I'm using the Google-Analytics API to query my analytics for data using the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on We then use the spreadsheet data in Google Data studio for a dashboard to display the data.
Everything has been going well for the last few months, however over the last 48 hours we have begun to receive sampled data when we query the API using the spreadsheet add on. This is undesirable for how we are using the data.
The total results that we were getting before being returned was about 1100 results. We have altered the date range of the query to be only 3 days whereas before we were querying since the start of the year.
Initially that worked and the results were no longer sampled. Then 24 hours later the data appears to be sampled again.
The documentation says the following regarding sampling for the free account:
Analytics Standard: 500k sessions at the view level for the date range you are using
We are not using our analytics that heavily so I cannot understand why we would have hit the 500K limit?
It is also not clear to me what a "View Level" is? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Related
My goal - getted actual data from report GA4 in Backend app, how is it done in the dashboard. But, problem - report contains only part of data. I want get active users with city in interval last half on hour. I do it like this:
BetaAnalyticsDataClient.create().use { analyticsData ->
val request: RunReportRequest = RunReportRequest.newBuilder()
.setProperty("properties/$propertyId")
.addDimensions(Dimension.newBuilder().setName("city"))
.addMetrics(Metric.newBuilder().setName("activeUsers"))
.addDateRanges(DateRange.newBuilder().setStartDate("today").setEndDate("today"))
.build()`
I get a result in which there are no cities that are currently in the dashboard on the map. I had tried in GA4 settings interval updating data, i not found this. What is reason? Thanks!
The Method: properties.runReport is the standard GA4 report, and is limited to data that has been processed. Data processing takes between 24 and 48 hours it is not meant for real time.
You need to use the Creating a Realtime Report if you want real-time data, and you are limited to the dimensions and metrics available real-time these reports are very limited.
I guess what i am saying is you are running the wrong report, and you should not expect to get the data you want from the Realtime report.
I am trying to automate the weekly report. Currently, I am using Google Analytics website to get the data for my report. Sampling level is higher precision.
I tried to get the same data by Google analytics API set samplingLevel as HIGHER_PRECISION. However, I am still getting the sampled data.
For FASTER, Precision Level is roughly 25% whereas for DEFAULT and HIGHER_PRECISION sampling level is roughly 50%.
On Google Analytics website, it says 'This report is based on 100% of sessions'. Can I get the same level of accuracy with Google API? I am using Google Apps script.Response for HIGHER_PRECISION is not matching.
Sumit, the API and the Google Analytics UI are certainly different and similarly the sampling's effect on things is a different beast which must be handled properly to get anything useful out of it.
As was mentioned in the comment, you can achieve high precision unsampled reports by (typically) shortening your date range that you're querying for and then "walking" the data.
To walk the data, you are essentially just gradually incrementing that small date range as you move through the desired data.
The "unsampled reports API" is... well, not the best. Considering that's what they are avoiding giving the end user in the first place, the offering available is not a very good long term or large project friendly solution. I would recommend small date ranges and then doing a data walk.
Happy Coding
There are several solutions to avoid sampling issue in Google Analytics by automating the process of data export for short date ranges.
I prefer this tool, it's pretty simple to use: MadStats.io
Data within the Multi-Cahnnel Funnel in Google Analytics are missing for today and yesterday. Data for the previous days are available. Is there a lag for the data to appear?
Data will be showed if there is at least one conversion and after up to 48 Hrs.If you would like to check whenever or not to expect data flowing check your current conversions in another report.
Also, make sure you have setup your funnels in a view without filters. If you apply filters incorrectly this could be one of the causes why you are not seeing the data
I've been using a SSIS Integration component to download data from Google Analytics in order to keep an historical view of some websites and track the evolution of them. Basically the metrics we track are Visits (now Sessions) and Visitros (now Users), and the dimensions are Year and Month. However, today I noticed that the data I downloaded for july had a variation on the Users metric. I heard that google analytics uses an estimation method to "calculate" some (if not all) of their metrics, could it be that after that they "adjust" the data with more acurate information? If so, is this mentioned in the documentation? (a link would be highly appreciated) Since the users are complaining that we are not delivering the real GA Data. I tried looked on the Google analytics documentation page with no luck.
Thanks for your time.
PS: Sorry for my english, it isn´t my native language
If you are using the standard version of Google Analytics (you'll know if you are paying $150k for premium), data is sampled depending on volume. Have a read of this article can-you-trust-your-google-analytics-data
I have seen very slightly differing results being returned if you repeatedly call the api with the same historical parameters repeatedly. In my case the figures only differed by 1-2 over a daily set of several thousand, but nevertheless it differed.
If you want to guarantee your results, consider upgrading to premium
Sampling could be an issue if what you are requesting is over 50,000 rows for the time period you are requesting. To avoid it you can download more often, such as daily.
But I think your issue is that there is a processing time for Google Analytics - if you are downloading at 3 am on the 1st it is probable that the processing for the previous day has not finished.
Google Analytics Premium SLA is for 4 hour data freshness, so even that would have trouble. Pragmatically you should allow 24 hours before you download data for the previous day, 48 hours for e-commerce data.
Thirdly make sure it is not Unique Visitors you are requesting, as this is dependent on the time period you are requesting.
We have a client who receives 2-4 million visits a day, so off the bat we can only get unsampled reports because it exceeds google's limit :
500,000 maximum sessions for special queries where the data is not already stored.
We are attempting to collect Unique Visitors and Visits for a 1 day period. Using the Google API has proved frivolous as the data is sampled.
We have set up Unsampled reports on a daily basis that get dumped into Google Drive and our application picks up the new files and downloads them just fine. The problem we are running into is that we need 2 years worth of daily data for 20 reports. The maximum range we can run an unsampled report using google analytics web interface is 1 week before we exceed a query limit. So 52 weeks of reports x 2 years x 20 different reports to set up is 2080 scheduled unsampled reports and this is for 1 client only.
EDIT: Can we automate unsampled reports using GA API or any programming method to pull historical data with the constraints previously mentioned? Also we do have Google Analytics Premium
Cris G, the only way to avoid data-sampling in Google Analytics without having an access to Premium is day-parting technique = you split a data-request for selected time period into shorter period queries (typically days) and then add all the numbers up. If your profiles/views are not sampled if you look at daily numbers, this could solve you issue.
However, this doesn't work on Unique Visitors, since they will be unique every single time (you are running data requests on daily basis), so there will be most likely duplicates and inflated totals if your site is attracting lots of returning visitors.
To automate some of the work, I suggest using tools like Analytics Canvas. It can make your life much easier and I think it could be the perfect tool for what you need to. Bear in mind the limitations about unique visitors (and some other metrics).
Having said that, I still think the best choice would be to use the benefits of Premium and the ability to get unsampled data for your reports.