EMERCE - 2024 - AMSTERDAM - CROSS-PLATFORM TRACKING WITH GOOGLE ANALYTICS.pptx

EMERCE - 2024 - AMSTERDAM - CROSS-PLATFORM TRACKING WITH GOOGLE ANALYTICS.pptx

1. David Vallejo :: @thyng Cross-platform tracking met Google Analytics 4 en Firebase NL - AMS - 18TH APR 2024

2. Who I am David Vallejo Analytics Debugger :: ES/PV @thyng www.analytics-debugger.com

3. What I do Technical Analytics Implementations Consultancy I build tools used by hundred of thousands analyst across the world :) www.analytics-debugger.com Analytics Debugger Extension https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/analytics-debugger/ilnpmccnfdjdjjikgkefkcegefikecdc Analytics Debugger for Apps https://www.analytics-debugger.com/tools/ios-android-debugger/

4. INTERNET MOBILE TRAFFIC www.analytics-debugger.com Chart Source: https://www.mobiloud.com/blog/what-percentage-of-internet-traffic-is-mobile

5. … APPS TRACKING IS BECOMING A PRIORITY FOR MANY BUSINESSES … www.analytics-debugger.com Increased visibility / Brand Awareness Deliver better user experience Increase customer engagement Offline access

6. MOST USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com

7. USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com App not being tracked

8. USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com App not being tracked App tracked with Universal Analytics ( sunset July 2023, to be totally disabled July 2024)

9. USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com App not being tracked App tracked with Universal Analytics ( sunset July 2023, to be totally disabled July 2024) Someone added the Firebase SDK but not tracking is done ( just session_start and engagement events )

10. USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com App not being tracked App tracked with Universal Analytics ( sunset July 2023, to be totally disabled July 2024) Someone added the Firebase SDK but not tracking is done ( just session_start and engagement events ) Different Apps / Web Tracked on different properties

11. USUAL SCENARIOS www.analytics-debugger.com App not being tracked App tracked with Universal Analytics ( sunset July 2023, to be totally disabled July 2024) Someone added the Firebase SDK but not tracking is done ( just session_start and engagement events ) Different Apps / Web Tracked on different properties No tracking consistency across platforms

12. WHAT CHALLENGES ARE CLIENTS FACING ? www.analytics-debugger.com

13. MAIN CHALLENGES www.analytics-debugger.com Frequent confusion between Firebase Analytics and Google Analytics 4 . Incorrect measurement strategy for the current technology used. Lack of unified data model or consistent values across platforms.

14. GA4 vs FB www.analytics-debugger.com

15. www.analytics-debugger.com 2014 …

16. QUICK NOTE… www.analytics-debugger.com Realtime Database Authentication Cloud Firestore Cloud Functions Cloud Storage Firebase Analytics Performance Monitoring Cloud Messaging Remote Config App Distribution Firebase is Google's platform for building and improving mobile and web apps.

17. www.analytics-debugger.com Realtime Database Authentication Cloud Firestore Cloud Functions Cloud Storage Firebase Analytics Performance Monitoring Cloud Messaging Remote Config App Distribution QUICK NOTE…

18. www.analytics-debugger.com July 2019 … APP+WEB https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/new-way-unify-app-and-website-measurement-google-analytics/

19. WHAT PROBLEMS DOES IT AIM TO SOLVE? www.analytics-debugger.com

20. UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS www.analytics-debugger.com Limited mobile-specific features Cross-device tracking challenges Privacy and compliance concerns Lack/limited of offline tracking Session based tracking

21. FIRST CHALLENGE: CLIENTS ARE CONFUSED ABOUT GA4/FIREBASE www.analytics-debugger.com

22. THE NAMING “CHAOS” APP+WEB

23. THE NAMING “CHAOS” APP+WEB FIREBASE FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS

24. THE NAMING “CHAOS” APP+WEB FIREBASE ANALYTICS FIREBASE FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS

25. THE NAMING “CHAOS” APP+WEB FIREBASE ANALYTICS FIREBASE FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4

26. WHO CAME FIRST? www.analytics-debugger.com

27. www.analytics-debugger.com Who came first?

28. www.analytics-debugger.com Who came first? ?

29. THEN… WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES www.analytics-debugger.com

30. LET’S TAKE A LOOK www.analytics-debugger.com They both are based on events They both use Event Parameters , User Properties and Items They have auto-generated events They share recommended event names and parameters * You can see Firebase Analytics on Google Analytics ...

31. WHAT CHANGES? www.analytics-debugger.com Firebase Analytics and Google Analytics 4 may have specific platform related data attached to the the payloads. The integrations.

32. …NOT A BIG DIFFERENCE … www.analytics-debugger.com

33. GOOGLE ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com

34. GOOGLE ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com GA4

35. GOOGLE ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com GA4 FB

36. GOOGLE ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com GA4 FB MP

37. GOOGLE ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com GA4 FB MP

38. UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE www.analytics-debugger.com * https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/platform

39. APPS (&& non-web) TRACKING www.analytics-debugger.com

40. DESPITE YOU COULD USE GA4 TO TRACK CERTAIN APPS. THE WAY TO DO IT IS USING FIREBASE ANALYTICS www.analytics-debugger.com

41. www.analytics-debugger.com

42. www.analytics-debugger.com +

43. www.analytics-debugger.com + + +

44. www.analytics-debugger.com + + + + + +

45. TRACKING METHODS www.analytics-debugger.com

46. www.analytics-debugger.com

47. www.analytics-debugger.com

48. MOST COMMON PITFALL Using GA4/GTAG to track the Hybrid Apps www.analytics-debugger.com

49. MOST COMMON PITFALL www.analytics-debugger.com Most people having a web app or an hybrid app, just add a GTAG Container or does add GA4 via GTM to the webview to have some tracking in place, but we need to be careful with this since the GTAG Library Doesn’t support environment with no cookies ( non-FQDN hostnames, incognito iFrames, or some configuration of future privacy updated on the browsers may break your implementation ) Doesn’t work if your website is using a custom protocol that is not http/https(ie: ionic://, file:// ) https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/174954288?pli=1

50. What we lose www.analytics-debugger.com Integration with other Firebase Tools . * Implementation more prone to data history issues ( cookies cleaning ,etc) . ie: The app will be able to keep your clientId for more time. All App related data ( app versions, apps installation, apps uninstall, proper engagement time, offline/delayed tracking ) We may not be even be able to have it working depending on some app/framework configurations.

