Google Analytics, calculating an average for a custom metric

Question

In Universal GA there are a number of pre-set metrics available to you that represent averages; things like 'avg time spent on page' and 'avg Bounce rate'. However when I create a custom metric, it seems there is no way to calculate the average of it, you always see the sum.

Is there a way to view the average of a metric rather than just the sum ?

I understand that Universal GA is still in public beta, is this just a feature that has been missed out ?

Answer 1

In the current version of Analytics you can now use "Calculated Metrics". Those can be used for creating averages, among other things. You cannot use them for min/max though, it is limited to rather simple calculations.

So if your CustomMetric is gathered at hit-level, you want to define your calculated metric CustomMetricAvg as

{{CustomMetric}} / {{Page Views}}

Answer 2

You didn't miss anything. Calculated metrics are not available. There's now a Google Analytics feature request for this, please star it or add your comment (hopefully Google Analytics team will notice).

The other option is to export the data and do the calculations outside of Google Analytics. You could do a normal CSV/Excel export, use the Core Reporting API, or try the Magic Script.