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GA4 Data to BigQuery: Avoid Mistakes and Caps & Maximize Data, Budget

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Dan Thies
Dan Thies
Aug 28, 2023, 10:49 PM
 
Is anyone dumping all their GA4 data into Bigquery? I’m about to start - what am I about to screw up?
Forwarded thread from another channel:
Noah
Noah
Aug 28, 2023, 11:55 PM
Honestly, I love how you asked that. It’s my favorite question to ask peers when learning something new.
Noah
Noah
Aug 28, 2023, 11:56 PM
It is a pretty easy process. Keep in mind there’s no backfill. Who else wants to add?
ah
ah
Aug 29, 2023, 2:23 AM
lol best way to ask ever
Nico Brooks
Nico Brooks
Aug 29, 2023, 6:44 AM
What Noah said, the integration is a few button clicks and data storage will be pennies if you make it past the BQ free tier. I highly recommend Johan van de Werken's course for getting to know the ins-and-outs of the data.
Excited to hear what you get up to!
Nico Brooks
Nico Brooks
Aug 29, 2023, 7:35 AM
Also, one gotcha to avoid: if you enable streaming to get real-time data, make sure to enable the daily export as well. The streaming data doesn't populate user attribution fields for new users.
Alex Wilson
Alex Wilson
Aug 30, 2023, 10:41 AM
I would put a budget cap on for sure. I have seen some gnarly bills from services before they realize it.
Nico Brooks
Nico Brooks
Aug 30, 2023, 11:23 AM
And if you put a cap in place, make sure to also configure budget alerts that kick in before the cap, because as Noah says, there's no backfilling. Once you lose a day's worth of data, it's gone.
<https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/budgets>
Dan Thies
Dan Thies
Aug 30, 2023, 11:26 AM
I figure maybe $40 a month for a couple years worth if we keep the whole firehose but that budget will help me sleep

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