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:
- Download
- Publication
- Page
- Article
- Search
- Interstitial
- Hotspot
- Audio Articles
- Podcast
- 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:
- vl_event_download
- vl_event_publication
- vl_event_page
- vl_event_article_end
- vl_event_search
- vl_event_interstital_impression
- vl_event_interstital_click
- vl_event_hotspot_impression
- vl_event_hotspot_click
- vl_event_audio_end
- vl_event_podcast_end
- vl_event_feed
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).
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):
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. Click ‘Save’. The user scoped custom dimension is now added to you property.
Setting up an Event Custom dimension:
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.
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):
The 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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