Custom or advanced segments are so useful for narrowing in on a section or user-behavior within your website.

When businesses spend valuable time, money and resources on social media, it’s important for marketers see the value or Return-On-Investment (ROI).

This custom segment lets you do just that: look at purchases (and web usage metrics from social visitors that made purchases) from social media referrals. You may have to tailor my settings slightly- to reflect which social channels you participate in.

Social Purchase Custom Segment

The segment below was created to view all transactions from Facebook, Facebook mobile, Pinterest, Pinterest mobile, Twitter and t.co (shortened links on Twitter that have referred people to the website).

Click “Test the segment” to make sure it’s configured properly- Google Analytics will tell you how many transactions the segment applies to. It’s pretty neat! Or click “Preview the segment”.

I like to be in the “Goals” overview section of Analytics with the Source/Medium tab selected.

Note: The referral sources blurred out in the photo above are non-social media platforms. Those referral sources are appearing in this segment because of our inclusion of t.co (shortened links shared on Twitter). To see ONLY traffic from Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc. simply delete t.co. URLs have been blurred to protect privacy.

The beauty of custom/advanced segments is that they can be applied next to other segments.

In the following screen shot, you’ll see that I applied the “Visits with transactions” segment along side our “Social Purchase” segment. Again, I’m in the “Goals” overview section of Google Analytics.

Add the Social Purchase segment to Your Analytics Account!

To apply the Social Purchase segment to your Google Analytics profile, click here. Make sure to edit the social sources, if needed.

TIP: Once you apply your segment, visit the different areas within Google Analytics. Apply secondary dimensions such as “Days Since Last Visit” to see “City” and more to gain a deeper insight as to who your social purchasers are. Use this information to personalize shared content, deals and promotions!

Have any questions? Comment below!