In a post on the Google Blog last week, Google announced the introduction of new Cross Device features of Google Analytics. Here's in a nutshell how Google describes the benefit of these features for marketers:

"Cross Device reporting in Analytics takes into account people who visit your website multiple times from different devices. Now, instead of seeing metrics in Analytics that show two separate sessions (e.g., one on desktop and the other on mobile), you’ll be able to see when users visited your website from two different devices. By understanding these device interactions as part of a broader customer experience, you can make more informed product and marketing decisions."

Three Cross Device reports are planned:

• Device Overlap Report will connect data gathered on customers/prospects across different devices and sessions.
• Device Paths Report will reveal how users move from one device to another to consume content as they travel down your conversion funnel.
• Acquisition Device Report will merge attribution and traffic data to show users who were both acquired and converted on one type of device, those who were acquired via one device and converted on another, and those who were acquired but not converted.

To use the Cross Device reports you'll need to first activate Google Signals. (You'll need edit permission in your GA account to do that.)

But note: Google only began last week to roll these new reports out to advertisers, so chances are Google Signals isn't yet available to you. It's not yet available to me, so I can't complete the activation process yet. But when it is available, here's how to proceed:

First, sign in to your Google Analytics account. When Google Signals is available to you, you'll see a dismissable message saying "Activate Google Signals BETA".

When that message is there, you can go forward by clicking the ADMIN link at the bottom of the left menu. That should take you to the All Web Site Data screen:

Next, in the Property Settings column, click the Tracking Info link. That will open a dropdown menu. On that menu, click Data Collection and that should take you to the Data Collection for Advertising Features screen.

On that screen, when Google Signals is available, there should be content there in which you can activate Signals for one or all of the properties in your GA account.

With Google Signals activated, you should be able to:

• Show Cross Device remarketing ads to Google users who have turned on Ads Personalization.
• See new user-based data in the Cross Device reports, starting from the date you activate Google signals.

Support page for Google Signals is here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7532985#enabling .

I could spend all my time keeping up with Google's new products!

More later on this one when I'm able to use it.