Google Analytics Summit 2013: SEER's Predictions and Wishlist

It’s that time of the year again: a time when digital analysts, marketers, and data junkies alike sit on the edge of their seats in anticipation of new updates and other goodies for Google Analytics. The anticipation about the Google Analytics Summit next week has more than swept over all of us at SEER. As such, we figured that we would take a stab at what we think Google may have in store for us early next week:

Our predictions for the Google Analytics Summit 2013:

1. Attribution Updates - At Google I/O 2013, Google presented a new feature in Universal Analytics to actually see your visitor's flow through devices with deep attribution modeling. Google has been saying it’s been in the works for a while now and we think that this summit will be its official launch.
2. New Segmentation - Back in July, Google revealed some new updates in the pipeline for Segmentation in Google Analytics. These updates include the ability to build segments according to sequential filters, a refreshed interface, and overall better user segmentation. This will be a welcome update considering Advanced Segments get the greatest workout out of most of the other features in Google Analytics.
3. Transfer Functionality from Google Analytics to Universal Analytics - The announcement and release of Universal Analytics was BIG. It opened a lot of doors to new measurement opportunities well beyond the digital realm. As people are still learning this new platform (and doing some really cool things), the desire to make the transition from traditional Google Analytics to Universal Analytics is continuing to grow. Back when Google first announced UA, they also hinted at a way to easily transfer an existing traditional GA account to the new platform. Will this see the light of day next week? We hope so!
4. Google Analytics Remarketing with Universal - Universal Analytics has so much to offer, but is not currently able to take advantage of Google Analytics Remarketing. An update that makes GA Remarketing possible with Universal makes sense from all sides.
5. Interface Update - The interface that we know now was a marked improvement in many ways over its predecessor, but many aspects of the navigation do not reflect changes made by Google. Might we be in store for another shift in navigation structure?
6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - During last year’s GA Summit, Google announced a new feature that would allow us to predict the amount of money that customers would spend over the course of their relationship with a business. This is a huge step toward combining marketing attribution with a level of predictive analytics.

Our wishlist (Pretty please??)

In addition to the predictions above, there are also a couple things we would love to hear about early next week, including:

1. Mid-Grade Google Analytics Premium - We’re already extremely thankful for the free version of Google Analytics, but it would be amazing if there was a middle-of-the-road offering for Google Analytics Premium (GA 89 Octane?) that offered the ability to access Unsampled Data.
2. Google Analytics Premium API - While we’re on the subject of Unsampled Data, it would be absolutely AMAZING to be able to pull it via an API. Please Google? Pretty please??
3. Real-Time Events API - We have seen Google’s Real-Time Events API in a closed Beta but we are ready for this to be shared with the world! Everyone should be able to leverage this real-time data to improve their agile marketing analytics.

So there you have it: our predictions for what we may be in store for Tuesday and Wednesday next week! Did we hit the nail on the head? Or were we way off? Only time will tell!

What would you like to hear announced at the 2013 GA Summit next week? Share your thoughts in the comments below!