Over the next few weeks Google will be adding a new feature to the Google Analytics platform known as the Google Treemaps report feature. Google Treemaps has essentially been created to make reports on AdWords more visual, so now is the best time to link your AdWords account to Google Analytics (which you can learn more about here). This addition will allow your AdWords campaigns additional insight into performance so that you can be on top of your online marketing strategy.

Treemaps is a feature that everyone involved in your company’s SEO should understand. Below explains first and foremost how Google Treemaps actually works, and then how to use Treemaps in conjunction with your Google AdWords campaigns to benefit your online efforts.

What is a Treemaps Report?

As a feature tied into Google Analytics, Treemaps allows campaign managers the ability to see how their advertisements are performing. This will ultimately provide a visual representation of trends, both positive and negative, rather than looking at number figures and data alone. These visual representations will be complied using hierarchal data and nested rectangles to represent the results of an advertisement campaign.

The easiest way to understand how this works is to look at the screenshot below from a Search Engine Land article (this one shows a “new user vs. bounce rate” report). The next section will explain how to read a Treemaps like this, so if you don’t understand it all yet, don’t sweat it:

In the end it’s really something to get excited about because it is a key way to represent data. Now you will be able to identify and better understand successes as well as problems with your account (again, without having to look at numbers alone). Since most of us are visual creatures, this way of data presentation is going to be revolutionary in the reporting of analytics.

More on Presentation Format in Treemaps

Before providing details on how to use Treemaps, I want to introduce some of the basic features and presentation information you will need to be aware of when reading the maps. I recommend using the map above as a reference.

First, Treemaps uses color-coding to display results, with positive results in green, and negative in red, for a visual key for interpreting the campaign results. A few sub-points to keep in mind:

• Positives and Negatives. I know what you are thinking, what makes a metric positive or negative? Basically, for metrics where a high number is positive, such as click-through rate (CTR), higher numbers will be displayed in green; for metrics where a high number is a negative observation, for example, a bounce rate, you’ll see higher numbers in red.
• Colors. From here we can elaborate and say that just like a traffic light, where green represents ‘go’ and red represents ‘stop’, you want to adjust your efforts accordingly. Therefore, the color representation within Treemaps is extremely important.

Okay, going beyond color coding:

• Surface Area. The surface area of your rectangles represents the volume of whatever primary metric you select.
• Overlaps. The space where red and green overlay represents whichever secondary metric (discussed in the next section) option you choose from your account.

So what if you have multiple accounts? Treemaps take into consideration that you may have more than one account feeding into your Google Analytics, for example, if you own multiple domains. This could obviously get complicated, but Treemaps have found a way to avoid this potential analytic confusion.

If you do have multiple accounts (or again, to better understand, multiple site domains) linked to your Google Analytics account, Treemaps automatically defaults to displaying on-screen all of the accounts that you have linked. If you only have one account linked, then the default will be the campaigns page. Once you have selected the domain account you want to look at, you will be re-directed to that campaign.

So, What is the Goal of Google Treemaps?

Ultimately, the reporting in Treemaps will not necessarily show you why AdWords campaigns are working well or poorly, but it will display how and when a campaign’s performance fluctuates. In other words, you’re in complete control. Because of this, Treemaps will be particularly helpful in:

1. Looking at daily performance, especially in the context of previous days/months of campaign data.
2. Help you to identify metrics and campaigns that may require further analysis to improve your overall performance (more of this in the chart below).

How To Get started with Google Treemaps

Once you are logged in to Google Analytics (and have also synced your AdWords account for any domains that you have for analytics), you will be able to create reports in Google Analytics under Acquisition > AdWords > Treemaps.

Note: This feature may not be rolled out on your Google Analytics yet, so if you don’t see this option, expect to see it in the next few weeks. We are at Web Design Miami are still waiting!

Google Treemaps allows the user an option of combined metrics to prepare a visually pleasing report. Here is a break down of the metrics that will be available initially at the launch:

So now that you know which metrics you can use, let’s look at a Treemaps one more time. If you look at the Treemaps below, also provided in the Search Engine Land article, you can see in the top left-hand corner that this is a report looking at Cost vs. Ecommerce Conversion Rates.

You can instantly see that your conversion rates are higher in those green boxes. You will then want to increase your volume in those green areas and see what you can learn from those green areas that aren’t transferred over into the campaigns that are red.

Click on any of the campaigns to further dig into what is working and what isn’t. If I were to click on that first box in the upper left-hand corner, the largest campaign that is showing red (at a cost of $2,656.87), I would get yet another Treemaps:

As you can see, not every ad group is showing a low conversion rate. This gives webmasters a good look at where they need the most help when it comes to conversion rates. For many this could mean a web redesign, which you can learn more about here.

The Takeaway

Overall when looking at the functions and benefits of Treemaps, the major benefit is its ability to tie to your existing Google Analytics and Google AdWord platforms. As I stated in the introduction, this is such a valuable tool for anyone involved in your business’ SEO and online marketing efforts because it allows you to see daily fluctuations in a visually represented manner. According to many experts and reviews, Treemaps are definitely considered as a groundbreaking new feature.

These benefits and analytical abilities will save ad managers time and money by deciphering where to improve and having the ability to apply modifications, even with limited analysis. If that doesn’t sell you, the main feature definitely should—it will allow your SEO staff and ad campaign manager the ability to compare different metrics visually.

A good starting point: If you haven’t already done so, go get Google AdWords and sync it to your Google Analytics for your website domain (or, domains if you have multiple). This will help your domain analysis on Treemaps once you get started, and the sooner the better!

Have you used Treemaps yet for your company? Do you have any questions about how they work or how to use them to your advantage? Let us know in the comment section below.