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Ever since Google Analytics was first launched, the feature of sharing reports with other users has been there. I’d even say that this feature is one of the most significant benefits of using Google Analytics over other tools due to its ease of use and diversity of available features. On the flip side, it can be quite cumbersome to extract the data you need for each of your clients, and share it, especially if your clients generally don’t have a strong background in digital analytics.
So, how do you share your Analytics data with your team? Who can access your reports? I’ll cover how to share standard reports, custom Google Analytics reports, and templates links with other users.
Sharing access to your Google Analytics reports and account is important for a number of reasons. For example, if you’re working in a team, sharing access to your reports is crucial so you can all see how your site is performing. When your team has one place to track their performance, they’ll know what works well and which areas require further improvement or change of strategy with ease.
It’s also possible to grant access to your entire Google Analytics account. When granting access, you can also specify what permissions other users have, like the ability to view reports or edit data.
Now let’s summarize the benefits of sharing access to your GA account or reports in a few points:
You no longer have to worry about whether or not your Google Analytics account will be blocked or suspended due to overuse. You can share your account with whomever you want, and if the person knows what they’re doing, they can manage your Google Analytics account and reports for you.
You can share an account with one of your colleagues, a team member, or even a client or customer. Having another person manage your account gives you more time to focus on your analytics goals and strategy.
Keeping track of numerous logins and passwords is great for managing your own account, but it becomes a hassle when you have to share an account with multiple users. If each of your users is logging in and setting up their own Analytics accounts, then you’ll have to track each individual user’s logins and passwords.
One of the great things about Google Analytics is how easy it is to share reports. You can share your reports with anyone you want, whether they’re on your team or a peer from another agency. When you share a Google Analytics report, you grant that user permission to view the report, and they automatically receive an email invitation.
The ability to share reports is particularly useful for agencies that want to share reports with partners and clients. In that situation, you can grant them access so that they can view the report, but then revoke that access if they leave etc.
Sharing access to your Google Analytics account is a simple way to give others the opportunity to use your data reports without giving them access to your login information. But it’s also important to remember that by sharing access to your data reports, you are giving those people some control over who gets access to your account.
To share access to your Google Analytics account, follow these steps:
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and select desired website.
2. Choose the Admin option.
3. With User Management, you can control who has read-only or full view access. In this example, we selected User Management in the Account column.
4. Enter the email address of the user you want to grant access to. You can manage 4 different options of access: Manage Users, Edit, Collaborate and Read & Analyze. After you set up everything, click Add.
You’re done – Access is given to the user!
This method provides you to create custom reports to help you track the information you care about and share it with your clients. Consider, for example, a content marketer who is using Google Analytics to analyze traffic. The marketer might create a Custom Report showing which pages of content are getting the most traffic, traffic by referral source, or traffic by specific keyword.
The marketer can share the report with the client, so the client can see which parts of their site are performing well. You can create custom reports for each client by choosing up to 5 dimensions for each report and sharing it with them.
Let’s see how.
1. After you’ve selected the website in your Analytics account navigate to Customization » Custom Reports. Under the Actions dropdown menu click Share.
If you want to share a template link, click the Share template link, and click Share.
You can share generated links with your client so they can use the custom report for their needs.
Also, you can share a custom report with another user. Choose a custom report by going to Customization » Custom Reports. Export the custom report to the desired format such as CSV, TSV, TSV for Excel, XLSX, Google Sheets, or PDF, or you can email the report to a user.
If you’re sharing a report or dashboard with a colleague, it’s important to know what your goals are. Do you want to hand over responsibility for managing the information to that person? Or do you want to be able to make changes without checking in with that person?
There are two options that are important to know:
1. Share Object – If you choose this option, others will see the dashboard in their account, but they can’t delete it.
2. Share template link – This option allows you to give others the same dashboard in their own account. You can’t edit it, and they don’t have the option to rename it or change the permissions on the views.
Share an object, and you can control who sees it and what they do with it. Sharing a template link allows others to make use of your data without sharing control. Also, you can share both methods.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
The Solutions Gallery is an open-source project, created and maintained by Google, and a real treasure trove of freely available Google Analytics dashboards, reports, and segments.
It’s free, and it allows you to share your own work and the work of others in the community. Lastly, you can quickly upload and download dashboards, custom reports, and more to basically form a public database with numerous ways to look at your Google Analytics data.
The Solutions Gallery is a valuable resource for novice users looking for some inspiration or advanced users who are looking for specific reports or segments.
Let’s see how you can use it for sharing reports.
Sharing assets from your reporting view is a way to create, edit, share or delete assets. You need to have edit permission at the view level in order to create, edit or delete assets. Do not share assets with your team members, only individuals who need the assets, for example, your business partner.
To share assets, follow these steps.
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Navigate to the reporting view.
3. Open the Google Analytics admin platform and click on the ’Share Asset’ link under the ’View’ column:
4. Select desired assets you want to share, and click on the ’share’ button.
5. Choose the sharing method. You can either share an asset with people in your organization (’Share a template link’) or you can share it with the general public (’Share in Solutions Gallery’). Click on the ’Share’ button.
6. If you decided to share a template link you will be asked to copy the template URL and share it with the people in your organization:
7. If you decided to share in the Solutions gallery you will be asked to provide additional information:
8. After you clicked on the ’Share’ button, you will see this message:
9. If you click on the ’here’ link you would be able to see your shared asset in the Google Analytics Solution Gallery:
10. You can also delete your asset with ’delete’ option:
Note: If you do this, the shared template link and shared asset with Google Analytics Solutions Gallery won’t be deleted.
Now let’s see how do you import assed from the GA Solution Gallery to your reporting view.
3. Open the Google Analytics admin platform and click on ’Share Asset’ link under the ’View’ column:
4. Click on the ’Import from Gallery’ button.
5. Choose the asset you want to import from the browsing bar in the upper-left corner. Click on the ’Import’ button.
Note: You can sort it by its popularity, ranking, or category.
6. Now, you will be asked to select the reporting view where you want to import the asset. Also, you will get the option to select the assets you want to import:
7. Click on the ’Create’ button.
Well done – You finished the importing process!
If you’re part of an organization that has special reporting needs, the native functions in Google Analytics may not suffice. For example, you may need to report more than 10 metrics or include commentary about your data. Or, you may want to include branding (e.g., your logo) and a cover page. Also, you may wish to include data from the other sources in your reports.
Stop here – There is a perfect solution for you!
Databox helps agencies and marketers create quick, professional-looking reports and dashboards. With Databox, analysts can also create their own templates and easily share them with clients and executives with a better and user-friendly interface.
You can sign up for a free trial now and join 120,000+ satisfied Databox users who are already leveraging their Google Analytics Reporting experience.
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