Troubleshooting compatibility issues when accessing detailed transactions on GA4 - Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4

Troubleshooting compatibility issues when accessing detailed transactions on GA4

Posted by David on 9 May 2022 at 11:45 pm
So, I’m working with GA4, attempting to hone in on transactions with a specific product id/name and a source/medium criteria, like transactions that come from Facebook only.

With GA3, I’ve been doing the following:
```
Metrics: ga:itemRevenue,ga:itemQuantity
Dimensions: ga:date,ga:productSku,ga:productName,ga:transactionId
Segment: sessions::condition::ga:source==facebook
```
Everything goes on without a hitch!

I’m trying something similar on GA4:
```
Metrics: itemRevenue,itemsPurchased
Dimensions: date,itemId,itemName,transactionId,source
Criteria: source==facebook
```
But, I’m hit with an error message:
```
Please remove source to make the request compatible. The request's dimensions & metrics are incompatible.
```
Yeah, I could just pull the transaction details (with their respective product precision) in a different request, but this would mean I’ll need to send a heck lot more requests to the GA4 API. Wondering if there’s another workaround for this?
Logan replied 1 year ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
2 Replies

Mason

Member
21 April 2023 at 11:19 pm

In this case, what you’re experiencing is due to the difference between GA4 and GA3. The metrics and dimensions that are compatible in GA3 may not work the same way in GA4 due to Google’s updates to these systems. Unfortunately, as of now, you may need to make separate requests to the GA4 API to get the transaction details. While it isn’t as streamlined as the process used in GA3, currently, there might not be a way around this issue. However, Google continues to update and improve GA4 tools, and the compatibility of dimensions and metrics may change in the future.
Logan

Member
30 May 2023 at 12:04 am

The compatibility issue you are facing is due to the nature of GA4’s data model which is event-based, compared to the session-based model of Universal Analytics. This affects the ability to mix dimensions and metrics like you were able to do in GA3. Specifically, the issue arises when trying to mix event-scoped dimensions (like itemId and itemName) and user-scoped dimensions (like source). Workarounds may involve creating custom dimensions in GA4, or modifying your approach to collecting and analyzing data, keeping in mind the event-based structure of GA4. Additional requests to GA4 API might be unavoidable due to the change in data model structure.

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