Introduction If you’ve started analyzing GA4 data in BigQuery, you’ve likely come across the field: It looks simple at first. However, in the context of Consent Mode, user stitching, and multi-touch attribution, its meaning and behavior deserve a deeper look. In this post, I’ll break down: Let’s get into it. What Is traffic_source.medium? In GA4 … Read more
Marketers often ask the big question: “Which channel really drives conversions?”With GA4 and BigQuery, you can move beyond guesswork and analyze attribution models directly in your data warehouse. In this post, we’ll show how to implement last-click attribution using SQL and compare it with GA4’s data-driven attribution (DDA) tables. This helps you evaluate channels side … Read more
Understanding your e-commerce checkout funnel is key to improving conversions and sales. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) exports detailed event-level data to BigQuery. This lets you slice and dice every user interaction in your funnel. These interactions range from product views to purchases. In this post, I’ll walk you through the GA4 e-commerce event schema in … Read more
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
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