NEW SESSIONS is what percentage of visitors were new versus returning visitors and is expressed as a pie chart also.

The best way to understand Google Analytics is to log-in and start clicking. Most items will give you a description if you hover your cursor over it. Dig in!

Related Posts

Tips, guides, industry best practices, and news.
Category Link
YouTube+: The Branding and Awareness Machine
In today’s digital landscape, attention is everything and YouTube is where that attention lives. With billions of users, laser-sharp targeting, flexible budgets, and measurable performance, advertising on YouTube isn’t just a trend it’s a strategic advantage.
Dan Charon
June 25, 2025
Category Link
From Pitch to Performance: Selling Smarter with Digital Media
The best digital salespeople aren’t just selling—they’re guiding. With the right materials, mindset and momentum, your pitch becomes a performance your client won’t forget.
Tracey Geary
June 9, 2025
Category Link
Are You Missing Out on the Marketing Power of the Theatre of the Mind? Online Audio!
Online Audio is a great tool to enhance a digital campaign and falls within the branding and awareness part of the sales funnel. Audio reaches consumers while they're engaging in other things like commuting, working out, or cooking...
Katie Pray
June 3, 2025