How To Connect GA4 Directly with BigQuery & What Benefit It Offers

The businesses heavily rely on analytics tools in today’s data-driven world to collect all the actionable insights.  Connecting GA4 directly with BigQuery is one of the most powerful combinations that is available for meeting this purpose. This successful integration allows organizations to gain detailed insight into user behavior, optimize marketing campaigns, and make data-backed decisions smoothly.

 In this comprehensive blog guide, we will learn about how to connect GA4 directly with BigQuery and what immense benefits it provides to your business.

How to Connect GA4 with BigQuery?

Let’s take a look at the following points to understand the step-by-step process of connecting GA4 with BigQuery. 

Step 1- Set Up BigQuery Account 

If you don’t have a BigQuery account, follow these steps to set up your account successfully – 

1. Create a Google Cloud Account and sign in with the help of your Google account.

2. Look for BigQuery in the Google Cloud Console and activate the API.

3. Stay on the Cloud Console option and click on the project dropdown at the top of the page and select “New Project”. Give a name to the project and click on Create.

Step 2 – Build or Create a BigQuery Dataset

Once your BigQuery project is ready in the Cloud Console, the next move is to create a dataset where GA4 will be stored.

1. Navigate to BigQuery using the left-hand menu in the cloud console.

2.  Click on your created project and select “Create a dataset”. Now you can easily name your dataset and pick a data location that aligns with your business needs. 

Step 3 – Connect GA4 to BigQuery

  Once your BigQuery setup is done, it’s time to link GA4 to BigQuery.

1. Open the Google Analytics and go to the Admin Panel.

2. Under the PROPERTY Column, choose a GA4 property that you want to connect with the BigQuery.

3. Find BigQuery Linking under the Product Linking section and choose it.

4. Begin the Linking process in the BigQuery setup screen and choose the project that you created in Step

5.  Choose the dataset that you created in Step 2.

6. After that you need to select a GA4 data stream like web or app streams to send to BigQuery.

7. Set the frequency to export the data. Generally, there are two options – Daily Export and Streaming Export. In daily export, the data is exported once a day. On the other hand, in streaming export, data is exported continuously in near real-time.

8.  Review your settings and save them.

Step 4 – Verify the Data Export

When you complete all the above steps, your GA4 data will start exporting to BigQuery as per the chosen frequency. To verify that the data has started exported –

1. Go to BigQuery Console.

2. Open the dataset you created and look for tables that contain GA4 data. Name these tables based on your GA4 events.

How Kaliper Assists in This Integration?

Kaliper plays a critical role in streamlining and elevating the whole procedure of linking GA4 directly to the BigQuery. It makes the data analysis more accessible and efficient for the businesses. Here’s how we provide our assistance in this integration. 

1. Streamlined Data Integration – We offer a hassle-free way of integrating GA4 with BigQuery without the need for deep technical skills. This removes the complexities of the GA4 to BigQuery connection. It helps businesses to paste the connection code using our UI.
2. Automated Data Export – We support exporting GA4 event data. It is copied to BigQuery in real-time or daily, based on schedules. With Kaliper, the data flows continuously. It needs no manual work. This reduces the risk of errors or missed values.
3. Advanced Query Capabilities– BigQuery has many query features. Our provided interface enhances them with GA4-specific templates and queries. So, businesses can now create queries more easily. They don’t have to write them from scratch. Kaliper has a user-friendly query builder. It lets users create various GA4 reports and visualizations using their BigQuery data.
4. Data Integration – With Kaliper, you can easily connect and integrate GA4 data with other meaningful business data residing in BigQuery. This provides a more holistic view of your customer map. It allows you to analyze the flow between channels, instead of being limited to Web and Application traffic.
5. Custom Dashboards and Visualizations– Kaliper helps businesses leverage and analyze GA4 data by letting them build custom dashboards and visualizations in BigQuery. It makes it easier for stakeholders to track KPIs, trends, and key performance indicators in real-time, which boosts decision-making.
6. Optimized Performance – Kaliper makes BigQuery queries more efficient. It processes data, no matter how large the volume. This leads to enhanced efficiency and optimal performance of the queries run on the analytics tool.
7. Scalable Infrastructure – Unlike some tools that can only handle a certain amount of data, Kaliper expands with growing business needs. It helps in handling large and growing volumes of datasets, which makes sure that the integration between GA4 and BigQuery does not cause any performance degradation when processing event data. This is particularly important for organizations that have a high website or app traffic and require real-time analysis of large data sets.
8. Data Security and Compliance – Kaliper ensures the transfer of data that is shared between GA4 and BigQuery is always secure and does not violate any international data transfer laws and regulations. It encompasses data security measures, data encryption, and access controls to ensure that business data remains secure. This is especially true for companies that work with the user’s data and have to meet specific regulations like GDPR or CCPA.
9. Real-Time Data Analysis – Using Kaliper, businesses can receive real-time data transfers between GA4 and BigQuery for accurate information about user activity. This data can be particularly valuable in real-time decision-making processes, for instance in determining which marketing campaign is most effective or when to switch the business model based on live user data.
10. Ongoing Support and Maintenance – Kaliper is dedicated to providing continuous post-launch support and maintenance for GA4 and BigQuery. This also involves addressing any problems that occurs, checking for anomalies in the data stream, and keeping track of updates to GA4 or BigQuery APIs.

Conclusion

Integrating GA4 with BigQuery offers huge benefits. It helps organizations maximize the value of their analytics data. This guide will help you. It shows how to set up the integration, work with raw GA4 data, and gain insights for better decisions. This link lets users leverage data in new ways.  Regardless of whether one is marketing, analyzing data, or owning a business, this link allows the user to leverage data in unprecedented ways that standard GA4 reports do not allow. With Kaliper, businesses can extract the maximum value out of analytics data, while avoiding the challenges associated with the setup and deployment of the integration.