- Accelerated Time to Value
- Accessibility
- Best Practice Design Patterns
- Leveraging Most of BQ Investment
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Google Analytics Premium (GA360) data is exported (in this case, through Transfer Services) in the format of a single flat table with a new entry for each session. Rather than creating new tables for each entity attribute, Google places aggregate or attribute information in nested fields in the single tabel. For more information on Nested Fields, and why Google chooses to use them, please refer to this overview on Why Nesting is so Cool.
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There are two types of nested fields: repeated fields and non-repeated fields. In Standard SQL, both are stored as
ARRAY's, which can contain both simple and complex data types. Non-repeated fields can be unnested, and joined using aone_to_onerelationship. Repeated fields are unnested, and joined on through aone_to_manyjoin (see lines 30-34 of thega_blockview for an example). Please take note that brackets are used for non-repeated fields, and not used for repeated fields, in the join syntax. This is a critical element to working with nested fields in BigQuery. -
Google's documentation on the data included in the export can be found here.
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ga_blockcontains all join logic and all individual view files, dimensions, and measures. You'll notice each view file has anextension: requiredparameter, which is also why each table has a_basesuffix. This means each file must be appended to another table to show up on the Explore page. These other tables are located in thega_customizeview. Documentation on extends can be found here. -
ga_customze: contains all the extended view files. If your organization uses any custom fields with Google Analytics, this is where you can insert those fields. In-line directions are provided in the code. It's important to note that, if you want to Explore a table, there must be an extends parameter under the correspdoning table in this view file. For example, if I wanted to exploretrafficsource, I would add anextends: [trafficsource_base]parameter underview: trafficsource.
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View:
ga_customizeline 19 parameter forsql_table_namemust be customized to the usersdata_set.ga_session_*. -
Dashboards: Replace
model: ga_connectors360with your chosen name. -
Available Explores: Recall from above, that each
extendsfield but must declared to allow users to Explore on a view.
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Doubleclick Campaign (Bid) Manager: Requires admin permissions for the Google users. Follow the documentation here.
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DoubleClick for Publishers: This integration includes both AdSense and Ad Exchange, and requires work on the side of the Google Admin, as well as the creation of a tagging system using either self-built or Google service-provided tag managers. After tagging is enabled, the following steps can be found in Google's Documentation. Once you've done this, be sure to include the AdWord data by adding the
extends: [hits_publisher_base]beneathview: hits_publisher(on line 90 inga_customizeout-of-the-box) -
Adwords: Connecting AdWords is fairly straightforward. Follow the instructions provided in Google's documentation. Once you've done this, be sure to include the AdWord data by adding the
extends: [adwordsClickInfo_base]beneathview: adwordsClickInfo(on line 86 inga_customizeout-of-the-box) -
YouTube: Youtube integration can be configured via the GUI in the GA360 console.
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CRMs or Other Sources Google does not capture any PII, which means that
user_idand/orclient_idis unique to only Google Analytics Premium. This key is not shared, by default, across any of your CRM data, or any other data sources you're pulling from. To join this data, a common key must be created. There are several methods to accomplishing this, one of which Google has provided some documentation around.