Understanding a New Active User Feature in Google Analytics

Today I was one of the users who received a new feature within Google Analytics. It is an “Active User” feature. If you also have it you will see it under the audience report, if not you will have to wait for a while.

See The Number of Active Users For Your Site

Active users present the number of unique users who initiated sessions on your site. With this new feature, Google allows you to track active users on a daily, weekly, 2 weeks and 30 days basis.

1-day Active Users – shows the number of unique active users per one day.

Example:

  • On June 1st – 8 active users
  • On June 2nd – 31 active users
  • On June 3rd – 66 active users
  • On June 4th – 22 active users
  • On June 5th – 9 active users
  • On June 6th – 26 active users
  • On June 7th – 9 active users

active-users

 

7-day Active Users – Presents the number of unique active users for 7 days in a period you define.

Example:

For the period, June 1 to June 7, the number of active users is 164. Why is this number not the same as the sum of all active users per individual day?

8 + 31 + 66 +22 + 9 +26 + 9 = 171

Because user A could visit your site on June 1st and June 2nd and be a unique visitor twice, once per each day.  But if we look at 7-day report he will show up only as one unique active visitor for that 7-day period.

This new feature will bring all marketers great insight into user engagement. You can also use segment tools in order to track exact segment you need.