Getting Prepared For GA4: Saving Your Historic Information

As you’re making ready to arrange Google Analytics (GA4), you’re most likely asking the identical factor we had been: What’s the most effective technique for migrating our historic knowledge?

There needs to be a manner to do that, proper?

On this column, you’ll study whether or not we are able to merge knowledge in GA4 and three DIY methods to save lots of your historic knowledge.

Can You Migrate Your Information To GA4?

The first concern is whether or not GA customers can switch or migrate Common Analytics knowledge into their Google Analytics 4 property.

Sadly, you can not migrate your knowledge to GA4, and it’s not more likely to be a function we’ll see added within the coming months.

Migrating your knowledge to GA4 isn’t more likely to be a function as a result of the 2 variations use utterly completely different knowledge fashions.

I spoke with Charles Farina, Head of Innovation at Adswerve, and he defined that:

“It’s the distinction in schema and dimension definitions/calculations that make merging the information not attainable.”

Schema refers to how the information is organized and the language used to make sure compatibility. Primarily it’s the blueprint.

He explains you may see the variations in schema nicely when evaluating the BigQuery integrations for UA and GA4.

“The UA export is sessionized, that means every row within the export is a session, and each interplay is nested in that row. The GA4 export could be very completely different, the place every row is the occasion (interplay) itself,” shared Farina.

One other key cause is how dimensions and metrics are outlined and calculated in GA4 in comparison with UA.

Google has an excellent help web page that goes over many of those.

For instance, let’s take a look at one of the crucial widespread KPIs, “Customers.”

Common Analytics reviews on Complete Customers or all customers, whereas GA4 focuses on Lively Customers or customers which have visited the web site at the very least as soon as up to now 28 days.

Even when we might migrate UA knowledge to GA4, it could be like evaluating apples to oranges.

For those who’re questioning why this alteration is occurring, you’ll discover the reply in our article, Google Analytics 4 FAQs: Keep Calm & Preserve Monitoring.

How To Export Google Analytics Historic Information

Google does empathize and encourages customers to export their historic knowledge.

“We all know your knowledge is necessary to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historic reviews throughout this time.”

Google hints that extra steerage on methods to export could also be coming sooner or later.

The excellent news is whereas we can not migrate our knowledge, we are able to nonetheless reserve it.

Google permits GA360 (paid product) customers to export Common Analytics knowledge to BigQuery. Nevertheless, the price of this product makes it inaccessible for smaller organizations.

So, what about normal customers? How do the remainder of us export historic knowledge?

I’ll present you three DIY strategies and some instruments that may deal with extra advanced requests.

1. Guide Export

The best approach to export knowledge is to get it straight out of your Google Analytics account.

Open the GA normal report you wish to maintain. For instance Acquisition > All Visitors > Supply/Medium.

Set any customizations you need, equivalent to a phase for a selected nation, a filter for a selected web page grouping, or a secondary dimension for touchdown pages.

Click on EXPORT within the high proper nook.

Choose the file format from the drop-down menu. You may select PDF, Google Sheets, Excel (xlsv), or CSV.

Although that is the best approach to export your historic knowledge, there are limitations.

You may solely apply two dimensions and are restricted to a most of 5,000 rows.

In case you are registering hundreds of hits per day your knowledge could also be sampled.

Examine for the inexperienced checkmark defend within the high left close to the title of the report you’re viewing; this implies your knowledge isn’t sampled.

2. Google Analytics Dev Instruments: Question Explorer

Google Analytics dev instruments sound off-putting (and technical), however you might be seemingly already aware of one of many instruments.

The Marketing campaign URL Builder is often used to create UTM parameters for campaigns.

GA dev instruments even have a question explorer.

That is a straightforward (and free) approach to export knowledge for non-technical customers (yeah!).

Open Question Explorer and click on the orange button, LOGIN.

Check in to your Google Analytics account that has entry to the property you might be engaged on.

Choose the account, property, and examine you wish to save knowledge for.

