This article introduces a magical data privacy protection mechanism in Google Analytics 4 —— Data Thresholds.
What is Data Thresholds
The data threshold is defined by the GA4 system, and the user cannot modify it, and does not know the specific value.
It can be directly understood that the data threshold is a value set by the system.
When will the Data Thresholds be Triggered
If you have Google Signal turned on, select “Blended” or “Observed ” in “Reporting Identity”.
The data in the selected time range is small and does not exceed the data threshold. In order to protect user privacy, the result is that some data is not displayed in the exploration/report.
The Role of Data Thresholds
The role of the data threshold is to protect user privacy.
Impact of Data Thresholds
The result is that in the exploration after the report, some data is not displayed:
- Events, conversion data is inaccurate，read more：New Event or Conversion data not in Google Analytics 4?
- Channel data is inaccurate
- Dimensions such as interest and age have no data，read more: Why is there no data in the Demographic report in GA4？
How to Tell if a Data Thresholds is Applied
If a report or exploration has a threshold applied, the color of the data indicator changes. Hover over an indicator to see more information.
How to Avoid it?
There are two ways:
- Turn off Google Signal
- Select 「Device-based」 in 「Reporting Identity」, so that Google Signal will not be used
The suggestion is to use the second method, because Google Signal plays a very important role, such as interest and age data, and Adwords Remarketing, so it is generally turned on.
Special Case
Gender, age and interest are not affected by the above, there must be a threshold:
