When navigating the brand new GA4 interface to research information, particularly when you’re utilizing the brand new Discover part to create customized stories, you’re prone to come throughout a brand new sort of alert known as a knowledge threshold.
This alert is along with sampling, which is able to nonetheless happen (much like the way it works within the present model of Google Analytics). So, when analyzing information, you’ll should maintain an eye fixed out for each sampling and information threshold alerts.
That is vital, as a result of if you happen to by accident report on information when a knowledge threshold is utilized, you aren’t reporting on the entire information set. Subsequently, your insights and takeaways might not be correct.
What’s a Knowledge Threshold?
Knowledge thresholds withhold information from a report to forestall you from figuring out who the customers are inside your information set. Google particularly states that their intent is to forestall you from “inferring the id of particular person customers based mostly on demographics, pursuits, or different alerts current within the information.”
When are Knowledge Thresholds Utilized?
Google applies information thresholds once you analyze information based mostly on a small variety of customers, particularly when your evaluation comprises user-identifying data like demographic information, customized dimensions, and a few user-generated fields like person ID.
Sadly, there isn’t at present any readability on what the precise thresholds are (like person depend volumes) that can set off Google’s information thresholds.
How do You Know if a Knowledge Threshold is Utilized?
Google will present an alert within the reporting interface when a knowledge threshold is utilized.
That is an instance of an alert throughout the Discover part of GA4:
This can be a zoomed in view of the identical alert throughout the Discover part of GA4:
That is what you will notice once you click on on the alert and open the knowledge field:
Are you able to Change the Settings for Knowledge Thresholds?
No, information thresholds are set by Google and might’t be modified.
What Do you have to Do if a Knowledge Threshold is Utilized
If a knowledge threshold is utilized, the perfect plan of action is to revisit your report evaluation and both develop the amount of customers throughout the information set (akin to by deciding on a bigger date vary) or assessing the elimination of person figuring out data (like demographic information) relying in your evaluation wants.
Hopefully it will assist prevent a while and complications when reporting on information inside GA4. If you happen to want help together with your GA4 property, please attain out to [email protected]!
