Post by rakibulislamm on Sept 10, 2023 18:32:09 GMT 10
For all of my friends out there using different domains for their stores, their courses, their main site, and/or their blog - your time has come.
The good news is, cross-domain tracking in GA4 is much easier than it was in UA. The bad news is that this is only true if you know where to find the setup widget.
To define all of your domains, > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Configure your domains.
Screenshot showing where 'Configure tag settings' can be found in GA4
Taking this step is especially important in GA4 because outbound clicks are tracked using Enhanced Measurement. Thus, not defining all of your domains can lead to false “click” counts.
7. Internal traffic
Ah, now this is a question I’ve been asked over a dozen times. Yes, you can filter out internal traffic.
To filter internal traffic by IP address, you will need to go to Data Phone Number List streams > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Show all > Define internal traffic.
Unfortunately, in the GA4 platform, this is currently the only way to define internal traffic.
Screenshot showing where to find internal traffic and referral settings in GA4
8. Unwanted referrals
E-commerce folks, this one's for you.
If you’re using a third-party payment processor like Stripe or Paypal, this is a big one.
Unless you want all of your purchases to be attributed to your payment processors, you have to specify to Google that there are unwanted referrers.
If you’re not sure if you have sites you need to mark as unwanted referrals, check your Traffic Acquisition report and change the primary dimension to Session Source/Medium.
9. Custom dimensions
If you’re anything like me, and send 80% of your events using Google Tag Manager, you’re going to want to listen up!
Most of the time, people use GTM to send extra data with their events in the form of event or user parameters. GA4 does collect and process these parameters, but it DOES NOT retain this data unless you’ve defined the dimensions.
screenshot showing Event count by Event name in GA4
So if you want to be able to see your parameters, you need to create a custom dimension for each one. It’s pretty easy, you just name the dimension and select the coordinating parameter.
Screenshot showing custom dimension settings in GA4
10. Data retention
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you are going to want to extend your data retention window.
This is perhaps one of the most important but most overlooked settings.
In the property column, you’ll navigate to Data settings > Data retention. Once you’re here you will find that by default GA4 properties are only set to retain event data for 2 months.
That’s just 60 days. That’s not even a whole season of Big Brother.
The good news is that you can change this from 2 months to 14 months with three clicks of a button.
The good news is, cross-domain tracking in GA4 is much easier than it was in UA. The bad news is that this is only true if you know where to find the setup widget.
To define all of your domains, > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Configure your domains.
Screenshot showing where 'Configure tag settings' can be found in GA4
Taking this step is especially important in GA4 because outbound clicks are tracked using Enhanced Measurement. Thus, not defining all of your domains can lead to false “click” counts.
7. Internal traffic
Ah, now this is a question I’ve been asked over a dozen times. Yes, you can filter out internal traffic.
To filter internal traffic by IP address, you will need to go to Data Phone Number List streams > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Show all > Define internal traffic.
Unfortunately, in the GA4 platform, this is currently the only way to define internal traffic.
Screenshot showing where to find internal traffic and referral settings in GA4
8. Unwanted referrals
E-commerce folks, this one's for you.
If you’re using a third-party payment processor like Stripe or Paypal, this is a big one.
Unless you want all of your purchases to be attributed to your payment processors, you have to specify to Google that there are unwanted referrers.
If you’re not sure if you have sites you need to mark as unwanted referrals, check your Traffic Acquisition report and change the primary dimension to Session Source/Medium.
9. Custom dimensions
If you’re anything like me, and send 80% of your events using Google Tag Manager, you’re going to want to listen up!
Most of the time, people use GTM to send extra data with their events in the form of event or user parameters. GA4 does collect and process these parameters, but it DOES NOT retain this data unless you’ve defined the dimensions.
screenshot showing Event count by Event name in GA4
So if you want to be able to see your parameters, you need to create a custom dimension for each one. It’s pretty easy, you just name the dimension and select the coordinating parameter.
Screenshot showing custom dimension settings in GA4
10. Data retention
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you are going to want to extend your data retention window.
This is perhaps one of the most important but most overlooked settings.
In the property column, you’ll navigate to Data settings > Data retention. Once you’re here you will find that by default GA4 properties are only set to retain event data for 2 months.
That’s just 60 days. That’s not even a whole season of Big Brother.
The good news is that you can change this from 2 months to 14 months with three clicks of a button.
