Marketing Insights with Age, Gender, Affinity Categories

Google Analytics recently added new reports to the Standard Reports under Audience.  The new Demographics reports show age and gender of visitors and the Interests report shows affinity categories and in-market segments.

These new reports will help marketers, content writers, and creative staff develop targeted content, design and advertising campaigns. With the addition of these new reports, you will learn about who visits your site and how they behave. A single visit can be classified in multiple categories and may appear to be counted multiple times as a Visit.

The Red Square displays "33.83% of total visits"

It is important to note that the new reports represent a subset of your website visitors and not the overall website traffic, as noted with the red square in the screen capture above.

Google determines demographic information this way:

"When someone visits a website that has partnered with the Google Display Network, Google stores a number in their browsers (using a "cookie") to remember their visits. This number uniquely identifies a web browser on a specific computer, not a specific person. Browsers may be associated with a demographic category, such as gender or age range, based on the sites that were visited."
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Note: In-market categories will gradually be added over time, according to Google Analytics Help. Also, data in the Age report does not include any visitor under 18.  

Steps to Activate Demographics & Interests Reports

The first step to seeing these reports:

1) Update your website's privacy policy

2) Update the tracking code on your website

3) Enable in Google Analytics option Audience | Demographics Overview and click on the "Enable" button

Simpleview SEM clients should notify their SEM Analyst to update the website tracking code once their privacy policy is updated.

These new demographic and affinity reports will allow DMOs (Destination Marketing Organization) to see who their customers are and better understand visitors' user experience and behaviors while navigating their website.