How to Implement a Search-and-Replace Filter in GA4 for Google Analytics?

[Carter]

Sure thing! Looks like you’re trying to add “/from-somehost” to the page view paths of a host. In GA4, you can’t set filters like in UA, but you can pull the hostname and path to your exploration reports and tweak them how you like.

By the way, a lot of data gurus find GA/GA4 a bit restrictive, so they go one step further. They pull the data into BigQuery (BQ), analyze the raw data there or transform the data more (that’s what ETL stands for – Extract, Transform, Load). And then, they use more powerful tools to make dashboards and do some detailed analysis. Just a thought in case you need more flexibility!

[Gurdeep]

Currently, as of 2022, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) does not have the same kind of filter functionality that Universal Analytics (UA) has, such as search-and-replace filters to modify data. You can’t directly create a filter in GA4 to append a certain string before the page view paths. However, you can use GA4’s advanced event modification capabilities to achieve similar results.

You’d need to utilize GA4’s “Modify events” feature. You could create a new event parameter, let’s call it “modified_url”, that combines the “/from-somehost” string with the URL, based on the condition of the host being “somehost.org”. Then, in your reports, you would use this new parameter to track the page views.

Remember that any changes you make would only apply to data going forward and not to historical data. It’s advisable to consult with a professional or do thorough research before making these changes as they could dramatically affect your data reporting.