Important changes to Google Analytics 4

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What's happening

On December 1, 2022, updates to Google Analytics 4 introduced incompatibility between a range of dimensions and metrics. Queries that use these fields together after December 1 won't work — read this article to learn about how to work with these changes.

What you need to do

Google's update impacted three dimension types: item-scoped, attribution, and query string. Any queries that use these dimensions — including any Supermetrics Custom Fields based on them — must be updated.

Attribution and query string dimensions became incompatible on December 1, 2022. Item-scoped dimensions became incompatible on February 7, 2023.

Learn about changes you need to make for each dimension type below, or see the full list of impacted fields.

Update January 19, 2024

Incompatibility with query string dimensions was resolved in January 2024, and the query string dimensions are again compatible with most of the fields. Learn more in Google's API changelog.

Attribution dimensions

The update switched Google Analytics 4 from a generic, event-based attribution model to a model with two alternatives:

  • "First user" source: The first source of contact of a user

  • "Session" source: The last source of contact before a session

If your queries use the attribution dimensions and metrics listed below, replace them with either their "First user" or "Session" equivalent.

Query string dimensions

Starting December 1, it's no longer possible to get a full URL with a query string (for example, example.com/store/contact-us?query_string=A) with any other field combination other than the ones below.If you use any of these, replace them with the "Page path without query string" dimension. This will return the page path without the query string (for example, example.com/store/contact-us).

Item-scoped dimensions

Remove any item-scoped dimensions that will become incompatible with the event-scoped metrics listed below.

You don't need to make any changes to queries that combine item-scoped dimensions with fields other than event-scoped metrics.

If you're using a data warehouse

We've updated the Standard schema to remove all fields impacted by this change.

The older version of the schema has been renamed STANDARD_ARCHIVED20221201. Switch from this to the Standard schema to keep your queries running.

See a full list of all tables in the Standard schema.

Incompatible fields

The following fields became incompatible. Any queries that use them together won't work. Find a full description for any field in our technical documentation.

Attribution dimensions with event-scoped metrics

The dimensions in the table below — including any Custom Fields based on them — are incompatible with the metrics in the table that follows.

ID

Display Name

campaignId

Event campaign ID

campaignName

Event campaign name

defaultChannelGrouping

Conversion default channel grouping

googleAdsAccountName

Event Google Ads account name

googleAdsAdGroupId

Google Ads ad group ID

googleAdsAdGroupName

Google Ads ad group name

googleAdsAdNetworkType

Event ad network type

googleAdsCampaignID

Google Ads campaign ID

googleAdsCampaignName

Google Ads campaign name

googleAdsCampaignType

Google Ads campaign type

googleAdsCreativeId

Google Ads creative ID

googleAdsCustomerId

Google Ads customer ID

googleAdsKeyword

Google Ads keyword text

googleAdsQuery

Google Ads query

medium

Event medium

source

Event source

sourcePlatform

Source platform

The dimensions above are incompatible with the following metrics as of December 1:

ID

Display Name

adUnitExposure

Ad unit exposure

addToCarts

Add-to-carts

averagePurchaseRevenue

Average purchase revenue

checkouts

Checkouts

ecommercePurchases

Purchases

eventCount

Event count

eventsPerUser

Events per user

eventsPerSession

Events per session

firstTimePurchasersPerNewUser

First-time purchasers per new user

itemListClicks

Item list clicks

itemListViews

Item list views

itemViews

Item views

newUsers

New users

itemPromotionClicks

Item promotion clicks

itemPromotionViews

Item promotion views

publisherAdClicks

Publisher ad clicks

publisherAdImpressions

Publisher ad impressions

screenPageViews

Views

screenPageViewsPerSession

Views per session

shippingAmount

Shipping amount

taxAmount

Tax amount

transactions

Transactions

transactionsPerPurchaser

Transactions per purchaser

userEngagmentDuration

Total user engagement duration (sec)

Query string dimensions

The dimensions in the table below — including any Custom Fields based on them — are only available with the metrics in the table that follows.

ID

Display Name

pagePath

Page path

unifiedPageScreen

Page path, query string, and screen class

pageLocation

Page location

fullPageUrl

Full page URL

landingPage

Landing page

The dimensions above are only available with the following metrics as of December 1:

ID

Display Name

activeUsers

Active users

conversions

Conversions

country

Country

countryIsoCode

Country code

date

Date

engagedSessions

Engaged sessions

eventCount

Event count

eventName

Event name

fullPageUrl

Full page URL

hostName

Host name

pageLocation

Page location

pagePath

Page path

pageTitle

Page title

platform

Platform

screenPageViews

Views

sessions

Sessions

totalUsers

Total users

unifiedPageScreen

Page path, query string, and screen class

userEngagementDuration

Toal user engagement duration (sec)

Item-scoped dimensions with event-scoped metrics

In early 2023, the dimensions in the table below became incompatible with the metrics in the table that follows.

ID

Display Name

itemAffiliation

Item affiliation

itemBrand

Item brand

itemCategory

Item category

itemCategory2

Item category 2

itemCategory3

Item category 3

itemCategory4

Item category 4

itemCategory5

Item category 5

itemID

Item ID

itemListID

Item list ID

itemListName

Item list name

itemName

Item name

itemPromotionCreativeName

Item promotion creative name

itemPromotionID

Item promotion ID

itemPromotionName

Item promotion name

itemVariant

Item variant

The dimensions above are incompatible with the following metrics starting in early 2023:

ID

Display Name

adUnitExposure

Ad unit exposure

addToCarts

Add-to-carts

averagePurchaseRevenue

Average purchase revenue

checkouts

Checkouts

conversions

Conversions

ecommercePurchases

Purchases

eventCount

Event count

eventsPerUser

Events per user

eventValue

Event value

eventsPerSession

Events per session

firstTimePurchasersPerNewUser

First-time purchasers per new user

itemListClicks

Item list clicks

itemListViews

Item list views

itemPurchaseQuantity

Item purchase quantity

itemRevenue

Item revenue

itemViews

Item views

newUsers

New users

itemPromotionClicks

Item promotion clicks

itemPromotionViews

Item promotion views

publisherAdClicks

Publisher ad clicks

publisherAdImpressions

Publisher ad impressions

purchaseRevenue

Purchase revenue

screenPageViews

Views

sceenPageViewsPerSession

Views per session

shippingAmount

Shipping amount

taxAmount

Tax amount

totalAdRevenue

Ad revenue

totalRevenue

Revenue

transactions

Transactions

transactionsPerPurchaser

Transactions per purchaser

userEngagmentDuration

Total user engagement duration (sec)