Have you ever wondered how Google Analytics 4 manages cross-device and cross-domain tracking?
It is all thanks to the different reporting identities in GA4.
They ensure businesses can identify users, track their interactions, and offer personalized ads.
Now that sounds interesting.
We bet you are curious. Do you want to know what are the different reporting identities?
Great! We are about to break down the topic for you. In this blog, we are going into detail about how each of these identities works.
Also, we explain the options you have regarding these identities as well.
What is a Reporting Identity in GA4?
Reporting identity is what Google uses to identify the users coming from various devices and platforms on your website or app.
The type of reporting identity determines the degree of information you can find about them in the reports.
Buyer journeys are no longer linear. Users will interact multiple times on multiple devices before finally purchasing something.
As the world moves towards cookiless tracking, businesses still need to know about user behavior, including their likes and purchase behavior.
Different reporting identities come together to ensure GA4 knows when a person checking your product catalog on their mobile device returns a week later via a desktop.
As a bonus, it throws in some modeling data to ensure you have a close estimate of user behavior when they do not share their data.
On the flip side, one of these reporting identities is also responsible for the dreaded data thresholding in GA4, but more on that topic later.
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Reporting Identities in GA4
Google Analytics 4 uses four different reporting identities to ensure cross-device and cross-platform tracking.
Device ID
The Device ID is the simplest, most basic of the reporting identities.
It collects pseudonymous data for website or mobile app users, meaning it retains their anonymity while still collecting and showing some of their data.
The information for website users comes from the client ID, a first-party _ga cookie.
Learn about the Google tag in this blog.
It is generated the first time a user visits and is maintained for some time to track the following visits and interactions.
For mobile applications, the data comes from users’ app instance IDs, allowing businesses to identify when someone installs their app.
Since this ID is associated with the device a user uses to visit, it cannot tell when the same user visits from a few different devices.
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User ID
A User ID is an identifier that you as a business generate yourself according to the GA4 terms for users who sign into their websites or apps.
Therefore, it can track users across devices and platforms so long as they are signed in.
Blended and observed reporting IDs show data from the user ID.
Businesses must push a user_id code into their website’s data layer to use this identifier.
Then, generate a data layer variable and update their configuration tag to add the user_id parameter and the data layer variable created for the purpose.
Google Signals
Google Signals populates data from the users accessing a website or app via devices in which they are signed into their Google accounts and have enabled ad personalization.
Data from this reporting ID combined with the User ID enables cross-device, cross-platform reporting, and cross-device conversions.
It also enables businesses to create remarketing lists with GA4 and use them for personalized ad remarketing in Google Ads.
Who would mind access to all the demographics and interests data populated in the GA4 reports thanks to Google Signals?
Modeling
Modeling is the reporting ID where GA4 relies on machine learning to model the user data for users who decline to consent to share their data.
The way it works is that businesses display a consent banner on their website, where users can choose to accept or reject the request to collect their data.
However, tracking user behavior is critical for businesses. So, GA4 makes up for the lost data by using machine learning to simulate their behavior based on a similar group of users.
It models information like active users, user acquisition, and their behavior.
Businesses can benefit from the modeled data by choosing the Blended reporting option.
How Do You Select a Reporting Identity in GA4?
As hinted earlier, you need to make some choices in the Admin section of your Google Analytics 4 property to let it show you data in the reports accordingly.
We discussed the reporting IDs in the previous sections. Let us now explain how they play out in your GA4 properties.
Reporting Identity Options
Google Analytics 4 has three different reporting identity options.
Device-Based
First, we have the device-based option. It relies on the device ID alone to populate data in the default and custom reports in GA4.
Observed
The Observed reporting option uses the Google Analytics 4 reporting identities in the following sequence.
User ID > Google Signals > Device ID.
First, GA4 goes to collect the user ID, and if it does not find any data there, it moves to the next. In case Google Signals has data to offer, well and good. Otherwise, it moves to the device ID data.
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Remember Observed and Blended options require businesses to generate and collect data for the user IDs. Also, they need to enable Google Signals for that. |
Blended
Blended reporting relies on all the available reporting identities in the following sequence.
User ID > Google Signals > Device ID > Modeling.
This means that GA4 goes to the ID listed first, the user ID, and then hops on to the next and the next if they do not have any data available.
After exhausting all other options, it goes to modeling.
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Remember Blended option in Google Analytics 4 must receive sufficient visitors to have enough data to use in modeling. |
How to Set the Reporting Identity in GA4?
You have learned about the reporting identities and the reporting options that display data from those IDs.
Follow the steps below to set the reporting identity in Google Analytics 4.
- Go to GA4 > Admin > Data display > Reporting identity.
- In the reporting identity section, you will find all three reporting options.
- Select the one you are interested in and meet the requirements for, and click Save.
Drawbacks of Reporting Identities in GA4
While each reporting ID has its benefits, it also has some drawbacks.
Device ID
- Historic Device ID data for users is lost every time they clear their cookie cache.
- It identifies users by the device information, so user duplication happens as people use more than one device to visit a website.
User ID
- It does not apply to the historical data collected before setting it up.
- A user must be signed in to associate the events they triggered on a website or app. Only the events leading to signing up, if a user continues to use after signing up are associated with it.
- Data from the user ID does not mix with other IDs, meaning they may report different numbers depending on how they analyze the data.
Google Signals
- If the users drop below their lower limit, data thresholding applies to protect the personally identifiable information of the users.
- Google Signals data will no longer be available in the reports from 12th Feb 2024.
Modeling
- You must have at least a thousand daily user visits and generate a thousand events at a minimum, consenting to their data collection.
- Also, you should have at least a thousand users refusing to consent to sharing and monitoring their activity.
Conclusion
Reporting identities is how Google Analytics 4 recognizes users across devices and platforms.
GA4 has four reporting IDs device ID, user ID, Google Signals, and Modeling.
The Device ID comprises information on the device used to access a website or app.
User ID is the property of the businesses they create, collect data for, and send to GA4.
Google Signals is Google’s proprietary data collected for users accessing the website or app via a device in which they are signed into their Google accounts and consented to ad personalization.
Modeling ID uses data from the consenting users to model the behavior of users not consenting to cookie collection using machine learning.
These reporting IDs channel the user data into the GA4 reports via the reporting options.
Three reporting options include device-based, observed, and blended.
As the name suggests, device-based collects data from device IDs. Observed collects the data from the user IDs, Google Signals, and device IDs.
The blended ID collects data from the user IDs, Google Signals, device IDs, and modeled data.
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