Google Analytics 4 Integration (Growth & Connect Plans)

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s new property designed to collect both web and app data. GA4 uses events instead of Universal Analytics’ customary session-based data.

This article will cover 

1. How to connect your CTM and GA4 accounts
2. How to view your CTM data in GA4
3. Tips CTM has learned along the way

Prerequisite: 

Before beginning the setup process in CTM you will need to create a 

• GA4 Property
• At least one Web Data Stream, and 
• API Secret in your GA4 account(s). 

At this time, CTM is only supporting use of a Web Data Stream. 

Take a look at Google’s helpful article on creating a new GA4 Property and Web 

Data Stream.

Once these prerequisite steps are completed you will be ready to connect CTM to your GA4 account.

Connecting CTM to your GA4 Account: 

Connect CTM to your Google Analytics account by going to: 

Settings > Integrations > Google Analytics > Click Settings on the GA4 card

• Click Connect to Google 
• Select the Google account you wish to connect with
• You’ll then be taken to a page where you need to grant CTM access to your Google account
• Click Allow.

Once linked it can take 24-72 hours for events to begin showing on the Google real-time report. Once events start showing, it should only take approximately 10 minutes after the completion of the activity for the activity to show. 

Account Details: 

If you have more than one Google User Account you may choose to link all of your accounts for easy access.

Once linked, select the Google User Account from the drop down. The account selected will determine which GA4 accounts show up to configure.

Data Stream Links:

In GA4, CTM event data (from a CTM activity) will be sent to a Data Stream. The table on this page provides a view of the data flow from CTM to GA4 for multiple data streams at a time. Once a data stream link is created it will be represented as a row within the table. 

To get started you’ll need to create a new Data Stream Link. 

Click the button that says New Data Stream Link.

You’ll then be directed to a new page to configure the data flow and rules for sending an event.

Data Stream:

Select the following information from your GA4 account on where you want to send the CTM event data to:

• GA4 Account
• GA4 Property
• GA4 Data Stream
• API Secret **

Please note these must be created in the GA4 account first in order for them to be accessible within CTM. If you do not see any options within the list, the GA4 Property and Web Data Stream will help get you started.

**If you see all other options except the API secret, you’ll need your account Administrator to provide you with the API secret. You may then manually enter it using the link.

CTM Accounts:

Select one or more CTM accounts from the left panel to send this configuration’s specified event data to.

Conditions:

Trigger conditions are not required. If no conditions are specified, the trigger will run for every incoming activity type (call, text, chat, form). This is equivalent to the current GA3 integration.

You also have the option to create custom trigger conditions or rules for when the event data is sent to GA4. 

To create a custom trigger condition, click Add Rule, then select the rules you want to apply. You may use one rule or create multiple. 

For example, if you only want to send events for calls that are greater than 60 seconds in total length, you would configure the condition as follows:

If Total Time is greater than 60 within the condition

Once set, using the Test button is a great way to see if a certain activity meets the rules set above. 

If the rules are met you will see a green highlight on the screen. Iif the rules are not met, the highlight will be red. 

Mapping Set:

For your convenience CTM has created a standard mapping set titled GA3 Equivalent Event Data. This mapping set will send the following data for each event: 

• Activity Type
• Activity ID
• Account ID
• Source
• Talk Time
• Score
• First Time Caller

This is the event data that is currently being sent through the GA3 integration. This ensures that you have the ability to capture year-over-year data.

You can also choose to customize the event data, should you want to add or remove parameters, by creating your own custom mapping set in the next section. 

Manage Mapping Sets:

Creating a custom mapping set provides you with the ability to select which event data from CTM gets sent to Google. This can be helpful if you want to send more data than is included in the above GA3 Equivalent Event Data standard mapping. 

In this section you can think of a parameter as being a field. You are specifying the fields you want to be created when adding a parameter name and then the parameter value is the data in CTM being sent to that field. 

Get started:

• Click +New Mapping button
• Name your mapping set: This is the CTM Name
• Description (optional) 
• GA4 Event Name: This will be the name of the event when it appears in GA4 – it must be distinct, with a max of 40 characters. 

• Next, click +Add Parameter button (you can create up to 25 of these as Google has a max of 25 Event parameters) 
• Event Parameter Name: This is the label you will see in your  GA4 account – there is a max of 40 characters and no uppercase or spaces allowed.
• Event Parameter Value: The CTM value that will be sent for each corresponding parameter with a max of 100 characters allowed. 
• Using the CTM Activity or Score tokens are a great way to easily capture this data.
• In addition, here’s Google’s Best practices to avoid sending Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Follow the second step above for each parameter (or field) that needs to be created.

Once you’ve finished adding all of your parameters (or fields), click the Save button. 

This new custom mapping set will now show as an option within the drop down list in the above Mapping Set section. Selecting the newly created mapping set from the drop down menu will switch to using these instead of the GA3 Equivalent. 

Each new mapping set you create has the ability to be copied using the Copy Mapping Set button. 

This saves time by copying all of the parameters and values previously created while allowing you to modify and rename it. 

Viewing your CTM data in GA4:

CTM also recommends creating a Custom Dimension in your GA4 account. This will ensure the event data sent from CTM will persist in your GA4 account once it leaves the Google real time report. Data on the real time report is only available for 30 minutes.

Check out this helpful information on how to create Custom Dimensions in your GA4 account.

CTM Notes:

• At this time, CTM is only sending event data to GA4 no attribution will be pulled into CTM using GA4.
• CTM recommends using custom dimensions so you don’t lose access to your data once it’s removed from the real-time report by Google.

Read Google’s article Introducing Google Analytics 4 (GA4)