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You are here: Home / TIL / srsltid parameter, GA4 and Big Query

srsltid parameter, GA4 and Big Query

18 July 2024 by jules 1 Comment

Today I learned that when you use the srsltid parameter (Shopping Free + autotagging will add this parameter), it messes up the GA4 bq page location.

Blogging this, because hopefully it helps someone save some time.

What is stored is not what you send (if you send srsltid)

When you request a page like https://stuifbergen.com/?srsltid=foo the export rewrites the page_location and page_referrer parameter values it stores in Big Query. It “scrambles” it.

  • the page_location will leave the browser untouched
  • big query GA4 will store a page_location something like https://stuifbergen.com/?srsltid=ChEI8PritAYQ8Ougr9W7m…6U%3D
  • the actual value of the srsltid url parameter will be stored in collected_traffic_source.srsltid in BQ
  • the scrambling happens
    • per batch of events sent (resulting in a unique page_location)
    • the page_referrer will ALSO be scrambled

This results in lots of unique page_locations without a new page load.

So when you want to count “unique urls” -> make sure you remove the srsltid parameter from page_location.

Don’t count on the fact that you will find a page_referrer value in a page_location value too, if srsltid is involved.

If you have any info on how/why this could happen, let me know and I will include it in this article. Thanks!

Related posts:

How to make sure your GA4 events tables do not expire Random person sitting behing a random computerAnalyze AB tests in GA4 via Big Query Smart incremental GA4 tables in Dataform Configuration tagMaking Sense of the GA4 Configuration Tag

Filed Under: TIL Tagged With: bigquery, ga4

Comments

  1. Smart Tech says

    23 August 2024 at 14:15

    Please remember the following information:

    If you have auto-tagging enabled in your Analytics reports, your Merchant Center traffic will be categorized with the following dimension values:

    – Source platform: Shopping Free Listings
    – Source: Google
    – Medium: Organic
    – Campaign: Shopping Free Listings
    – Default Channel Group: Organic Shopping

    These dimension values will allow you to track the number of users, sessions, and events that originated from Google Merchant Center organic-search clicks. You will also be able to see the number of clicks, key events, and the total revenue attributed to organic-search clicks.

    Additionally, the srsltid parameter is appended to links generated by Google Merchant Center in organic shopping results (e.g.,https://example.org/?srsltid=AfmBOoqPa1XQZajOpl7-lWcd-6GJ2u5LGoeoOfrBE2doEv_bokRq8yUSchQ&srsltid=AfmBOop6LVygI63emtVHFL1sJqOrw-v8xJdY8zSO-raVlDLGdCskasyJ)

    Reply

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