The session_start event is one of three automatically collected events in GA4. Google Analytics collects session_start every time a new session (a new visit) begins on your site. The event counts total sessions.
Not only can you use the session start event to keep tabs on your total site visits, but you can use the event to create segments and audiences from your users.
The Google Analytics source medium traffic dimension is one way to analyze your website traffic. The source tells you the specific “place” the traffic came from. The medium tells you about the “type” of traffic. Put them together and you have source / medium.
Google Signals provide enhanced functionality in Google Analytics. It also presents some potential downsides that marketers should understand.
Here’s the information you need.
Automatically collected events are the foundation of GA4 event tracking. Unlike other events, there is nothing you need to do to set them up. They are collected – you guessed it – automatically.
Let’s review the three automatically collected events and how you can use them in your analysis.
Updated: 8/8/23 When it comes to Google Analytics views, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that technically Views no longer exist in GA4. The good news, however, is that we can use report filters to replicate much of the same functionality that we liked about views from the days of Universal Analytics.
UPDATED: 8/11/23 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is now the only option for collecting data with Google Analytics. But there are problems with GA4, at least for those of us who used and loved Universal Analytics (UA). In this author’s opinion, the new platform is still not yet as good as UA was. Let’s review 4 common GA4 problems and explore what options we have.
Are you trying to see what page a visitor was on before they arrived on another specific page? Good news! You can use the referrer dimension to see data about the previous page in Google Analytics 4. Here’s what you need to know about page referrer in GA4.
The users dimension: it seems so innocuous and so obvious. Users are individuals who are doing things on your website or app. But like many things in the new Google Analytics, GA4 users are not exactly intuitive. In this blog post, we’ll define GA4 users and demystify Active Users vs. Total Users vs. New Users vs. Returning Users. We’ll explore how we can see GA4 returning (established) users through a little custom work.
We’ll also show how to build an audience of returning users. If you make it to the end, there’s a 1-page PDF with all of the consolidated information on all the user groups.
Google Analytics is changing. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will be the only platform that processes data beginning on July 1, 2023 .
If you have been struggling to wrap your head around GA4 and all of its new features, below is a list of commonly asked questions surrounding the new property type.
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UPDATED: 8/12/23 Google Analytics 4 events function very differently from Universal Analytics events. The biggest difference? If you don’t register your new event parameters as GA4 custom dimensions, you won’t see that event data in your GA4 reports. Crazy, right? It’s true.
