When it comes to web analytics, there is no other tool like Google Analytics.
It’s free, easy to set up, and gives you a wealth of reports and insights right out of the box. Whether you want to measure the ROI of your ads or understand your traffic sources, Google Analytics has a feature and report to help you do it all.
But Google Analytics can also be intimidating for first-time users. It has its own terminology, and for many of the standard features, you will need to do some reading if you want to get the most out of them.
To help you out, we will look at two of these terms that Google Analytics uses to organize reports: collections and topics. If you want to know what collections and topics are, and how reports are organized in them, read on below.
What Is a Collection?
In Google Analytics, a “collection” is a grouping of reports. Every Google Analytics property has two collections by default: Life Cycle and User.
As a Google Analytics user, you can also create your own collections. When you do, they will appear in the report navigation next to the default collections.
To create a collection in Google Analytics, you need the Editor role. An important constant to keep in mind is that a Google Analytics property can have no more than 7 collections.
What Is a Topic?
In Google Analytics, a “topic” is a subset of reports within a collection. For example, the User collection has two topics—Demographics and Tech—which contain reports.
Just as you can create your own collections, you can also create your own topics in Google Analytics. When you do, they will appear in the report navigation next to the default topics.
A Google Analytics collection can have up to 5 topics.
What Is a Report?
In Google Analytics, a report is a set of metrics that are visualized in a specific way. Reports are usually grouped into collections and themes.
A large set of reports is available by default for each Google Analytics property. However, users can also create their own.
Putting It All Together
To help you put it all together, here’s a list of all collections, topics, and reports available by default in Google Analytics:
| Collection | Topic | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| Life Cycle | Acquisition | Acquisition overview, User acquisition, Traffic acquisition |
| Life Cycle | Engagement | Engagement overview, Events Conversions, Pages and screens |
| Life Cycle | Monetization | Monetization overview, Ecommerce purchases, In-app purchases, Publisher ads |
| Life Cycle | Retention | Retention |
| User | Demographics | Demographics overview, Demographic details |
| User | Tech | Tech overview, Tech details |
