GA4 Data to BigQuery: Avoid Mistakes & Maximize Insights

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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

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

Aug 28, 2023, 11:56 PM

It is a pretty easy process. Keep in mind there’s no backfill. Who else wants to add?

Aug 29, 2023, 2:23 AM

lol best way to ask ever

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 for getting to know the ins-and-outs of the data.

Excited to hear what you get up to!

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

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

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.

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