51. If you still want to keep using GTAG/GA4 www.analytics-debugger.com

52. www.analytics-debugger.com

53. The Right Way: Implementing an Interface www.analytics-debugger.com INTERFACE

54. www.analytics-debugger.com

55. DATA CONSOLIDATION ACROSS PLATFORMS www.analytics-debugger.com

56. HOW DOES GA4 CONSOLIDATE THE DATA ACROSS WEB AND APPS www.analytics-debugger.com

57. Data Consolidation www.analytics-debugger.com Unified event tracking. Now both platforms share a common events model ( mostly ). Roll Up Data: You can send add Firebase and Web Streams to the same Property User-centric measurement: Rather than base the tracking on sessions or pageviews as before Cross-platform reporting: If using an user Id.

58. www.analytics-debugger.com GA4/FIREBASE ANALYTICS MEASURING STRATEGY TIPS

59. #1. One property www.analytics-debugger.com

60. One Data Stream per platform www.analytics-debugger.com

61. www.analytics-debugger.com We’ll be able to segment the data using the stream_id or stream_name in the future If we pass an user_id we’ll have cross-device reports We will be able to see the user journey across the different devices [360] - We could create subproperties if needed

62. #2. Screens/Pages Tracking www.analytics-debugger.com

63. Disable the automatic screen recording on Firebase www.analytics-debugger.com

64. Disable the automatic screen recording on Firebase www.analytics-debugger.com can be turned off on iOS by setting FirebaseAutomaticScreenReportingEnabled to NO (Boolean) in the Info.plist.

65. Use Manual Screens Tracking Instead www.analytics-debugger.com

66. www.analytics-debugger.com Match your App screens with the equivalent content on the website ( If there’s not equivalent content, set a virtual pathname ) On the manual tracking, send the website page_path as the screen_class and the page_title as the screen_name

67. Cross Platform Dimensions www.analytics-debugger.com Dimensions Page path and screen class The page path from a website URL and screen class from a mobile app. Page title and screen name The page title from a website and screen name from a mobile app. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12926732

68. Cross Platform Metrics www.analytics-debugger.com Metrics view The sum of “ page_view ” and “ screen_view ” events Total revenue The sum of “ purchase “ , “ in_app_purchase “ , “ app_store_subscription_renew “ , and “ app_store_subscription_convert “ events https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12926732

69. #3. Use a site_id dimension www.analytics-debugger.com

70. www.analytics-debugger.com Your ecosystem may be using different domains or subdomains, and that can be easily filtered using the “hostname” dimension, still there’s no hostname on the app tracking. Use a dimension to identify the different part of your sites.

71. #4. Use a environment dimension www.analytics-debugger.com

72. www.analytics-debugger.com Having a website pushing data to a different Measurement ID is not a big deal, just adding an if statement in our code or using a simple lookup table on GTM. For firebase the things gets a bit worse since you can only have a project linked to an app.

73. www.analytics-debugger.com You could even use the proposed site_id to save a dimension slot, and for example do “NLSHOP:PRE”, “NLSHOP.UAT”, “NLSHOP.PRE”

74. #5. Other SDKs www.analytics-debugger.com

75. All Official SDKs www.analytics-debugger.com Web (GTAG) Web (Firebase JS) iOS Android Flutter C++ Unity https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics

76. Measurement Protocol www.analytics-debugger.com In case the current official SDK’s doesn’t fit your needs, Google Analytics have a public endpoint that will accept GA4 Protocol payloads. https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/ga4

77. Client Side Protocol www.analytics-debugger.com Measurement Protocol Cheatsheet https://www.thyngster.com/ga4-measurement-protocol-cheatsheet/ GA4DEV https://ga4mp.dev/#/ ( 4kb Lightweight GA4 Client Side Implementation )

78. FINAL THOUGHTS www.analytics-debugger.com It requires a significant amount of time to ensure consistency across all platforms regarding event tracking, and even more effort is needed for thorough verification, including checking the values being transmitted. There's a higher cost associated with having to rewrite data during the ETL process due to inadequate quality assurance. If something wasn't tracked, it's permanently lost.

79. #6. Debugging www.analytics-debugger.com

80. Debug View www.analytics-debugger.com

81. Android www.analytics-debugger.com Using a Proxy to check the hits ( hits will be encoded … ) Using ADB ( Android Debug Bridge ), reading logs

82. iOS www.analytics-debugger.com Using a Proxy to check the hits ( hits will be encoded … )

83. www.analytics-debugger.com

84. www.analytics-debugger.com Analytics Debugger for Apps

85. #7. More Tips www.analytics-debugger.com Define a clear name convention from the start Use a sanitization routine ( cross-language ) Define a language to be used for the values , if it doesn’t use diacritics way better to prevent cardinality.

86. [email protected] @thyng www.analytics-debugger.com www.thyngster.com Thanks