Google Analytics 360 parameter setup

• Getting started
• URL-based parameters custom dimension setup
• Cookies custom dimension setup

This guide describes how to set up the data collection necessary to use SegmentStream's advertising optimisation feature. The data collected includes non-personally identifiable information in the form of click IDs and cookies.

Getting started

1. Make sure BigQuery export is enabled for your Google Analytics 360 account. Currently we support US and EU location of dataset.
2. Make sure you've connected your Google Analytics 360 to SegmentStream.
3. Grant BigQuery access for your GCP project where GA360 data is stored for the SegmentStream support team.

URL-based parameters custom dimension setup

In most cases, typical GA360 setup filters out different query parameters (i.e fbclid, etc) from the URL to make analytics in your GA360 UI more structured.

This leads to losing these parameters in your Google BigQuery data. As a workaround, it is required to send the full URL of each page in a separate custom dimension.

Below you can find a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this.

1. Open your Google Analytics 360 account.
2. Create a new custom dimension called Full URL with the Scope set to Hit.

   

3. Make a note of the number assigned to this custom dimension, as you will need it later in the process.

   

4. Inside your Google Tag Manager go to Variables, and click Configure:

   

5. Make sure Page URL built-in variable is enabled:

   

6. Open your Google Analytics Settings variable.

7. Create a new custom dimension and make sure to use the correct index number.

8. Set the value of the custom dimension to {{Page URL}}.

   

   ☝ Important! In case you don’t use Google Analytics Settings and define custom dimensions directly inside your Google Analytics tags, make sure the {{Page URL}} custom dimension is implemented for all Google Analytics tags and events, not only for pageviews.

9. Click Save and Publish the container.

10. Make sure the Full URL is properly collected as a custom dimension inside your Google BigQuery GA360 data export.

11. Let SegmentStream support know the dimension index for Page URL.

Cookies custom dimension setup

1. Create a new custom dimension inside your Google Analytics 360 account with the name of the cookie you want to pass to the custom dimension (i.e. FBP for Facebook's 1st party cookie ID) and set the Scope to Session:

   

2. Make a note of the number assigned to this custom dimension, as you will need it later in the process.

   

3. Inside your Google Tag Manager go to Variables, and click Configure:

   

4. Click New and choose variable type 1st Party Cookie from the list:

   

5. Define your Variable Name (i.e. fbp for Facebook's 1st party cookie ID), set Cookie Name depending on the cookie whose value you would like to collect:

   • _fbp - for Facebook 1st party cookie
   • _fbc - for Facebook click ID 1st party cookie
   • _ttp - for TikTok 1st party cookie
   • _ym_uid - for Yandex.Metrica 1st party cookie
   • etc

   And click Save.

   

6. Open your Google Analytics Settings variable.

7. Create a new custom dimension and make sure to use the correct index number.
8. Set the value of the custom dimension to the name of the variable created in the previous step wrapped in double curly brackets (i.e. {{fbp}})

   

   ☝ Important! In case you don’t use Google Analytics Settings and define custom dimensions directly inside your Google Analytics tags, make sure the custom dimensions are implemented for all Google Analytics tags and events, not only for pageviews.

9. Click Save and Publish the container.

10. Make sure the cookies are properly collected as custom dimensions inside your Google BigQuery GA360 data export.

11. Let your SegmentStream support know the respective dimension indexes for all the variables you've set up.