Google Analytics 4

Last updated on Nov 25, 2022

Google Analytics 4 (GA 4) is the new and improved version of Google Analytics that allows you to analyze the interaction data from your websites and mobile applications using reports. Each of these websites and mobile applications is referred to as a GA 4 property and is associated with a unique tracking ID.

Hevo allows you to generate analytical reports based on the data stored in the GA 4 property. These reports are made up of:

Metrics: These are statistical parameters that you measure for websites and mobile applications.
Dimensions: These are attributes in a report for which you want to see the statistics.

Optionally, you can create pivot reports that are generated by applying an aggregation on top of selected dimensions and metrics in the parent report. You can create only one pivot report per parent report.

Hevo uses the Google Analytics Data API (GA 4) to replicate your GA 4 data into the desired Destination system for scalable analysis.

For creating Pipelines using this Source, Hevo provides you a fully managed BigQuery data warehouse as a possible Destination. This option remains available till the time you set up your first BigQuery Destination irrespective of any other Destinations that you may have. With the managed warehouse, you are only charged the cost that Hevo incurs for your project in Google BigQuery. The invoice is generated at the end of each month and payment is recovered as per the payment instrument you have set up. You can now create your Pipeline and directly start analyzing your Source data. Read Hevo Managed Google BigQuery.

Setup

Data Sync

Prerequisites

An active Google Analytics 4 account. Or, a Firebase account linked to Google Analytics 4.

Configuring the Google Analytics 4 Property (Optional)

If you are an existing user of Firebase or Google Analytics, you must configure the GA 4 property in your respective Firebase or Google Analytics account before configuring GA 4 as a Source in Hevo.

To configure a GA 4 property in your existing Firebase account, read this.
To configure a GA 4 property in your existing Google Analytics account, read this.

If you are a new user without an existing Firebase or Google Analytics account, skip to Configuring Google Analytics 4 as a Source.

Configuring Google Analytics 4 as a Source

Perform the following steps to configure GA 4 as the Source in Hevo:

Click PIPELINES in the Asset Palette.
Click + CREATE in the Pipelines List View.
In the Select Source Type page, select Google Analytics 4 as the Source.
In the Configure your Google Analytics 4 Account page, click Add Account.
Select your linked Google account and click Allow to provide Hevo read access to your analytics data.
In the Configure your Google Analytics 4 Source page, specify the following:
- Pipeline Name: A unique name for your Pipeline, not exceeding 255 characters.
- Account Name: The authorized Google account to which the analytics accounts are connected.
- Property Name: The website, application, or entity associated with the account for which user analytics data is to be read.
- Historical Sync Duration: The duration for which past data must be ingested. Default: 6 Months.
- Report Name: A unique name for your report, not exceeding 30 characters.
- Dimensions: Select all the dimensions you need in your report.
- Metrics: Select all the metrics you need in your report.
- Pivot Report (Optional): A report generated by applying an aggregation on the selected dimension and metrics. This option is disabled by default.
  - Pivot Dimensions: Select a subset of the dimensions selected in the parent report.
  - Pivot Metrics: Select a subset of the metrics selected in the parent report.
  - Pivot Aggregation Function: Select the functions you want to apply in the pivot report. For example, SUM, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, COUNT.
- ADD ANOTHER REPORT (Optional): Use this option to create up to five reports and five pivot reports.

Note: You cannot modify any field post-Pipeline creation.

Click TEST & CONTINUE.
Proceed to configuring the data ingestion and setting up the Destination.

Data Replication

Default Pipeline Frequency	Minimum Pipeline Frequency	Maximum Pipeline Frequency	Custom Frequency Range (Hrs)
1 Hr	15 Mins	12 Hrs	1-12

Note: The custom frequency must be set in hours, as an integer value. For example, 1, 2, 3 but not 1.5 or 1.75.

Historical Data: In the first run of the Pipeline, Hevo ingests historical data daily for all the reports based on the historical sync duration selected at the time of creating the Pipeline and loads it to the Destination. Default duration: 6 Months.
Incremental Data: Once the historical data ingestion is complete, every subsequent run of the Pipeline fetches new and updated data for the reports.

Note: Hevo fetches the incremental data for all the reports in one go and optimizes the number of API calls made to the Google Analytics 4 Data API.
Data Refresh: Hevo refreshes the data daily for the last three days.

Schema and Primary Keys

All the dimensions in a report are set as primary keys.
The suffix, _pivot is added to the report name to represent pivot reports.
The aggregation_function column in the pivot report contains sum, minimum, maximum, or count values.

For example, if you want to check the maximum page views for each page on your website daily, the count value represents the number of page views and the maximum value represents the maximum page views.

Additional Information

Read the detailed Hevo documentation for the following related topics:

Source Considerations

To fetch data for the Interest Category, userAgeBracket and userGender dimensions, Google Signals must be enabled and the data thresholds enforced by Google Analytics 4 must be met. For more information, read Activating Google signals and Data thresholds.

Limitations

Hevo does not support cohort dimensions and metrics.

Revision History

Refer to the following table for the list of key updates made to this page:

Date	Release	Description of Change
Sep-05-2022	NA	Updated section, Data Replication to reorganize the content for better understanding and coherence.
Oct-25-2021	NA	Added the Pipeline frequency information in the Data Replication section.
Jul-26-2021	NA	Added the section, Source Considerations.
Jun-28-2021	1.66	New document.