Google Analytics 4 Audit

Our Google Analytics 4 (GA4) audit checklist is the most comprehensive checklist you will find and is divided into 16 sections, each with a particular focus area.

You can access our free Google Analytics 4 checklist here.

Here’s a brief summary of the sections:

For more details on how to set up Google Analytics 4, go to our blog post how to create a GA4 property.

1. Planning and Performance Marketing:

• This part is all about defining clear plans for measurement and tag implementation. It also involves the documentation of the GA4 event structure and evaluating how GA4 has been installed.

2. Data Privacy & Controls:

• This section checks if privacy-related tools like Google consent mode and Google Signals are enabled. It also involves configuring advanced Ad Personalisation settings, data retention periods, and blocking personalized advertising for certain events/audiences.

3. Property Settings:

• This involves evaluating if the property structure meets the business needs, considering the use of sub-properties, and verifying time-zone and currency settings.

4. Data Stream Settings:

• The focus here is to review data streams, ensure data is being received by the GA4 property, and configuring specific events in Enhanced Measurement.

5. Configure Tag Settings:

• This section includes setting up domain and cross-domain tracking, filtering internal and developer traffic, configuring unwanted referrals, and also reviewing session-timeout settings.

6. Data Settings:

• Involves enabling data collection, activating internal traffic and developer filters, creating custom channel groups, and ensuring proper use of UTM parameters.

7. Google Tag Manager (GTM):

• This section focuses on the correct implementation of GTM, including configuration of custom dimensions and metrics, setup of marketing Pixels (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook), and proper data layer configurations.

8. Events and Conversions:

• This section reviews the most important events being received correctly in the GA4 console, implementation of user ID where users can login, and setting up guardrail custom events or metrics.

9. Ecommerce Implementation:

• Here, you check which ecommerce events have been implemented. Such as product impressions, product clicks, add to cart, remove from cart, start checkout, and make a purchase among others.

10. Integrations:

• This section covers linking Google Analytics with other Google tools and third-party applications, like Google Ads, BigQuery, Google Search Console, Google Ad Manager, and A/B testing tool.

Other Items:

• This involves considering reporting identity, creating audiences for re-targeting or for events for alerts, and excluding query parameters from URLs.

GA4 Console and Prebuilt reports:

• This section focuses on customising prebuilt reports, creating new collections for important user segments, hiding unused reports, and creating exploration reports.

Data Quality:

• Lastly, this section checks for signs of cardinality, sampling, and thresholding, ensures custom definitions aren’t using reserved parameter names, and validates ecommerce data with back-end data. It also checks for duplicate events and bot protection measures.

14.0 Importing Data:

• This section discusses the process and advantages of importing data into Google Analytics 4, especially data obtained from advertising on non-Google platforms. It explores the possible benefits of using the Measurement Protocol, a tool that allows developers to make HTTP requests to send raw user interaction data directly to Google Analytics servers. This helps in understanding the impact of ads run on platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

15.0 Roll-Up Property:

• This portion of the audit focuses on the creation and configuration of a roll-up property. A type of property in Google Analytics that aggregates data from multiple websites. It highlights the need for such a property when tracking multiple websites and discusses the conversion event limit. This section also discusses how to set up a Google Tag Manager (GTM) container for the roll-up property and the necessary steps to duplicate all events and parameters.

16.0 Server-Side Tagging:

• This section considers the implementation of server-side tagging to improve website performance and data security. It acknowledges that this may necessitate a separate project due to the technical complexities involved. Server-side tagging moves some of the tag execution from the client’s browser to a cloud server. Potentially enhancing website load times and providing more robust data privacy controls.