Combine business data in Google Analytics

In this module, youll learn:

- Edit events in Google Analytics 4 to collect data that's relevant to your business - Send data to Google Analytics using Measurement Protocol - Import your business data to be combined with Google Analytics data

What kind of data can be imported?

Cost data Item data User data Offline events

Business data sources

Each business system you use generates its own data. This includes Google Analytics, which uses website tags and the Firebase SDK to send data to Analytics from websites and apps. You may want to adjust the data sent to Analytics, or widen the data Analytics collects with other data and signals relevant to your business to make it even more meaningful and drive better business decisions. For example, your CRM might contain information like customer-loyalty ratings, lifetime values, and product preferences. If you're a web publisher, your content-management system might store dimensions like author and article category. If you run an eCommerce business, you store item attributes like price, style, and size. Note that tags and/or the Firebase SDK need to be implemented for each website and app individually.

Modify and create events

Events are the backbone of how Analytics collects and processes data. Events provide insight into what's happening on your website or app, such as page views, button clicks, user actions, or system events. Once your website tags and/or the Firebase SDK are set up, many basic interactions with your website or app are automatically collected as events in Google Analytics. For example, the first time a user visits your website, the property logs this action as a "first visit" event. To adjust the data that's flowing into Analytics, you can change existing events and create new events without changing code on your site or app. Let's look at some common examples for each. Change existing events - Rename an event so the same event name is used across various properties and data streams. - Fix a typo that's causing a measurement error. Create new events - Website visitors already trigger the page_view event when they view any page, but you may want to use page views of a specific page as a separate event. Create a new event from the existing page_view event, and only fire it when a visitor views the specific page. If this specific page is important, you can mark this new event as a conversion. Note: When a new event is created and an action meets its criteria, the action may also meet the criteria of the original event. For example, if you create a new event on your website's homepage and name it page_view_homepage, when a user visits your homepage, both the page_view_homepage event and the original page_view event will be triggered and both events will be counted.

There are several ways to customize and integrate this kind of data with Analytics data

Modify and create events - You can use the analytics interface to change existing events and create new events Measurement protocol - a standard set of rules for collecting and sending events directly to Google Analytics servers Data import - Upload data from external sources and join it with your analytics data

How is imported data joined with analytics data?

Reporting/query time - Imported data is joined with Analytics data when you open a report and Analytics issues a query for the report data. This type of join is temporary: if you delete the imported data file, no further joins take place and the joined data won't be accessible in Analytics. Cost data and item data are joined at reporting/query time. Note: Reporting/query time data isn't available when creating audiences in Analytics or when creating segments in Explorations. Collection/processing time - Imported data is joined with Analytics data as the Analytics data is collected and processed (as if it were collected with the event), and joined data is written to the Analytics aggregate tables. Imported data isn't joined with Analytics historical data (data that's already processed). If you delete the imported data file, no further joins take place. But the joins that already took place do remain. User data and offline event data are joined at collection/processing time.

Note about event editing

This feature can be used to add additional data to Analytics, but it actually creates, edits, and synthesizes the underlying events before Analytics processes them, not widening the already collected Analytics data. If you don't want to change the underlying data but do want to widen that data, use one of the solutions described below: Measurement protocol OR data import

Measurement protocol

a standard set of rules for collecting and sending events directly to Google Analytics servers. It lets you send data to Analytics from internet-connected devices like a kiosk or point-of-sale system that complement your website or app. Measurement Protocol is a different method of sending data than Google tags and the Firebase SDKs. While these methods automatically send events to Analytics once they are implemented, with Measurement Protocol you have to manually program events.

Data import

lets you upload your external data and combine it with or override existing Google Analytics data. Data Import joins the offline data you upload with the event data that Analytics collects. The imported data enhances your reports, comparisons, and audiences. The result is a more complete picture of online and offline activity. Using Data Import, upload CSV files that contain your external data to an Analytics property. Export those CSV files directly from an offline business tool, like a CRM or CMS system. Or, for smaller amounts of data, create files manually in a text editor or spreadsheet.

Measurement protocol allows developers

to make HTTP requests to send events directly to Google Analytics servers. This lets developers measure how users interact with their business from any HTTP-enabled environment, which can complement website and app data. Notably, that makes it easy to measure interactions that happen server-to-server. Developers can use the Measurement Protocol to: Tie online to offline behavior Measure interactions both client-side and server-side Send events that happen outside web and app (e.g. offline conversions, order refund, in-store purchases)