No data appearing in custom Google Analytics report using a custom dimension

Question

I want to send a custom dimension to google analytics to use in a custom report as per:

In some cases, you might want to send a custom dimension or metric with all the hits on a given page (or for the lifetime of the tracker object). In this case, you can set the custom dimension or metrics using the set command: ga('set', 'dimension5', 'custom data');

This is my script:

    (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
    (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
    m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
    })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
    ga('create', 'TRACKING-CODE', 'auto');
    ga('set', 'dimension5', 'some value here');
    ga('send', 'pageview');

My custom report looks like this:

But I'm not getting any data e.g. some value here. Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

You don't have to use a Custom Variable, in Analytics go to Admin (in the bottom of the sidebar menu) > Custom definitions > Custom dimensions and add dimension5, then you will have dimension5 available to use it as a dimension in your custom report.