Google Analytics Not Matching

ryanbreneman · 2024-02-01T21:51:09+00:00

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The data i'm seeing in Domo is not matching with the data in Google Analytics.

I'm using the Google Analytics 4 connector and have the following metrics and dimensions:

Metrics:
- Conversions
- Engagement rate
- Sessions

Dimensions:
- Page path + query string
- Page referrer
- Date
- Session default channel group
- 4 custom User Dimensions

When building a simple card that shows the sum sessions over a specific date, the dataset in Domo is way off from what I see in Google Analytics (by a factor of 2 or 3 when looking at a month view).

The data I'm seeing in GA4 is not sampled. Also, I'm not running any ETLs just using the dataset that is pulling directly from GA4.

I'm assuming one of my dimensions is blowing up the data, but not sure which one as I can recreate the data in GA4 using the same dimensions and metrics.

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trafalger

Are your date dimensions the same? The GA4 connector aggregates it based on the date grain you select, so if in the connector you're pulling daily and trying to aggregate it in Domo, it might not match. Trying pulling at the same grain as the GA4 report and see if it matches.

ryanbreneman

@trafalger I think I am. I was thinking about this, but I am pulling in the data daily and there is only one date field.

I've been testing it out and I think the problem is the dimensions: page path, page referrer. I have changed the data to only include date, sessions, and default sessions channel, and the data lines up perfectly with GA4. Because these (the page path, page referrer, and other dimensions) aren't sessions based dimensions, they cause the sessions to blow up. In GA4 they seem to be able to count distinct sessions, because if I add up the individual rows in GA4 it adds up to more sessions that the sum GA4 is giving me. However, Domo isn't able to pull in unique sessions, so it's just double counting them.

I'm not sure how I can report on sessions with the dimensions I want in Domo. If I want to use those dimensions I will have to pair them with views instead. I think? Still testing it out.

trafalger

"Unique" metrics have to be pulled in the date grain you want, since if you have 3 unique users each week of the month, when you try to SUM the month it will give you 12. However if you pull that report for the month, it might only return 3.

ryanbreneman

@trafalger I guess I don't quite understand what you are saying. My dataset is refreshing each day but in my card I'm viewing the month and looking at total sessions for the month. How do I pull the date grain so I can report on current trending sessions, but roll them up to the month view?

KristinDavis

@ryanbreneman I'm not sure you ever got an answer on this.

Users is always a problem. Period. Unfortunately, it's a Google data export API problem, and not a Domo problem.. which means it likely won't be solved.

As you probably already know, you can export data from Google summarized by time frame - hour, day, week, month, or year. So every time you get an import, it's summarizing the data that time period. For most data points, that works. But for users, because they can enter your site one time or multiple times, this summary just does not work.

Example:

A user comes to the site on August twice on August 1, then once a day on August 2, and August 3. So one user, 4 sessions.

If I pull user data from GA4 by day, I will get 1 user on August 1, 1 user on August 2, and 1 user on August 3rd. If I then ask Domo to total the users, and the data is pulled by day, I will get 3 users.

If I pull the user from GA4 data by month, then ask Domo to total users for the month of August, I get 1 user.

So, if you want users by day and users by month? I use two different datasets, making 2 different visualizations on the same Dashboard. The first shows users by day, pulling from my daily dataset. The second summarizes users by month, and pulls from the monthly dataset.

seth_fuller

@KristinDavis how do you go about pulling the data by Day or by Month from GA4 into the seperate datasets?

KristinDavis

@seth_fuller I always use the Custom Report on the data pull, and each one uses a different Time setting: Year, Year month, Week, or Date. This is one that I have set up to pull by month.

seth_fuller

@KristinDavis thank you for showing that! very helpful… now I'll go a step further, at our company we often look at maybe the last 3 months in GA4 or 1st 6 months of the year. Any thoughts on how I would be able to accomplish that? Its a little frustrating that there isnt some kind of unique ID to a user so that you can pare down by unique user over a period of time.

KristinDavis

@seth_fuller I'm hitting the same problem - we want to look a a specific 3-week period, or by quarter, and GA4 won't export that data in a way that allows us to show that as a number. I'm invented a bit of a workaround: I show monthly data for that time period:

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