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Last Updated: February 2, 2023

What is roll-up reporting in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

Roll-up reporting is simply the reporting of data in an aggregated form from multiple digital properties (websites, mobile apps).

For example, 

Let us suppose you have set up separate websites for each country (abc.com, abc.co.uk, abc.com.au, abc.in, etc.) 

Now through roll-up reporting, you can do the following:

1. Aggregate all of your website data into one reporting view.
2. See aggregated global performance metrics.
3. Compare the performance of various country-specific websites to each other.

When do you need to set up roll-up reporting in your Google Analytics account?

In the following cases, you should consider setting up roll-up reporting in your Google Analytics account:

1. You want to understand the overall performance of the company that runs several websites and/or mobile apps to promote various brands/regional business units.
   
2.  You want to compare the performance of individual brands/ business units to each other.

Roll-up reporting helps you understand the overall performance of all of your company’s websites and/or mobile apps.

Through roll-up reporting, you can see the total unique visitor reach of all of your websites and/or apps (provided you are using GA360). 

In other words, 

You can determine the total number of unique people you are reaching through your websites, apps and/or marketing campaigns.

Methods for setting up roll-up reporting in GA4

There are two methods for setting up roll-up reporting in GA4:

1. By using multiple trackers (GA4 configuration tags) on each page of your website. Let’s call this method standard roll-up reporting for easy reference.
   
2. By using the roll-up property feature available in GA360. Let’s call this method premium roll-up reporting for easy reference.

What is a GA4 roll-up property?

A roll-up property is a special type of GA4 property whose event data comes from other GA4 properties (also known as source properties). 

In other words, a roll-up property is made up of two or more source properties.

Types of GA4 roll-up properties

There are two types of GA4 roll-up properties:

#1 Standard GA4 roll-up properties – These are the roll-up properties that provide standard roll-up reporting.

#2 Premium GA4 roll-up properties – These are the roll-up properties that provide premium roll-up reporting. The premium roll-up properties are available only to GA4 360 account users.

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Roll-up Property setup

In a ‘simple roll-up property set up’, a company that owns multiple websites would create one GA4 roll-up property and this property contains event data from several GA4 properties:

Since a GA4 property generally represents a website, the ‘simple roll-up property setup’ below is the same as the one above:

A GA4 Roll-up property is listed along with your other standard GA4 properties on the Admin page of your Google Analytics account.

Pro-Tip >> If the name of your roll-up property contains the word ‘roll-up’ then it would become easier for you to recognize it in a property list.

Advantages of using a roll-up property in GA4

Following are the key advantages of using a roll-up property in GA4:

#1 A roll-up property makes roll-up reporting possible in Google Analytics.

#2 When you use a roll-up property you can easily and automatically measure the overall performance of your websites/apps without manually exporting and aggregating data from different GA4 properties over and over again.

Note: We work with roll-up properties in the same way that we work with any other GA4 property. 

Planning roll-up property setup

Before you set up roll-up property, you should plan out in advance what the roll-up property’s structure should look like. 

The roll-up property’s structure will depend upon the number and type of digital properties that you own and your measurement requirements.

Example:

Let us suppose, you have set up separate websites for each country (i.e. abc.com, abc.co.uk, and abc.com.au).

Now you want to see aggregated global performance metrics in one GA4 reporting view.

In that case, the structure of your roll-up property would be something like the one below:

How to set up Standard roll-up reporting in GA4

If you do not use GA360 then you would need to set up roll-up reporting yourself or hire a Google Analytics developer to set up the reporting for you.

You would need to use multiple GA4 Configuration tags in order to set up standard roll-up reporting.

Let us suppose you own three websites:

https://smartdemo.elementor.cloud/

https://www.eventeducation.com/

https://www.optimizesmart.com

Now you want to aggregate your website’s data into one GA4 reporting view.

Follow the steps below:

#1 Create a new GA4 property that will collect data from all of your websites. We call such property roll-up property.

#2 Create three web data streams, one for each website:

#3 Navigate to the GTM account of the https://smartdemo.elementor.cloud/ and fire a second GA4 Configuration tag on all the pages of the website. 

Note: Here I am assuming that you have already set up GA4 property for https://smartdemo.elementor.cloud/. That’s why you would fire a second GA4 configuration tag.

You can get the measurement ID for the 2nd GA4 configuration tag by clicking on the corresponding web data stream:

#4 Navigate to the GTM account of https://www.eventeducation.com/ and fire a second GA4 Configuration tag on all the pages of the website.

#5 Navigate to the GTM account of https://www.optimizesmart.com and fire a second GA4 Configuration tag on all the pages of the website.

Congratulations!

You have now set up standard rollup reporting in GA4.

Now your GA4 roll-up property would collect data from three different websites into one reporting view.

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Roll-up account in Google Analytics

Sometimes, because of unique measurement requirements, a company may need to create an entirely new Google Analytics account just to handle roll-up data.

This account is called a roll-up account and it can contain multiple roll-up properties.

Drawbacks of standard roll-up reporting in GA4

The following are drawbacks of standard roll-up reporting in GA4:

#1 De-duplication of unique users is not possible in the case of standard roll-up reporting. 

This means you can’t see the total unique visitor reach of all of your websites and/or apps in a roll-up view.

#2 You would need to re-tag all of your websites and/or mobile apps in order to set up a GA4 standard roll-up property.

#3 You cannot automatically share the data imported to a source property with the roll-up property just by using multiple GA4 configuration tags. 

In other words, a GA4 standard roll-up property does not automatically include:

a) The data you manually imported into a GA4 source property (like cost data, user data, item data, offline events).

b) The data your GA4 source property inherited by linking to corresponding Google Ads, Merchant Center, Ad Manager, Google search console etc.

