Last Updated: June 29, 2022

What is GA4 Bigquery?

Google BigQuery is a cloud data warehouse that allows you to run high-volume data in just a few seconds. The GA4 BigQuery connection provides the opportunity to conduct an in-depth analysis of business performance and user interactions. 

Why use BigQuery for your Google Analytics 4 property?

Connecting Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery is completely free of charge. Yes, you heard it right; there are no charges on exporting data from a Google Analytics 4 property to BigQuery. You can also export to a free instance of BigQuery called BigQuery Sandbox.

Now, you can take this opportunity to the next level and go beyond the reporting interface of GA4, with unlimited advanced analytics options.

Here are a few of the advantages below:

• No data sampling.
• Export all of your custom event parameters and dimensions.
• Connect Google Analytics 4 data with third-party APIs.
• Push data from BigQuery to a wide range of visualization tools like Google Data Studio, Tableau, Power BI and Qlik.
• Data correction options.
• Custom channel grouping.

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How to connect Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery?

Now let’s dive into this step-by-step guide to connecting your Google Analytics 4 property to BigQuery.

Follow the steps below to connect Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery and then send the GA data to it:

Step-1: Navigate to your BigQuery account: https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery

Step-2: At the top of your screen, click on the drop-down menu:

Step-3: Click on the ‘New Project’ button:

We will use this new project to collect and query Google Analytics 4 data into BigQuery.

Step-4: Name your new project and then click on the ‘Create’ button:

Step-5: At the top of your screen, click on the drop-down menu:

Step-6: Click on the name of the project you want to switch to (in our case, ‘DBRT GA4’):

Congratulations! You are now in the ‘DBRT GA4’ project.

You will know that you are on the right project because the project name will appear at the top of your screen:

Step-7: Log in to your Google Analytics 4 property and click on ‘Admin’ under the left-hand side reporting menu.

Step-8: Click on ‘BigQuery Linking’ under ‘Product Linking’:

Step-9: Click on the ‘Link’ button:

Step-10: Click on ‘Choose a BigQuery project’:

Step-11: Select the BigQuery project where you want to send your GA4 data and click on the ‘Confirm’ button. In our case, that project is ‘DBRT GA4’:

Step-12: Select your data location and click on the ‘Next’ button.

Data location is the cloud region where your data is stored.

Step-13: ‘Edit’ your data stream(s) if required. Otherwise, move on to the next step. By default, all of the data streams are selected.

You have the option to select a specific data stream for which you will be exporting the data to BigQuery. Just click on ‘Edit’ if you want to edit your data streams:

Step-14: Click on the checkbox “Include advertising identifiers for mobile app streams” if you have a mobile app and you want to export mobile advertiser identifiers. Otherwise, move on to the next step.

Step-15: Select the frequency of your data import to BigQuery by selecting both ‘Daily’ and ‘Streaming’ settings and then click on the ‘Next’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-16: Click on the ‘Submit’ button. You should now see a screen like the one below:

Congratulations! 

Your GA4 account is now successfully linked to your Big Query project.

Step-17: Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard

Step-18: Make sure your BigQuery project for GA4 is selected:

Step-19: Click on the ‘+ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

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Step-20: Search for “Big Query” and then click on the ‘Big Query API’ button:

Step-21: Click on the ‘Manage’ button:

Step-22: Click on the ‘Credentials’ link from the left-hand side navigation menu:

Step-23: You would now need to add a firebase service account.

This account would be used to export Google Analytics 4 data to BigQuery. To do that, click on the ‘+create credentials’ button:

Step-24: Click on the ‘Service account’ link to create a new service account:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-25: Enter [email protected] as the service account name:

Step-26: Click on the ‘Create’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-27: Click on the ‘DONE’ button.

You should now see your new service account listed like the one below:

Step-28: Wait for a full 24 hours.

It usually takes around 24 hrs for your GA4 data to be available in your BigQuery project.

Step-29: Navigate back to your BigQuery account and make sure that your project used for collecting GA4 data is selected:

Step-30: Scroll down and then click on the project ID of the project which collects GA4 data:

You should now be able to see a data set named “analytics_<property_id>“:

For each Google Analytics 4 property linked to BigQuery, a single dataset named “analytics_<property_id>” is added to your BigQuery project.

