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Maximizing data completeness for high-cardinality reports in GA4 API
I’m scratching my head over fetching “Landing pages” bundled with “Sessions” from GA’s new Data API for GA4. The numbers just don’t match up with the UI results.
Playing around with a day’s worth of data, I’m seeing a chunk of the sessions – like 5-15% – bunched into the (other) category. Interesting, right? The ResponseMetaData doc tells me that this can happen for high-cardinality reports. Yet, when I try the same thing in UI, specifically in an Explorations custom report, it’s clear that the data isn’t being sampled.
Makes you wonder why you can’t tap unsampled data from the API, yeah? The Core Reporting API wasn’t this frisky about sampling – in fact, there were controls in place to help manage it. When I compare the same site and data request, I get the entire scoop from the Core Reporting API. In contrast, the new Data API leaves a lot on the table.
Now, I know the Data API is still in its trial phase, but has there been any chatter about when we might see improvements to these data loss and sampling bumps? Anyone? Bueller?
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2 Replies
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It sounds like you’re having some issues with GA4’s Data API. It’s still new and in its testing phase, and while it does currently sample more data than the old Core Reporting API, there’s no word yet on when they’ll fix these issues. Hopefully, they’ll make improvements soon!
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As of now, it does seem like the new Data API for GA4 is causing some discrepancies when fetching “Landing pages” bundled with “Sessions”, with a percentage of sessions appearing in the (other) category. This is possibly due to high-cardinality reports, even though the same data seems unsampled in the UI Explorations custom report. Currently, we’re unsure why the API doesn’t allow access to unsampled data, which makes this situation different from the previous Core Reporting API, where there were controls to manage sampling and provided a complete data report. At this moment, there’s no clear information about when these issues with the Data API, which is still in its trial phase, will be addressed or improved.
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