Collecting data from Google Analytics Data (GA4)

This guide explains how to collect data from Google Analytics Data (GA4). To learn how to collect data from a different data source, go back to the Available data sources in Adverity overview.

Introduction

For a list of the fields that you can collect from Google Analytics Data (GA4), see Google Analytics Data (GA4).

Google Analytics Data (GA4) uses estimates in some data calculations. As a result, when comparing data from Google Analytics Data (GA4) with data in Adverity, we recommend comparing data at the row level, as this will be more accurate than comparing totals.

For more information, see Troubleshooting Google Analytics Data (GA4).

This video guide explains how to create and configure a datastream to collect your website data from Google Analytics Data (GA4).

Limitations

Collecting data from Google Analytics Data (GA4) comes with the following limitations:

You can select a maximum of nine dimensions when choosing what data to collect using your Google Analytics Data (GA4) datastream.
Google Analytics Data (GA4) only retains data for 26 months. As a result, you can only fetch data for the past 26 months.

Prerequisites

Before you start collecting data from Google Analytics Data (GA4), perform all of the following actions:

Ensure that the account you use to connect to Google Analytics Data (GA4) has Viewer or higher permissions. For more information, see the Google Analytics Data (GA4) documentation.

Creating a datastream to collect data from Google Analytics Data (GA4)

The basics of creating a datastream to collect data from any data source are explained in our guide to Creating a datastream. This guide contains information about the specific steps to create a datastream to fetch data from Google Analytics Data (GA4).

Authorization: Allow Adverity to access Google Analytics Data (GA4)

Google Analytics Data (GA4) uses the same authorization as Google Analytics.

If you choose Access using your credentials or Access using someone else's credentials, in Set up or edit Properties, you or the person granting access must choose one of the following options:
- Choose Grant access to all items, including those created in the future to give Adverity Properties to access all existing items and all items created in the future.
- Choose Select specific items to which you want to grant access to only give Adverity Properties to access the selected items. Adverity will not automatically have access to items created in the future. You will need to grant Adverity access to any items created in the future.
If you use your credentials to grant Adverity access to Google Analytics Data (GA4), all the items available to you using your credentials will be visible in the Authorizations page to all Adverity users with permission to edit this authorization.

If someone else uses their credentials to grant Adverity access to Google Analytics Data (GA4), the same applies to the items available using their credentials.

This is important to consider if you do not want all Adverity users with permission to edit the authorization to be able to see the details of the authorization items. For more information about user permissions, see Managing user permissions.

Configuration: Choose the data you want to collect from Google Analytics Data (GA4)

To choose what data to collect and customize the Google Analytics Data (GA4) datastream configuration, follow these steps:

(Optional) Rename your datastream.

In Property IDs, select the property IDs on which you want to collect data. For more information about property IDs, see the Google documentation.

In Dimensions and Metrics, change the list of fields that you want to see in your data extract. For information on combining different dimensions and metrics, see the Google Analytics Data (GA4) documentation.

(Optional) In Metadata fields, select the metadata fields that you want to include in the data extract.
(Optional) In Custom fields, select the custom fields that you want to include in the data extract.
(Optional) In Dimension filter and Metric filter, enter a valid JSON expression to use for data collection. For more information, see Google Analytics Data API documentation.

For example, the following expression filters the values of the eventName column. In this example, only entries in which the value of the eventName column is equal to session_start will be collected.
```
{
	"filter":{
		"fieldName":"eventName",
		"stringFilter":{
			"matchType":"Exact",
			"value":"session_start",
			"caseSensitive":true
		}
	}
}				
```

What's next?

Apply Data Mapping to your collected data to harmonize data collected from different sources in Adverity.
Transform your data to meet your needs by creating and applying transformations to your datastream.
Load your data into Explore & Present to visualize your data in Adverity
Load your data into an external destination of your choice

Troubleshooting Google Analytics Data (GA4)

I see an error message when fetching data from Google Analytics Data (GA4)

The Resource Exhausted Error for Property ID [ID] error message appears because the Google Analytics Data (GA4) API has a daily request limit per customer. The limit refreshes every 24 hours.

To resolve this issue, collect your data over several smaller fetches, e.g. using shorter date ranges.

The values for my metrics are inflated when I collect data from Google Analytics Data (GA4)

When fetching data, metrics such as Sessions and Users can be inflated as you add more dimensions. This is a common issue with web analytics tools, as individual sessions, users, etc. can be counted multiple times. This can happen for the following reasons:

Some metrics are non-aggregatable and calculated using estimates. This means that the total row in a Google Analytics Data (GA4) UI report will not accurately match the sum of all rows. For example, a report may contain 3 rows, each with 10 sessions, but the total row could contain 25 instead of 30 because the values are estimated. For more information, see the Google documentation.
Values are counted more than once, for example if a session spans more than one day, or a user visits more than one page in a single session.

As a result, the total that you see for these metrics in your Google Analytics Data (GA4) UI report may not match the data you see in Adverity. For more information, see the Google Analytics Data (GA4) documentation.