The software will mechanically set the GA ID, so that you don’t want to fret about that.

Set the remaining question parameters: Date vary within the format YYYY-MM-DD, metrics, dimensions, and any filters or segments you wish to apply.

For metrics, choose the columns out of your Google Analytics report that you’re extracting knowledge from.

You may select each metric within the report you wish to replicate or only a few metrics that assist obtain your objectives like “Customers,” “bounceRate,” “avgSessionsDuration” and “goalCompletionsAll.”

Dimensions would be the rows from the Google Analytics report from which we’re exporting knowledge.

For instance, if we wish to see metrics (customers, bounce price, period, and aim completions) by site visitors supply choose “ga:sourceMedium” because the dimension.

Observe: For those who plan to visualise this data in Information Studio, you will want to set the scale “ga:Medium” and “ga:Supply” individually.

“ga:SourceMedium” doesn’t work in Information Studio. Extra on visualizing to return.

The remainder of the question parameters are elective. I like to recommend leaving these clean on this use case to tug the max quantity of knowledge.

You may at all times kind, filter, and phase inside your spreadsheet.

Scroll to the underside and click on the orange button RUN QUERY.

From right here, obtain the information as .tsv (tab separated values) and open it in Excel or Google Sheets.

Observe: Discover the UA – GA4 toggle within the left-hand menu navigation. By clicking this toggle, you may entry Question explorer for GA4 accounts.

3. Google Analytics Sheets Add-On

This selection is a tad extra advanced however connects Google Analytics on to Sheets, so that you don’t have the additional steps of downloading and importing.

Create a folder in your Google Drive that can maintain your historic knowledge. Create a brand new Google Sheet and identify one thing that can make sense for future crew members, like “UA Historic Data_Traffic Acquisition_2021.”

Alongside the highest menu navigation, click on Extensions > Add-Ons > Get Add-Ons.

Seek for the Google Analytics app within the Google Workspace Market. Click on to put in and observe the onscreen prompts.

Again to your Google Sheet. Click on Extensions once more. This time it’s best to see the app for Google Analytics.

Hover and click on Create new report.

Now it’s time to export your historic knowledge.

Step 1. Title your report one thing that is smart in your fellow crew members. For instance, we’ll pull knowledge by monetary quarter, so report no. 1 shall be named “Q1 2021.”

Step 2. Choose the Analytics view you wish to extract knowledge from by selecting our Account, Property, and View.

Step 3. Configure report. Right here we’ll select our metrics, dimensions, and segments.

I’m going to maintain it easy for this instance and select “Customers,” “Bounce Charge,” and “Purpose Conversions” for my metrics and “supply” and “medium” for my dimensions.

Observe: ga:sourceMedium isn’t appropriate with Information Studio. For those who plan on visualizing this sheet, it’s best to tug the site visitors supply dimensions individually like ga: Medium, ga:Supply.

Depart Segments empty to see all customers.

Clicking the blue button Create Report will lead you to configuration choices.

There are extra choices to customise our report that aren’t out there on the earlier display screen.

We are able to alter the date vary utilizing the format YYYY-MM-DD.

We are able to apply filters like nation, ga:nation==United States.

Double-check that the whole lot appears to be like right, then click on Extensions > Google Analytics > Run reviews to export your historic knowledge.

Observe: Pace up this course of by copying and pasting the configuration over to the subsequent column, updating the date vary, and operating a number of reviews concurrently.

A report standing popup will let you recognize when you’ve made any errors or as soon as the report is accomplished efficiently.

Row Quantity 6 will present us if the information is sampled or not. Row quantity 7 will inform us how a lot if the sheet accommodates sampled knowledge.

In Common Analytics, knowledge sampling occurs after 500,000 classes within the timeframe.

So, you may alter your report knowledge vary to cut back the variety of classes in your timeframe.

Or, when you want the complete dataset and wish to skip the forwards and backwards, use a third-party software to keep away from knowledge sampling.

