Guide - Set up Custom Dimensions (parameters) in GA4

2024-05-01 06:07:47 UTC

In GA4 you no longer have the standard Events: ‘Event Category’, ‘Event Label’ and ‘Event Action’ that you had in Universal Analytics (GA3).

GA4 is instead Event based, where each Event Names are sent with Event Parameters (sub information). Therefore, you are no longer limited to store all your parameters in the three categories used in GA3.

You will receive the same custom data from Visiolink in GA4 as in GA3. However, the look and naming will be a bit different. This guide will go through Visiolinks standard tracking in GA4 and what you need to set-up on your GA4 account.

Visiolinks 10 Standard events in GA3:

  1. Download
  2. Publication
  3. Page
  4. Article
  5. Search
  6. Interstitial
  7. Hotspot
  8. Audio Articles
  9. Podcast
  10. Feed (live feed)

These 10 events will also be present in GA4, however there naming is different and a few of the events are split out to two events. All events are stored under Event Name in GA4.  

Visiolink 12 standard events in GA4:

  1. vl_event_download
  2. vl_event_publication
  3. vl_event_page
  4. vl_event_article_end
  5. vl_event_search
  6. vl_event_interstital_impression
  7. vl_event_interstital_click
  8. vl_event_hotspot_impression
  9. vl_event_hotspot_click
  10. vl_event_audio_end
  11. vl_event_podcast_end
  12. vl_event_feed
  13.  

Visiolinks standard events will automatically be sent to your GA4 account. However, the events will first be visible when the data connection have been set-up in your app/apps. When your apps have been updated to GA4 you can find all events under the menu ‘Configure’ and ‘Events’ (picture below).   

events_in_ga4.PNG

For all of Visiolinks standard events different parameters (sub events) follows. One important aspect in GA4 is that all custom parameters need to be set-up as Custom dimensions in order to use them in reporting. Therefore, if you want to see all additional information that is send with each of Visiolinks Standard events, it is necessary to set them up as Custom dimensions.
The next section of this guide goes through how you set-up all Event parameters as Custom dimensions.

Set up Custom Dimensions in GA4:

The following set-up of Custom dimensions will include all Visiolinks 12 Standard events. It is however very individual if you have all events present in your app. Though, it will always be a good idea to set up all parameters, then you are insured you don’t miss any tracking if you at a later point implement ex. Podcast.

If you set-up all parameters for all 12 main events this will include 41 custom dimension and 1 custom metric.

Here is the overview of the 41 custom dimensions:

Dimension Name

Description

Scope

Parameter (code)

App_id

App id

User

vl_value_app_id

Analytics_code

UA-id

User

vl_analytics_code

Client

Operating system

User

vl_value_client

Client_id

Unique id

User

vl_value_client_id

Push_token

Device/app ID

User

vl_value_push_token

User_id

Unique id

User

vl_value_user_id

User_id_source

Custom, Server or Client id

User

vl_value_user_id_source

Version

Platform version

User

vl_value_version

Article_author

 

Event

vl_value_article_author

Article_category

 

Event

vl_value_article_category

Article_characters

Number of characters

Event

vl_value_article_character_count

Article_id

External article id

Event

vl_value_article_external_id

Article_method

How did a user read the article

Event

vl_value_article_method

Article_page_number

 

Event

vl_value_article_page_number

Article_source

 

Event

vl_value_article_source

Article_title

 

Event

vl_value_article_title

Audio_length

Sec.

Event

vl_value_audio_length

Audio_source

 

Event

vl_value_audio_source

Audio_type

Narrated/tts_gc or Device tts

Event

vl_value_audio_article_type

Feed_title

Live feed title

Event

vl_value_feed_title

Hotspot_url

Clickable ads

Event

vl_value_hotspot_id

Interstital_name

 

Event

vl_value_interstitial_id

Login_type

 

Event

vl_value_download_authentication_type

Login_method

Only for Desktop app

Event

vl_value_login_method

Orientation

Landscape or portrait

Event

vl_value_orientation

Page_number

 

Event

vl_value_page_number

Podcast_author

 

Event

vl_value_podcast_author

Podcast_channel

Channel name

Event

vl_value_podcast_channel

Podcast_length

Sec.

Event

vl_value_podcast_length

Podcast_source

 

Event

vl_value_podcast_source

Podcast_title

 

Event

vl_value_podcast_title

Publication_customer

Prefix title

Event

vl_value_publication_customer

Publication_date

 

Event

vl_value_publication_date

Publication_folder_id

From Hub

Event

vl_value_publication_folder_id

Publication_source

 

Event

vl_value_publication_source

Publication_title

 

Event

vl_value_publication_title

Publication_id

 

Event

vl_value_publication_id

Search_word

 

Event

vl_value_search_query

Search_scope

 

Event

vl_value_search_scope

Section_name

 

Event

vl_value_section_name

Section_number

 

Event

vl_value_section_number

Metric Name

Description

Scope

Parameter (code)

Duration

Sec. spend on

Event

vl_value_duration

If you have bougth the feature Module tracking you will need to set-up one more parameter: 

Dimension Name

Description

Scope

Parameter (code)

Module_name

name from your app

event

vl_value_module_name

The process of setting the custom dimensions up is identical. The only different is the scope of the custom dimension. It is possible to choose ‘Event’ or ‘User’. The different between these two is that event parameter can change value through out a session, where a user custom dimension always will take the same value through a session.


Setting up a User Custom dimension
:

Go to your GA4 property in the menu click ‘Configure’ (1), go to ‘Custom definitions’ (2) and click ‘Create custom dimensions’ (3):

blobid1.png

Follow the overview table above and add one user custom dimension at the time. Enter the Dimension name and select user under ‘scope’ and add the parameter (code) under User property.  blobid2.pngClick ‘Save’. The user scoped custom dimension is now added to you property.

Setting up an Event Custom dimension:

blobid1.png

Follow the overview table above and add one Event custom dimension at the time. Enter the Dimension name and select Event under ‘Scope’ and add the parameter (code) under Event parameter.  blobid3.png
Click ‘Save’. The Event scoped custom dimension is now added to you property.

Setting up Custom Metric:

Go to ‘Custom definitions’ (1), click ‘Custom metrics’ (2) and ‘Create custom metric’ (3):

blobid4.pngThe only custom metric we collect is 'Duration', therefore you only need to add this one metric.

Sum up:

When you have finished the set-up of all the Custom dimensions and metric you can now use the events and parameters to create reports. Further you can also use the parameters to build dashboards in Data Studio. If the custom dimensions is not set up on your GA4 property you will not be able to find this information in Data studio. 
If you have set up all custom dimension you will now have 41 rows.

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