Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Integration Guide

Log into Google Analytics as an administrator and select the relevant GA4 property. GA4 properties will be numbers only, and Universal Analytics will be in the UA-xxxxxx-x format.

In the left-hand sidebar, select Admin

Under the Property column, select Data Streams

Select the displayed Data Steam that has already been configured for your website.

The Measurement ID will be found in the top right of the page. Copy and save this as it will be needed later.

Scroll to Additional Settings at the bottom of the page, then select Measurement Protocol API secrets. This option will only be available if you have administrator privileges, and you will only be able to continue with the integration if you have access to this menu.

Click Create

Add an appropriate nickname such as “Delacon integration” so the purpose of the API Secret is clear and does not get deleted inadvertently in the future, then click Create

Copy and save the Secret value as it will be needed later.

Log into the Delacon portal and navigate to Configuration > Integrations > Google Analytics (or click here)

Select New Integration

Select the Service ID(s) you wish to map

Under Basic Settings, choose GA4 Analytics, then Live and Offline Tracking and enter the previously saved Measurement ID and Secret Value. Then click Integrate

Once this has been completed, calls received on the integrated service IDs will begin to be reported in GA4.

We recommend completing this step after the first call data has been pushed into GA as it simplifies the mapping process.

Once call data is sent into GA4 there will be a new event available in the GA reporting called calltracking, this can be seen under Engagement > Events:

Associated with the calltracking event are parameters that contain additional information about the details of the call, such as the number dialed and the call result. The following is the full list of available parameters.

Based on your needs you will need to configure some, or all, of these parameters to allow reporting of the call tracking data in Google Analytics. 

In the GA4 property, select Admin in the left-hand sidebar at the bottom.

Select Custom Definitions

Choose whether you are creating a custom dimension or metric (as noted in the parameter list above) then click to create

• Dimensions: Add a relevant description as the Dimension Name, then add (or select, if available) the relevant "calltracking_" parameter in the Event Parameter field. The scope should remain as default (Event). Click Save to create the custom dimension. Repeat these steps for each custom dimension needed.

• Metrics: Add a relevant description as the Metric Name, add (or select, if available) the relevant "calltracking_" parameter in the Event Parameter field, then select the appropriate Unit of Measurement for the parameter being used. The scope should remain as default (Event). Click Save to create the custom metric. Repeat these steps for each custom metric needed.

Once configured the parameters will be available  for reporting with the next call when selecting the calltracking event.

In GA4, key events (previously conversions) are equivalent to a goal in previous Google Analytics versions. This can be set against the calltracking event, which will complete a conversion for every call received. To create a conversion for more specific criteria, an Audience Trigger can be configured to create a new custom event.

Conversion Configuration – All calls

After completing steps 1 and 2, wait for the first call data to come through. With the first call Delacon pushes into GA, it will automatically create the default call event "calltracking". To mark this event as a key event, follow below steps:

Select Admin in the left-hand sidebar at the bottom

Under Property Settings > Data Display, select Events.

Find the calltracking event and mark it as key event.

With the next call, calltracking will appear under key events and can be imported in Adwords.

To import the key events into Adwords, please follow the Google guide: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375435?hl=en

Conversion Creation – Specific Call Criteria (Audience Trigger)

While the default "calltracking" event will capture all calls, you can also create custom events based on the custom dimensions from step 3. These custom events can then also be set as conversions.

Select Admin in the left-hand sidebar

Select Audiences

Select New Audience

Select Create a custom audience

Here we will determine the conditions for the new Audience. You can select any custom dimension or metric, such as IVR option, call duration or answer status. In this example we will create an audience only for calls that are marked as a Sales call through the DTMF Description (IVR option) parameter.

Add a Name then select the calltracking event and then select Add parameter

Select Delacon DTMF Description and under Conditions select Contains and then enter Sales. Click Apply.

Under Audience Trigger click Create New

Add a relevant unique Event name then click Save

Click Save

The new Audience will now be displayed.

To create the conversion event for the new audience follow the steps above under Conversion Configuration – All calls, but replace the calltracking event name with the event name created in the new audience (in this example delacon_sales_call)

Conversion events can be seen within Google Analytics, and can be imported into Google Ads using the instructions found here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10632359

Delacon's default event "calltracking" and any custom events created via the audience trigger will appear under Reports > Engagement > Events.

Clicking on the event will take you to the event page where you can view additional custom dimension data. 

If you have marked the event as a conversion, they will appear under Reports > Engagement > Conversions. 

To view your event data against Google's default channel groups, navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and select your calltracking or custom events.

1. Delays in processing data

Google can take up to 48 hours to process all data. Check again at a later stage whether the calltracking event is showing.

2. Thresholding

Google may apply thresholds to the Delacon data. More info can be found here. Thresholds are applied if there is a risk of associating available data to individual people, making it possible to identify the person. 

Common reasons for thresholding are:

• session count/data volume is too low

• data contains demographic information (identifiable information)

• the date range is too large to display, eg. 1 year worth data

Solution: 

1. Increase the data sample by selecting a longer date range or by waiting for more data to come in. We estimate that it takes about 50 events before the data set is shown in full.

2. Remove any personally identifiable information from the data

3. Allow enough time for Google to process all data

If the calltracking event is not shown under Events, you can create below free form report to confirm that the events are being pushed into GA correctly. 

1. Navigate to Explore > Free Form

2. Set the Rows to "Event Name" and Columns to "Date"

3. Set the Values to "Event Count" and apply a Filter for "Event name" contains "Calltracking"

4. If the data is pushed successfully, it will create below report

3. Faulty API secret

The API secret might be faulty. Create a new API secret and re-do the mapping in the Delacon portal with the new secret value (Steps 1 and 2 of this guide). Monitor whether the calltracking event appears with the next calls.

Once steps 1 and 2 of this guide have been completed, Delacon will start pushing its call event and associated call data into GA. With the first call, the available custom dimensions should pre-populate within the GA settings and should be available for selection in the drop-down menu as shown in below screenshot.

However, only those custom dimensions will pre-populate that contained any data when the call was pushed into GA. Empty dimensions will not automatically be available for selection. 

Solution: 

- Ensure that the desired dimension contains data (eg that the Page Called From URL data is available for the calltracking_PageCalledFrom dimension)

- you can map the dimensions manually as well, by typing out the dimension name as it is written in the table of available dimensions under Step 3 of this guide

Unlike in UA, device information will not be available in GA4, due to the different attribution models within GA4 and UA.

Delacon is uploading an offline event to GA4 and relies on Google to associate the offline event with session data in their reporting. which does not happen in GA4. In UA, Google was associating calls to each available session data, including device information.

In GA4, the device type should therefore be (not set) but Google is showing "desktop" as the default.

Universal Analytics provided Delacon the possibility to send custom definitions for the source/medium with each call, which allowed for offline calls (such as call extension or calls from GMB listings) to be attributed to a meaningful source/medium. 

GA4 does not provide this functionality at this stage and all offline calls will be attributed to "Unassigned" in the traffic acquisition report.