Third-Celebration Instruments

Optimizesmart.com has a 46-step walkthrough of utilizing Supermetrics for sending GA knowledge to BigQuery.

On March 12, 2022, JR Oaks introduced that they’re engaged on releasing an open-source GA to BigQuery backup script/workflow to the general public.

There are pre-built knowledge pipelines by firms like Hevo and Electrik AI that export historic knowledge from Google Analytics to a database file or knowledge warehouse of your alternative.

You might also contemplate switching to a paid Analytics supplier.

Just a few have already launched a Google Analytics historic knowledge import possibility.

Visualizing Historic Information With Information Studio

Now that you’ve got pulled your historic knowledge, you wish to make one thing straightforward to match to GA4.

Observe: I’ve to forewarn you that trying to match UA and GA4 shall be actually tough as a result of the information fashions are utterly completely different.

Farina provides,

“Google intends so that you can run GA4 side-by-side with UA and, as a substitute of merging the information, simply reduce over to GA4 as quickly because it has 13 months of historic knowledge.”

Be assured that a variety of your hard-earned information and abilities carry over to GA4! Learn, Getting began with GA4 to study the place to seek out website site visitors, consumer engagement, occasions, and conversion reviews.

Okay, again to visualizing historic knowledge.

Comply with these steps to create a Information Studio report that can stack a historic knowledge desk on high of a GA4 knowledge desk, so your YoY outcomes are at the very least in a single place.

Open Information Studio and click on to start out a Clean Report.

There shall be an overlay display screen to pick the information supply you wish to join. Choose Google Sheets.

Find the spreadsheet you made above when exporting your knowledge. For those who adopted the steps precisely, will probably be named “UA Historic Information _Traffic Acquisition_2021.”

Choose the worksheet “Q1 2021.”

Utilizing the primary row as headers will mechanically identify your metrics and dimensions, so maintain containers each checked.

Choose the elective vary that matches your sheet.

For instance, my headers begin at A15, and the final quantity in my sheet is E62, so my vary shall be “A15:E62.”

Information Studio will mechanically create a desk. Double-check that the configuration is identical as your sheet within the right-hand menu.

Medium is the first dimension. Flip the toggle so as to add a secondary dimension of Supply.

Metrics are Customers, Bounce Charge, and Purpose Completions.

Your historic knowledge desk will look much like the screenshot under.

Subsequent, we’ll create the identical desk however for our GA4 knowledge in the identical timeframe: Q1 2022.

Proper-click to repeat and paste your desk, then change the information supply from UA Historic Information to your Google Analytics 4 account.

As a result of the metrics have completely different names, you will note an error – invalid metric.

Click on on every metric and replace it to one thing comparable like “Complete Customers,” “Engagement Charge,” and “Conversions.”

Dimensions will replace to “session/supply” and “session/medium.”

Final, in the identical menu, scroll down and set the date vary so it matches your historic knowledge: January 01 – January 31, 2022.

The ultimate report will look much like the screenshot under.

You may simply see main metrics yr over yr by evaluating historic knowledge with GA4.

Though, it’s pretty bare-bones.

You can’t mix this knowledge as a result of the definitions and calculations of the scale and metrics are essentially completely different.

For extra strong historic reporting choices, equivalent to graphic customers or aim completions over a time period, you could wish to contemplate BigQuery.

Remaining Ideas

Sadly, migrating your knowledge to GA4 isn’t at the moment attainable (and never more likely to come) as a result of the 2 variations are essentially completely different knowledge fashions.

There are just a few DIY options for saving your historic knowledge, however the outputs are pretty bare-bones.

For those who want extra strong data and reporting capabilities of historic knowledge, look into a knowledge warehouse like BigQuery.

Google hints that further data on exporting historic knowledge will come earlier than the July 2023 finish date.

Possibly that shall be a knowledge connector for BigQuery for Google Analytics normal customers – one can hope.

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Featured Picture: Paulo Bobita