GA4 Event Dimensions to BigQuery Mapping

Here’s a breakdown of GA4 event dimensions and their corresponding BigQuery fields:

GA4 Event DimensionsWhat it isBigQuery Field Name (Formula)
Event nameThis dimension captures the identifier of an event.event_name
Is key eventIndicates whether an event has been designated as a key event.IF(event_params.key = 'is_key_event' AND event_params.value.int_value = 1, TRUE, FALSE) AS is_key_event

Points to consider:

In the GA4 BigQuery export schema, there is no corresponding field that indicates whether an event has been designated as a key event. 

The concept of a “key event” is more of an analytical distinction made within the GA4 user interface, where certain events can be marked as key events for analysis and reporting. However, this designation does not translate into a distinct field in the BigQuery export.

The formula provided for the “Is key event” dimension in the table above assumes that you have a custom event parameter named ‘is_key_event’ set up in your GA4 configuration.

To handle this situation in BigQuery, you must manually specify which events are considered key events based on your analysis needs. 

You could do this by creating a list of event names that you have designated as key events within your GA4 configuration and then using this list in your SQL queries to filter or flag these events accordingly.

For example, if you consider ‘purchase’ and ‘add_to_cart’ as key events, you could write a SQL query like the one below to identify them in your BigQuery data:

SELECT
  event_name,
  CASE
    WHEN event_name IN ('purchase', 'add_to_cart') THEN TRUE
    ELSE FALSE
  END AS is_key_event
FROM
  `your_project.your_dataset.your_table`

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