Tealium + Google Analytics 4 Measurement Protocol Integration Guide

How it works

The Google Analytics 4 Measurement Protocol Connector allows developers to make HTTP requests that send events directly to Google Analytics servers. This helps developers measure how users interact with their business from any HTTP-enabled environment, which makes it easy to measure interactions that happen server-to-server.

Tealium EventStream acts as a conduit to enable Google Analytics 4 tracking. It ties together support for Mobile, Internet of Things, and Offline Event and pageview tracking by:

• Tracking both web applications and apps.
• Tying online to offline behavior.
• Measuring interactions both client-side and server-side.
• Sending events that happen outside standard user interaction, such as offline conversations.

Tealium supports the following actions with the Google Analytics 4 Measurement Protocol Connector:

• Send PageView Event
• Send Event
• Send Firebase Event

For additional configuration details for the Google Analytics 4 Tag that appears in the diagram, see Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Tag Setup Guide.

Considerations

The Google Analytics Measurement Protocol for Google Analytics 4 connector is not a complete replacement for the client-side tag solution.

Limitations

• If any session or user data is needed, the client-side tag is required.
• The user_id key requires both client-side and Measurement Protocol events to include the user_id.
• Session data is not supported by the current iteration of the GA4 Measurement Protocol API. To obtain automatic Google Analytics session data, you must use the Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Tag.
  • When you enable the tag, the session_start and first_visit events are also sent.
• Parameter values are limited to 100 characters. Values that exceed 100 characters are either truncated or dropped from the final GA4 reports.
• Does not support utm parameters.
• Does not support sending campaign and traffic source data.
• Does not contain geographic data and the user agent.

Authentication

The Measurement Protocol API uses a measurement ID and API secret that are included in the URL as query parameters.

https://google-analytics.com/mp/collect?measurement_id=G-1234567890&api_secret=xxxxxxxxxx

Configuration

To configure the connector, enter the API Secret and either the Measurement ID or Firebase ID for the data stream.

Response/Debugging

The Measurement Protocol always returns a 2xx status code if the HTTP request was received. The Measurement Protocol does not return an error code if the payload data was malformed, or if the data in the payload was incorrect or was not processed by Google Analytics.

Google supplies a separate endpoint for validating events:

https://google-analytics.com/debug/mp/collect?

The Tealium Measurement Protocol connector uses this endpoint during Trace, which displays the validation process of the event data.

Recommendations and configuration details

To mitigate issues around the noted limitations and fully cover all data requirements, implement the Google Analytics 4 tag in Tealium iQ Tag Management. Set the tag to load on all pages, with Send Page View set to false. In addition, add the Google Analytics Cookie Matching Service tag so that the Google clientId is automatically added as a utag_main__ga cookie value.

All required events outside of Google’s automatically-collected events can then be configured in the Google Analytics connector in Tealium EventStream.

The Google Analytics 4 tag automatically triggers a purchase event when order_id is present through the E-commerce extension mappings. If you have the E-commerce extension enabled and wish to track purchases through EventStream, configure a Set Data Values extension scoped to Google Analytics 4 to clear the _corder attribute.

Because Tealium can support a client-side implementation to better address web-client integrations, as well as supporting mobile and offline events through Tealium’s EventStream, Tealium can integrate with both solutions and create a combined approach.

For more information for configuration of a client-side tag, see Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Tag Setup Guide.

Prerequisites

Authentication

API Version: Beta

Event Parameters

Send PageView Event

Overview

This action is used to pass website page view events to Google Analytics.

Body Parameters

Event Parameters

Additional parameters can be passed, but they are not required to allow tracking of the page view event.

Google Payload

As shown in the following example payload, the events.name value is page_view, and required parameters are page_location and client_id:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "name": "page_view",
      "params": {
        "page_location": "http://demosite.com/ecomm/category.html",
        ...other mapped parameters...
      }
    }
  ],
  "client_id": "017f6ae7e7a40014b19d17739b3d05079002707100fb8"
}

Send Event

Overview

This action is used to send a non-pageview event to Google Analytics. You can select the event type from a list of Google-defined events (for more information, see Measurement Protocol (Google Analytics 4) Events). In addition, you can select a Custom Event and then map the custom event value to Custom Event Type.

Body Parameters

Event and Event Parameters

In addition to the general event parameters listed previously, each event type accepts additional parameters. The following table lists required and optional parameters for each event type:

To view a full list of supported events, see Measurement Protocol - Google Analytics 4 events

Send Firebase Event

Overview

This action is used to send a Firebase event to Google Analytics. The configuration is the same as Send Event, but you also need to supply an App Instance ID.

This connector action event type is primarily used to track Mobile Application data for passing to Firebase for analytics.

Event Parameters

This action supports the same general event parameters as the Send Event action, and it also supports the same event-specific parameters.

User Properties

User properties describe segments of your user base, such as language preference or geographic location. Analytics automatically logs some user properties. If you want to collect additional properties, you can set up to 25 additional user properties per project. Read GA4 Custom dimensions and metrics and Firebase Custom user properties to learn how to set and register user properties.