Introduction

In today’s world, where data is omnipresent, the true value difference lies in understanding how to transform existing data into something useful. Simply put — everything generates data — so data doesn’t make you unique anymore. The actual difference lies in the ability to see beneath that raw data and reshape it into business gold.

At Astrafy, we understand this issue perfectly. Data in itself is not enough to drive transformation. If your data is formatted correctly and tailored to your specific needs, you will be able to answer the crucial business questions you’re seeking.

Our Google Analytics Accelerator — or as we like to call it, “Google Analytics on Steroids”, — offers a groundbreaking solution designed to help businesses extract maximum value from their Google Analytics (GA4) data. By harnessing the combined power of Google Cloud and dbt on top of your raw GA4 data, our accelerator empowers you to find answers to those elusive questions your business and marketing teams have a hard time to address.

The added value

The image displays a flowchart for Astrafy's GA4 data analysis product, beginning with Google Analytics 4 at the top. It splits into two main branches: one emphasizing data analysis with pre-built Looker dashboards providing actionable insights for stakeholders, and the other focusing on a useful data format that unifies data in BigQuery and integrates external data to enhance business performance and reduce costs, ultimately transitioning from data silos to an integrated data world.

As detailed in the diagram above, we set up a dedicated data product for your Google Analytics 4 data using dbt models, focusing on:

  1. Grabbing your raw data and transforming it into a business-focused solution that seeks to answer your business questions, minimizing costs and increasing performance.

  2. Incorporating data analysis capabilities with pre-built Looker or Looker Studio dashboards offers instant, actionable insights for technical and business stakeholders.

  3. Creating a data format that is actually useful for analysis, with the possibility to incorporate existing company data to back up your analysis. We shift from GA4 data silos to an integral data world.

As per the diagram, this accelerator serves your technical and business teams. On one side, it provides a well-designed data product for your data team. On the other hand, this accelerator provides pre-built dashboards for business stakeholders to consume. As everything deployed resides on your infrastructure, you have the freedom to extend/amend the code as you wish.

Our proposed model

We consider that GA4 data should be analyzed through three different levels of granularity to provide the most comprehensive view of your data:

  • Event Level: Focuses on each individual user interaction with your site, such as page scrolls, button clicks, form submissions, etc.

  • Page Level: Examines what happens within specific pages to understand their individual performance.

  • Session Level: Aggregates data from multiple pages within a session to understand the overall user journey for a specific session. This is the level of granularity that was provided by Google Analytics Universal.

The granularity levels are broken down into the following tables:

The image is a table listing database table names along with their explanations for a data analysis system. It includes tables like int_rank_pages for analyzing navigation patterns within sessions, int_events_page_cat for categorizing web pages, and others like int_session_events and fact_sessions for aggregating user metrics and session data. Each table is tailored to track different aspects of user interactions and session analytics.

We have already published an article in which we explain in technical detail how our GA4 dbt model works, so if you want more information on how these granularity levels are reflected in the code, you can refer to this article.

Why Choose Our Solution?

You might wonder why our model is significantly different (and better) than the traditional GA4 insights you can find via the Google Analytics UI or in other dbt packages.

Firstly, our solution not only seamlessly integrates with various data sources but also provides granular data analysis from multiple perspectives. By employing advanced data aggregation techniques, we ensure enhanced performance while providing granular data from different angles. Those curated datamarts can then serve all your different downstream needs (BI, ML, and so on).

Second, GA4 data can quickly bring your query costs to new heights if not optimized correctly. We have tackled this issue by designing best-in-class queries and leveraging incremental models in dbt. Only new data on a daily basis is transformed and added to your datamarts.

Thirdly, our AI-driven dashboard summarization tool delivers context-specific, actionable insights, empowering you to make informed decisions swiftly and accurately. Think of it like trying to cook a gourmet meal in a cramped college dorm kitchen — you need a professional setup to truly excel. The same goes for data: to get meaningful insights, you need the right tools.

Finally, our accelerator makes working with your GA4 data a breeze, and deployment can be done in just a matter of hours (from exporting data to visualizing it on the BI dashboards).

Hereafter is a summary of the differentiator features you get from this accelerator as compared to the raw GA4 data:

The image is a comparison table contrasting features between Raw Google Analytics 4 and Astrafy-enhanced Google Analytics 4. It shows that the enhanced version offers integration with other data sources, multiple granularity levels for analyzing data, aggregations for improved performance and cost efficiency, and an AI dashboard summarization tool providing tailored actionable insights—features that are absent in the raw version.

The key features of this accelerator:

  • GA4 Data Export to BigQuery: Seamless and scalable data export.

  • Pre-Built dbt Project: Efficient transformation and modeling of GA4 data.

  • Comprehensive Documentation: Detailed guides and rigorous testing for accuracy.

  • Pre-Built Looker Dashboards: Instant insights with powerful visualizations.

  • AI-Enhanced Analytics: Deeper insights and trend analysis.

  • Full Code Ownership: Complete control for customization.

  • Rapid Deployment: Up and running in just one day.

  • Low Maintenance: Minimal ongoing upkeep required.

In addition, we have recently deployed a new AI dashboard summarization feature that provides tailored, actionable insights based on your needs as a dashboard visualizer:

The GIF displays a user interface for a web analytics dashboard titled "Website - Overview". It features various filters like date range, channel grouping, and session bookmarking at the top. Below, there's a section labeled "Dashboard Insights Powered by Vertex AI" with input fields for users to request specific summarizations. There are instructions provided on how to use the dashboard effectively. The overall layout is clean and professional, designed for easy navigation and user interaction.

Conclusion

With this Google Analytics Accelerator, you will no longer be limited to the tip of the iceberg. You will be able to uncover the hidden depths of your GA4 data and transform it into actionable insights.Your website/app data is one of the most precious data sources you have in this data world, and getting the most out of it can be a game-changer for growing your business.

Thank you

If you enjoyed reading this article, stay tuned as we regularly publish technical articles on how to leverage at best your data using Google Cloud technologies. Follow Astrafy on LinkedIn, Medium, and Youtube to be notified of the next article.

If you are looking for support on Modern Data Stack or Google Cloud solutions, feel free to reach out to us at sales@astrafy.io.