How to enable age demographics and interests in Google Analytics

If you want to find out more about the users that visit your website, Google Analytics provides age demographics and interests. You can find this information in the Audience section in your Google Analytics account. Before you start, log in your analytics account and make sure you have enabled this feature. Go to you Admin -> Property Settings -> Enable Demographics and Interest Reports.

Enable Age Demographics and Interests in Google Analytics

If you are still using the standard google analytics, you can grab the full code from Admin -> Property > Tracking info or you will need to update your code. Usually located in the header, search for

ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;

and replace it with

ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://’ : ‘http://’) + ‘stats.g.doubleclick.net/dc.js’;

Enable Age Demographics and interests in Universal Analytics

To enable this in universal analytics, you can grab the full code again, or add one line to your current one.

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-XXXXXX-XX’, ‘example.com’);
ga(‘require’, ‘displayfeatures’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

Once you added the code, go back to the demographic section and validate your code. If it validates, you should be able to see results in 24 hours!

Almost Done

Since you enable this feature you have to read the privacy policy requirements to understand how Google Analytics in gathering the information about your users. The last step is to update your privacy policy and let your visitors be aware of what data you collect and how you use it.