Google Analytics expands benchmarking with unnormalized metrics

 

Google Analytics now lets businesses benchmark absolute metrics like New Users and Total Revenue.

Google Analytics is making it easier for businesses to compare themselves against industry peers by expanding its Benchmarking feature to include 20 new unnormalized metrics, such as New Users and Total Revenue.

How it works. Google Analytics estimates benchmark ranges for absolute numbers by multiplying a peer group’s normalized metric by your property’s active user count.

For example, benchmarks for Engaged Sessions are calculated as: Peer group’s engaged sessions per active user × your active users.

Details:

• Benchmarks are offered in percentiles (25th, median, 75th) to show performance ranges.
• Peer groups are determined by industry categories, based on setup data and property signals.
• Data is encrypted, aggregated, refreshed every 24 hours, and only available when enough peers qualify.

Why we care. Until now, benchmarking was limited to normalized data (percentages and ratios). By adding absolute numbers, businesses can see how their raw performance stacks up against competitors—while still accounting for traffic differences through estimation models.

What’s next. With broader benchmarking, businesses can go beyond vanity metrics to identify strengths, spot weak points, and take targeted actions—whether that’s boosting acquisition, improving engagement, or optimizing monetization.

The bottom line. Google Analytics is giving marketers a more realistic, apples-to-apples way to see if they’re lagging, leading, or keeping pace with competitors in their industry