The recent fix by Google makes the session_start and first_visit more consistent by including the event parameters, such as the traffic source details, that used to be missing. However, there are still many issues related to these two events. At best, they are just a bit off, while in worst cases, they are complete junk.
Why you should avoid using the session_start and first_visit events in GA4 Read More »
Incremental tables allow maintaining tables based on large source data by only performing small periodic queries. In this post, I’ll share three different methods for performing an incremental refresh. The code examples are all based on the GA4 BigQuery export data.
Incremental Refresh Techniques for Dataform – GA4 Read More »
The daily BigQuery export schedules for GA4 are notoriously random. Sometimes the data is processed in the early-morning hours, sometimes at noon, and sometimes not even during the next day. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up a Cloud Workflow that compiles and executes the selected queries in your Dataform project.
Run Dataform queries immediately after the GA4 BigQuery export happens Read More »
This blog post will show how to recreate the GA4 session traffic source dimensions using BigQuery export event data. The result will be a lookup table containing the last non-direct source of traffic for each unique session id.
Query the GA4 Session Last Non-direct Traffic Source in BigQuery Read More »
This post will show you how to create your own IP lookup API for Google Tag Manager using a Google Cloud Function. The location data can then be pushed to the dataLayer using a custom HTML tag.
GTM geolocation API Cloud Function Read More »
In this post, I will go through how to set up a simple event stream from server-side Tag Manager directly to BigQuery. The idea is to keep the setup as simple as possible. That way, it’s suitable for different kinds of experimentation and debugging needs. Post updates Things to consider when sending data to BigQuery
Send events from Server-side Tag Manager to BigQuery Read More »
One of the significant improvements in GA4 over the old Universal Analytics is its event-based data model and the free data export to BigQuery. This article is a collection of some of the most common SQL formulas, plus a few extras, needed when working with the GA4 event data in BigQuery.
BigQuery SQL Cheat Sheet for GA4 Read More »
Unlike some other Google tools, Search Console lacks the free BigQuery data export. In this article I’ll guide you through in how to set up you own BigQuery export using Node.js and Google Cloud Functions.
Export Google Search Console data to BigQuery using Cloud Functions Read More »