December GA4 & Google Updates

Google has released a host of new updates to GA4 and GA4 centric platforms. The below summary is designed to give you the short and sweet low-down on what updates were made in December 2023.

GA4 Audience export with Google Ad Manager PPID

• • It's now possible to use Analytics Audiences, when exported to Ad Manager, for your first-party segments using Publisher Provided Identifier (PPID). First-party segments let you monetize your site or app more effectively by targeting campaigns to the highest value users. To take advantage of this feature, you have to turn on PPID targeting in your Ad Manager account and enable personalized advertising in the link between your GA property and Google Ads Manager. Don’t forget that PPIDs will be automatically added to your existing GA4 audiences when they are exported to Ad Manager. If you have already turned on these settings, no additional setup is required. Want to know more? Check out this article.
    
    

GA4 Audience Builder in Google Ads

• • Generate and employ Analytics target groups, encompassing predictive audiences, directly within Google Ads. Enhance audience development by leveraging the comprehensive behavioral insights exclusive to Google Analytics 4. Craft Analytics audiences seamlessly within the Audience Manager, both independently and when initiating a campaign.
    
    

Additional Dimensions to Audience Builder and more

• • Google added item-scoped custom dimensions to the audience builder, segment builder, custom reports builder, and the Data API in GA4, allowing you to measure and activate using both pre-defined and custom item-scoped dimensions.

The following predefined item-scoped dimensions have been added to the the segment builder:

• • • Item ID
    • Item name
    • Item brand
    • Item variant
    • Item affiliation
    • Item category
    • Item category
    • Item category 2
    • Item category 3
    • Item category 4
    • Item category 5
    • Item promotion name
    • Item promotion creative slot
    • Item promotion creative name
    • Item list ID
    • Item list name
    • Item list position
    • Item location ID
      
      
  • The following predefined item-scoped dimensions have been added to the audience builder:
    
    
    • Item list ID
    • Item list position
    • Item location ID
    • Item promotion creative name
    • Item promotion creative slot
    • Item promotion name
      
      

Updates to present date ranges in Explore

• • Previously exploration reports would show data from when the report was created, when saving with a present date range. With this update, the Exploration will show you the last 28 days from when you opened the report.
    
    

Large properties that exceed event collection limits warning

• • When a standard property reaches Large or a 360 property becomes XL (collecting over 25B and 250B billable events in the last 31 days, respectively), the event-level data retention is automatically reduced to 2 months. Event-level data older than 2 months is permanently deleted. This change will affect very few Google Analytics properties. Property administrators will receive warning emails if the property is nearing these limits, providing an opportunity to reduce billable events. Upgrading to 360 for free properties allows access to higher limits.

New reports for CM360, D&V360, and SearchAds 360

• • Three new reports were introduced allowing you to analyze data from the 360 ads platforms integrated with GA4 properties. Those are:
    
    
    • • Campaign Manager 360 Report
      • Display & Video 360 Report
      • Search Ads 360 Report

• • • Once you successfully integrate all the ad platforms mentioned, you can access the reports by selecting the integration-specific summary card added to the Acquisition Overview Report. For example, by integrating DV360 you will see the campaigns for it, which opens the new DV360 report:

• • But don’t worry about missing the data if you unlink the platform. The report will still be accessible from the Acquisition Overview report so you can continue to analyze historical data.
    
    

• • • New traffic source dimensions are available when you link CM360, DV360 and/or SearchAds360. The new dimensions are available at event, session, and user scopes. With this update, it’s possible to cross-channel dimensions like Source, Session source, and First user source to understand cross-channel acquisition data. Then you can use the new integration-specific dimensions like SA360 source, SA360 session source, and SA360 first user source to analyze acquisition data from a specific buying platform.
      
      
  Improvements to Google Analytics 4 integration with AdSense
  
  
  • It's now possible to establish links between GA4 properties and AdSense accounts directly from Analytics. By using GA4 sub properties or roll-ups properties, you can now establish links between those properties and AdSense accounts independently from the source properties.