Google Analytics 4 (GA4) employs behavioral modeling to estimate user activity when identifiers are unavailable, ensuring comprehensive insights despite privacy constraints. This modeling requires specific conditions to be met, such as implementing consent mode across all pages and collecting sufficient
Understanding GA4 audience user counts
There’s nothing like an example to explain something complicated like understanding reported GA4 audiences user counts. Consider this example where GA4 is used to track activity on a digital property and GA4 audiences have been defined: The GA4 audiences report
Users in GA4 standard reports is really active users
In GA4 standard reports, “users” is really “active users”. These reports do not make it clear this is the case, and it causes confusion. GA4 reporting surfaces In our post about user metrics estimations applied in GA4, we noted there
Third-party cookies, first-party data, and user consent
Consider third-party (3P) cookies as spies, employed by an international spy network (representing an ad platform), that can track citizens (internet users) across countries (websites). First-party (1P) cookies are like foreign ambassadors, each permanently stationed by a sending country (in
Google consent mode: a strategic approach for digital advertisers
Google’s consent mode is creating a stir among digital advertisers, similar to the anxiety caused by the phasing out of third-party cookies. Whether your business meaningfully interacts with users in the United Kingdom (UK) and European Economic Area (EEA) or
GA4 and HyperLogLog: the good, the bad and the ugly
This post explores Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and its relationship with HyperLogLog (HLL++), a probabilistic data structure used for counting unique users and sessions. I watch way too much Seinfeld. In one episode (“The Strike“), Jerry & George quote a
Differences between GA4 explorations and reports
In our post about GA4 thresholding and reporting identity, we noted there will be meaningful differences between reporting with BigQuery exported GA4 data compared to GA4 predefined reports & GA4 Explorations. Understanding those differences is important, but you also need
GA4 thresholding and reporting identity
Two of the most impactful features of GA4 are data thresholds (thresholding), and reporting identity. You must understand how these features impact GA4 predefined reports, and GA4 Explorations, to interpret report data correctly. GA4 thresholding GA4 thresholding is a feature
Facebook Special Ad Category targeting restrictions
If your Facebook / Meta ad campaigns require assignment of a Special Ad Category, you no longer can target Special Ad Audiences (or their step-sister, Lookalike audiences) as of October 12, 2022. This impacts businesses offering credit cards, auto loans
Why is Google sunsetting GA Universal Analytics and promoting GA4?
Universal Analytics (UA) is 10 years old. It is a version of Google Analytics (GA) that was built for desktop device online measurement & stand alone sessions, and depends heavily on data stored in cookies. With Google’s announcement that GA UA