GA4 Data Connector User Guide

GA4 Data Connector User Guide

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful web analytics platform that provides valuable insights into your website and app performance. This guide will walk you through the process of connecting GA4 to Power My Analytics, creating reports in Looker Studio, and understanding key metrics and considerations.


Prerequisites

Before connecting GA4 to Power My Analytics, ensure you have:
  1. A Google account with Viewer access at the Property and View levels for your GA4 property

Adding Google Analytics 4 as a Data Source

  1. Log out of all Google accounts except the one you want to connect.
  2. In your Power My Analytics Hub, navigate to Sources.
  3. Click + New Data Source and select Google from the gallery.
  4. Sign in to your Google account when prompted.
  5. Grant Power My Analytics the required permissions (Edit Google Analytics management entities and View and Manage your Google Analytics Data) for your Google account.


Creating a Looker Studio Report

  1. In your Power My Analytics Hub, go to Reports > Looker Studio
  2. Select Google Analytics 4 under Create Looker Studio Report (this will open the official Looker Studio application in a new window)
  3. Follow these steps in the Looker Studio configuration:
    1. Step 1:
      1. Name your data source (e.g., "Google Analytics 4 - My Website")
      2. Select your Power My Analytics hub from the dropdown
      3. Optional: Leave "Use report template for new reports" checked to use the PMA demo template
      4. Click Next
    2. Step 2:
      1. User Account: Select your Google Analytics 4 account for real data or "Sample Account" for demo data
      2. Click Next
    3. Step 3:
      1. Choose "Account" and "Currency" for your reports
      2. Optional: Allow "Account" modification in reports
      3. Click Connect (top right)
    4. Step 4:
      1. Click Create Report (top right)
For a quick start, use our pre-built GA4 demo template.

Key Reports and Fields

The Power My Analytics GA4 connector offers a wide range of metrics and dimensions. Here are some popular report types and metrics:
  1. Report Metrics: Users, New Users, Average engagement time, Total Revenue, Sessions
  2. User Metrics: New Users by First User Default Channel Grouping, Engaged Sessions, Engagement Rate, Average Engagement Time, Event Count, Conversions, Total Revenue
  3. Traffic Metrics: Users by Session default channel grouping, Total Users, Sessions, Engaged Sessions, Average engagement time, Engaged sessions per user, Events per session, Engagement Rate, Event Count, Conversions, Total Revenue
  4. Event Metrics: Event Count, Total Users, Event Count Per User, Total Revenue
  5. Conversion Metrics: Conversions, Total Users, Total Revenue
  6. Pages and Screens Metrics: Screen Page Views, Active Users, Views per User, Average engagement time, Event Count, Conversions, Total Revenue
  7. Landing Page Metrics: Sessions, Total Users, New Users, Average engagement time (sec), Conversions, Total Revenue
  8. Ecommerce Metrics: Cart To View Rate, Items Added To Cart, Item Purchase Quantity, Item Revenue
  9. Purchase Journey Metrics: Sessions, Item Views, Add To Carts, Checkouts, Total Purchasers
  10. Publisher Ad Metrics: Publisher Ad Impressions, Ad Unit Exposure, Publisher Ad Clicks, Total Ad Revenue
  11. Promotion Metrics: Item Promotion Views, Item Promotion Clicks, Item Promotion Click Through Rate, Items Added To Cart, Item Purchase Quantity, Item Revenue
  12. Demographic Metrics: Total Users, New Users, Engaged Sessions, Engagement Rate, Engaged sessions per user, Average engagement time, Event Count, Conversions, Total Revenue
  13. Tech Metrics: Total Users, New Users, Engaged Sessions, Engagement Rate, Engaged sessions per user, Average engagement time, Event Count, Conversions, Total Revenue
  14. Custom Channel Groups
  15. Custom Fields
For a complete list of available fields, refer to the Schema Explorer.

Limitations and Important Considerations

  1. Backfilling: GA4 data is live only, with no backfilling available.
  2. Metric discrepancies: Some metrics may show higher values in Power My Analytics compared to the GA4 UI.
  3. Custom fields: If you add custom fields to an existing GA4 data source, you must reconnect the source in Looker Studio for the new fields to appear.
  4. User reporting: Use the "Active Users" field to report on users.
  5. Date dimension: Avoid using "Year Month" as a dimension when reporting "Active Users" to prevent inflated values. Instead, use both "Year" and "Month" as separate dimensions.
  6. Audience reporting: The API will not report audiences with fewer than 10 users.

Unavailable Data

  1. Realtime reporting is not available.

Troubleshooting

See our article Troubleshooting Google Connectors for information on issues that may affect Google connectors.


    Still having issues?
    Send us a ticket and we will get back to you.
    Submit a ticket

      • Related Articles

      • Google Ads Data Connector User Guide

        Google Ads is a powerful online advertising platform that allows businesses to reach potential customers across Google's vast network. This guide will walk you through how to connect your Google Ads data to Power My Analytics, create reports in ...

      • Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) Sunset

        As of July 1, 2024, Universal Analytics has been fully shut down and is no longer available as a data source or data destination. Google's Universal Analytics was sunset on July 1, 2024 and has been removed as a feature of Power My Analytics. ...

      • Google Search Console Data Connector User Guide

        Google Search Console provides valuable insights into your website's search performance and visibility in Google Search results. This guide will walk you through connecting Google Search Console to Power My Analytics, creating reports, and ...

      • Twitter Analytics Data Connector User Guide

        The following article is a guide to automating reports with your Twitter Analytics connector. It includes information on available data as well as currently unavailable data and tips on how to get the most out of your Twitter Analytics reports. To ...

      • Pinterest Analytics Data Connector User Guide

        The following article is a guide to automating reports with your Pinterest Analytics connector. It includes information on available data as well as currently unavailable data and tips on how to get the most out of your Pinterest Analytics reports. ...