Demonstrated 74% uplift in GA4 data collection and 60% in audience sizes

You might have noticed, we like to tinker at Duga Digital. 

And through this curiosity we are learning - constantly. 

We are learning how to maximise the value we are seeing from the tool sets available to us, we are learning how to use this to benefit our clients, we are learning how to give this knowledge back to the industry.

One such exercise was carried out around GA4 Data Collection settings - you can find it in the Admin section, under Property Settings.

There are a few different options available to you to select from - but you will be (and most websites are still using this) defaulted with the settings of Device Identification.

All fine and well, nothing wrong with that, it is good practice. 

Most sites (99+%) will be using client-side implementation of Google Tag Manager and will be defaulted to Device Identification GA4 data collection. 

But what if you used sGTM (server-side Google Tag Manager - which we have a managed service to help move to) with Device Identification GA4 data collection - what does the data look like then?

That’s a pretty healthy difference - an extra 8.3% users and an extra 9.4% events collected - much more accurate and a good return.

There is a step further we can take.

And that is rather than rely on the Device ID, we can ask Google for some help and use their Signals (a bit of a black box, but essentially relying on Google’s matching of users based on Ads Personalisation settings to recognise groups).

And when we move to that Data Collection model on the server-side…

Woof.

What should I do with that?

Firstly, tell everyone you know.

Including your cat.

Ok, the biggest outcome here is the increase in audience sizes that can be linked to Google products.

That increase in audience is free, already exists and doesn’t require any dramatic changes.

Have you seen the same?

Have you experimented further?

Let us know.