Property ID refers to your Analytics Property ID, which you can find in the property settings for your GA4 property.

In my case, the property ID is 207472454

That’s why the name of my data set is ‘analytics_207472454‘

This data set contains the following two data tables which contain your GA4 data:

1. events_(<number of days>)
2. events_intraday_<current date>

If you want to learn more about these two data tables, then check out this article: events_ & events_intraday_ tables in BigQuery for GA4 (Google Analytics 4)

Conclusion

You can use a Google Analytics 4 property and BigQuery to evaluate the limitless possibility of new insights and define your own advanced analytics capabilities.

Furthermore, you can also connect BigQuery with third-party tools using native connectors to integrate more data.

BigQuery also supports most visualization tools, and you can use them to build dashboards and insights to enhance your business growth.

If you want to send GA3 data to Google Big Query and that too without using GA 360 then check out this article: Sending Google Analytics data to BigQuery without 360

Other articles related to GA4 (Google Analytics 4)

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1. What is GA4 (Google Analytics 4) – The Apps + Web Property?
2. Key Benefits of Using Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
3. Setup GA4 – Upgrade to GA4 – Implementation Tutorial
4. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) vs Universal Analytics – What is the difference?
5. Google Signals GA4 – See demographics (gender, age) in Google Analytics 4
6. Understanding Google Analytics Measurement ID (GA4)
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1. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Event Tracking Setup Tutorial
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#4 Google Analytics 4 Conversions

1. Google Analytics 4 Conversion Tracking Guide – GA4 Goals
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#5 Google Analytics 4 Dimensions

1. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Dimensions Tutorial
2. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Custom Dimensions Tutorial
3. GA4 User Properties (User Scoped Custom Dimensions) – Tutorial
4. Event Scoped Custom Dimensions in GA4 – Tutorial

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1. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Metrics Tutorial with Free Google Analytics 4 Ebook
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#7 Google Analytics 4 Ecommerce

1. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Ecommerce Tracking via GTM – Tutorial

#8 Google Analytics 4 Specialized Tracking

1. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Enhanced Measurement Tracking Tutorial
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3. GA4 Site Search – Tracking Site Search in Google Analytics 4
4. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Scroll Tracking Tutorial
5. Self-referral Google Analytics 4 – Referral exclusion GA4
6. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Data Import Tutorial
7. Google Analytics 4 Content Grouping – Create Content Groups in GA4
8. How to track single page apps in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

#9 Google Analytics 4 filters

1. GA4 filters – Understanding data filters in Google Analytics 4
2. How to create and test filters in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?
3. Exclude internal traffic in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) via IP filter

#10 Google Analytics 4 Explorations

1. Free Form Report in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) – Exploration Report
2. How to use the user lifetime report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
3. How to use Path exploration report in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) – Path analysis
4. How to use Segment Overlap Report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
5. How to use the Funnel Exploration Report in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) – Funnel Analysis
6. Cohort Exploration Report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
7. How to Create Landing Pages Report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

#11 Google Analytics 4 Advanced

1. Understanding Google Analytics 4 Sessions
2. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Measurement Protocol Tutorial
3. How to build comparisons (advanced segments) in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
4. Understanding Automated Insights in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
5. Understanding Channel Groupings in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
6. Understanding Data Sampling in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

#12 Google Analytics 4 Reporting

1. How to create custom insights in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
2. How to use Debug View report in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

#13 Google Analytics 4 Attribution

1. Guide to Attribution Models in GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
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3. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Conversion Paths Report in Attribution
4. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Model comparison report in Attribution
5. Advertising Snapshot in GA4 (Google Analytics 4) Attribution

#14 Google Analytics 4 Audiences

1. GA4 Audiences – Creating custom audience in Google Analytics 4
2. How to create a remarketing audience in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
3. Understanding Audience Triggers in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
4. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Predictive Audiences – Tutorial

#15 Google Analytics 4 BigQuery

1. GA4 BigQuery – Connect Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery
2. How to connect and export data from GA4 to BigQuery
3. events_ & events_intraday_ tables in BigQuery for GA4 (Google Analytics 4)

Frequently asked questions about Connecting Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery