Benchmarks are reference metrics that help you compare your business performance against the performance of other businesses in your industry. They unlock the data you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your business. You can use this data to take action and improve results for your business.
With an extensive customer base, Google Analytics provides benchmarks based on similar businesses using the platform.
Google Analytics offers benchmarks in percentiles (median, 25th, and 75th) based on peer groups of businesses for a wide range of industry categories. The businesses that form the peer groups are determined by an industry category assigned to each property. This industry category is determined by a combination of factors including the broad industry category provided in setup and signals from things like a property’s URLs and App attributes.
When you use benchmarking, your data is encrypted and protected, ensuring your data remains private and aggregated. Additionally, thresholds are in place to ensure that a minimum number of properties are included before benchmarks become available to a peer group. Learn more about data thresholds.
Properties must also have a minimum volume of users and be generating a minimum volume of meaningful data in order to be included in a peer group and contribute to its benchmarking metrics. This allows you to safely compare your business's performance against high quality industry standards, while also ensuring that your data is protected.
Benchmarking: How to compare your site/app to your peers
The following guided tour opens the last Analytics property you accessed and guides you to the Home page to walk you through benchmarking. The tour only works for Google Analytics 4, the current version of Google Analytics.
Prerequisites
To be eligible for benchmarking data in Google Analytics, your property must have the Modeling contributions & business insights setting enabled in Admin > Account Settings.
Access benchmarking metrics
To access benchmarking data:
- In the overview card on the Home page, select the metric you want to change.
- Expand the Benchmarking category.
- Select one of these metrics for which you want to view benchmarking data:
- Acquisition
- Engagement
- Retention
- Monetization
Turn on benchmarking data
If benchmarking data is turned on for the currently selected metric, you will see "On" next to the benchmarking badge in the top right of the overview card.
You can click the badge in the top right of the overview card to turn benchmarking data on or off. When benchmarking data is turned on, the benchmark will appear in the overview card for any metric for which it’s available.
When you turn on benchmarking data, the overview card shows:
- Your property's trendline (solid line)
- Median in your peer group (dotted line)
- Range in your peer group (shaded area)
The benchmark range in Google Analytics is within the 25th and 75th percentile levels to help you make better decisions based on your relative performance.
You can hover over the trendline to view more details.
Change your peer group
A peer group is a cohort of businesses that are similar to yours, categorized based on shared industry characteristics. The grouping helps you access more meaningful and accurate comparisons.
For example, if your business operates within the apparel sector, you would select a Shopping > Apparel peer group.
To change your peer group, click on the peer group button underneath where it says "Benchmarking peer group" when you expand the benchmarking data badge.
Your default peer group is assigned to your property based on the Industry Category you chose during setup and other attributes like your default URL and the app ID specified in your property's data streams.
You can choose a peer group from one of these categories:
- Arts & Entertainment
- Autos & Vehicles
- Beauty & Fitness
- Books & Literature
- Business & Industrial
- Computers & Electronics
- Finance
- Food & Drink
- Games
- Health
- Hobbies & Leisure
- Home & Garden
- Internet & Telecom
- Jobs & Education
- Law & Government
- News
- Online Communities
- People & Society
- Pets & Animals
- Real Estate
- Reference
- Science
- Shopping
- Sports
- Travel & Transportation
Sample scenarios
Benchmarking data can provide actionable insights into your business's performance relative to your industry peers. Let's explore a few examples:
| Metric | Peer Group | Scenario | Insight | Potential Action |
| Acquisition: New User Rate | Shopping > Apparel | Your “New User Rate” is consistently below the 25th percentile of your peer group. | You're acquiring new users at a lower rate relative to similar apparel businesses. | Increase investment in user acquisition strategies like targeted advertising, social media campaigns, or content marketing. |
| Engagement: Average Engagement Time per Session | Arts & Entertainment | Your “Average Engagement Time per Session” is significantly higher than the 75th percentile of your peer group. | Users are spending more time interacting with your content compared to most of your peers. | Introduce strategies to increase conversions, such as strategically placed calls-to-action or personalized recommendations. |
| Retention: Bounce Rate | Travel & Transportation | Your “Bounce Rate” is notably higher than the median of your peer group. | A larger proportion of users are leaving your site after viewing only one page. | Investigate the reasons for the high bounce rate and consider improving site user experience. |
| Monetization: ARPU (Average Revenue per User) | Food & Drink | Your “ARPU” is trending below the 25th percentile of your peer group. | You’re generating less revenue per user than most similar businesses in the food & drink industry. | Explore strategies to increase ARPU, such as upselling, cross-selling, loyalty programs, or personalized offers. |
Provide feedback
If we surface a benchmark that you find helpful, click the thumbs-up button in the benchmarking data card. However, if we surface a benchmark that you didn't find helpful, click the thumbs-down button. Based on your input, we can better inform the benchmarks we surface in the future.