The GA4Publishers Dashboard is a work-in-progress. So is GA4 itself, and the Data Studio connector that brings data into the dashboard. Because of this, you may encounter issues when navigating the report, or inconsistencies in the data. If you’ve found an issue, please fill out the form below after reviewing the known issues.

Known issues:

  • Cannot access my Google Analytics account – If you have more than one Google account, then the account you’re attempting to use must be your default account – or you must be signed out of all other accounts. Unfortunately, Google Data Studio doesn’t let you switch account profiles while inside a dashboard, and it will always open under the profile of your default account. You can work around this by either connecting from a different browser, or logging out of all other accounts.
  • My engaged sessions and engagement rate seem way too low – GA4 focuses on “Engaged sessions“, which tracks whether a user is on the page for at least 10 seconds, views another page, has a conversion or triggers an engagement event. Most engagement events require javascript to fire. If your site is blocking javascript, such as through the use of Google AMP (including most publishers on Newspack), engagement events will not count and the reader will be viewed as unengaged. 
  • Conversion rates show “null” or other metrics turns to 0 when trying to segment by conversion type – To make the report as flexible as possible, I’ve presented a number of filter options on every page. However, certain filter combinations – especially around events, including conversions – don’t mix well with other dimensions. Due to this, the dashboard will display “null” or 0 when filtered by event.
  • GA4Publishers data doesn’t match what I see in Analytics: First, if you’re trying to compare it to Google’s Universal Analytics, don’t. These are entirely different measurement approaches. However, if you’re finding that data does not match between GA4Publishers and GA4, it’s possible that either system is engaging in “sampling” in order to provide faster results. Additionally, certain GA4 metrics and dimensions – including Landing page and Average Engaged Time – are not available in Google Data Studio. As a result I’ve had to recreate those dimensions and metrics through a combination of filters and query logic that may not provide an exact match to GA4.