Understanding how different channels contribute to user acquisition vs. user retention is critical for optimizing spend and strategy. In GA4, while you get some visibility into user types, a more detailed analysis often requires BigQuery SQL. This guide walks you through: Why This Analysis Matters Most marketing teams ask: By breaking down New vs. Returning … Read more
Understanding the difference between new and returning users is critical for marketers and analysts who care about user acquisition, retention, and behavior trends. While GA4 simplifies many things, it doesn’t directly provide an easy way to segment returning users—especially if you want to go beyond default reports. This deep dive walks you through how GA4 … Read more
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) offers a more flexible and event-based model than Universal Analytics, but it can be confusing when it comes to understanding user types. Here’s a breakdown of the main user types GA4 tracks, what they mean, and what you should consider when analyzing them. 1. Total Users 2. New Users 3. Returning … Read more
Google Analytics 4’s Consent Mode helps websites respect user privacy by adjusting data collection based on consent. While this is essential for GDPR and CCPA compliance, it introduces a challenge: attribution gaps. When users initially deny consent but later accept it (or give partial consent), GA4 sessions and conversions may get split or missed in … Read more
Why Session Stitching Matters in GA4 When analyzing user behavior in GA4 BigQuery exports, you’ll quickly realize: sessions are not always clean, continuous, or unified. With Consent Mode, device switching, and delayed user identification (user_id or gclid), GA4 often fragments what should be a single journey into multiple separate sessions. This is where session stitching … Read more
When Consent Mode is enabled in GA4, your session reporting gets a bit trickier — especially if you’re working with raw event data in BigQuery. If a user hasn’t granted analytics consent (analytics_storage = ‘granted’), GA4 won’t assign session or user IDs. That means no session continuity and no proper attribution. But if you’re exporting … Read more
When Consent Mode is enabled in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the way sessions are initiated, maintained, and reported changes significantly. This ensures compliance with privacy laws (like GDPR or CCPA), but also impacts how you interpret session data in BigQuery or the GA4 UI. Check Out Amazon Deals Discover top offers on books, gadgets & … Read more
Calculating the number of sessions in BigQuery GA4 provides immense flexibility and granularity. However, it can often lead to discrepancies when compared to the GA4 user interface (UI). Understanding these differences and how to mitigate them is key to accurate analysis. How to Calculate Sessions in BigQuery GA4 The most accurate and robust method to … Read more
One of the most powerful features in web analytics is exporting raw data into BigQuery for deep analysis. Both Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) support BigQuery, but they do it in very different ways. If you’re a data analyst, engineer, or marketer working with BigQuery, understanding how GA4 and UA differ can … Read more
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) BigQuery exports include a wide range of traffic source attribution fields. This variety can feel overwhelming when you’re first trying to understand and calculate attribution. You might envision it in a specific way. In this guide, I’ve outlined the key concepts and steps I’ve gathered so far in navigating GA4 attribution. … Read more
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