If you want the imported data of various source properties in your standard roll-up property then you need to link your roll-up property to all the linked accounts of your source properties. 

So, 

If one of your source properties is linked to a Google Ads account then you would also need to link that Google Ads account to your roll-up property. 

Similarly, 

You would need to import all of the data you manually imported to various source properties, to your roll-up property. 

I know. Lots of work!

#4 You can not evaluate the performance of multiple source properties side by side.

If you want to overcome all of these limitations then you would need to use the premium roll-up reporting.

What is a premium roll-up property in GA4?

A premium roll-up property is the GA4 360 property which gets its data from other GA4 360 properties (also called the source properties).

In other words, a roll-up property inherits its data from the source properties.

The inheritance takes place by inheriting the data streams of the source properties.

Note(1): Premium roll-up properties are available only to GA360 customers.

Note(2): Only GA360 enabled properties can be used as source properties.

Note(3): A roll-up property can have a maximum of 50 source properties.

What type of data a premium GA4 roll-up property can inherit?

A premium GA4 roll-up property can inherit the following types of data from its source properties:

#1 All of the event data from the source properties.

#2 All data from source properties’ product integrations.

Let us suppose a source property is connected to your Google Search Console and Google Ads accounts.

Now the roll-up property can inherit all of this data from the source property without being directly linked to either your Google Search Console or Google Ads accounts.

A Roll-up property does not inherit users from source properties.

So, when you add a user to a source property, he will NOT automatically get access to the linked roll-up property.

You will need to give him access separately for the roll-up property.

Similarly,

When you add a user to a roll-up property, he will not automatically get access to all the linked source properties.

You will need to give him access separately for each source property.

In other words,

Users on a roll-up property do not inherit any permissions from the source properties.

Note: Currently a roll-up property can not inherit custom dimensions and custom metrics from its source properties. You would need to recreate them in your roll-up property.

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When to create a premium GA4 roll-up property?

Create a premium GA4 roll-up property when:

#1 You want to automatically combine data from all source properties as a single data set. 

A roll-up property displays data from all source properties as a single data set. 

For example:

• The Engagement overview report shows the average engagement time for all active users from all source properties.
• The Monetization overview report shows total revenue from all source properties.
• The Realtime report displays the total number of users in the last 30 minutes from all source properties.

#2 You want to automatically share the data imported to source properties with the roll-up property.

#3 You want to de-duplicate users from source properties when the users appear with the same reporting identity (like User ID) across multiple properties.

#4 You want to compare the data from individual source properties to each other and to the aggregate.

How to create a premium GA4 roll-up property?

Follow the steps below to create a roll-up property in GA4:

#1 Navigate to the admin section of your GA360 property.

#2 Click on the ‘+ Create Property‘ button:

#3 Hover your mouse over ‘Roll-up Property’ and then click on the ‘Create’ button:

#4 Give a name to your roll-up property.

#5 Select your timezone and currency.

#6 Select the checkbox ‘I’m aware of the additional cost in creating this property’.

#7 Click on the Next button.

#8 Click on ‘Choose Properties’ in the ‘Source Properties’ row.

#9 Select the GA4 360 properties you want to use as the source properties and then click on the ‘Confirm’ button.

#10 Click on the Next button.

#11 Select your industry category for the roll-up property and the size of your business:

#12 Define how do you intend to use Google Analytics with your business? and then click on the ‘Create‘ button.

Congratulations!

You have now created your premium GA4 roll-up property.

Note(1): You can add/remove source properties by clicking on the ‘Source Configuarion’ link under the ‘Property’ column in the admin area of your roll-up property.

Note(2): A Premium roll-up property appear in the list of GA properties you have access to with a ‘Rollup’ label. However, the source properties appear as an indented list under the roll-up property.

Note(3): You can delete a roll-up property by clicking on the ‘Property Settings’ link under the ‘Property’ column in the admin area of your roll-up property and then clicking on ‘Move to trash can’.

How to work with a premium GA4 roll-up property?

You work with a premium GA4 roll-up property the same way you would work with any GA4 property. 

For example: 

• You can add or remove users from your roll-up property
• You can mark events as conversions in your roll-up property.
• You can create custom dimensions.
• You can create custom metrics.
• You can create audiences.
• You can link to Google Ads.
• You can delete data etc.

Note: When you mark an event as a conversion in the roll-up property, it does not automatically mark the same event as a conversion in the source properties.

Roll-up property events Vs. Source property events

The events processed by a roll-up property are called roll-up property events. 

The events processed by a source property are called source property events.

Limitations of premium GA4 roll-up property

#1 Premium GA4 roll-up properties are available only to GA360 customers.

#2 Only a GA360 property can be used as a source property for a premium roll-up property. 

Consequently, you can use the premium GA4 roll-up property feature only when you have access to a GA4 360 account.

#3 You can not use a premium roll-up property as a source for another premium roll-up property.

#4 You can not use both a subproperty and one of its source properties as sources for your premium roll-up property. 

Either the subproperty or its source property can be a source for the roll-up property, but not both.

#5 You can not create a sub-property from a premium roll-up property.

#6 Currently, a premium roll-up property can not inherit custom dimensions and custom metrics from its source property. 

You would need to re-create the custom dimensions and custom metrics in your premium roll-up property.

#7 A premium roll-up property cannot have events of its own. 

It can only inherit event data from its source properties. 

As a result: 

1. You can not create or modify events in a premium roll-up property.
2. You can not add or delete data streams in a premium roll-up property.
3. You can not import offline events to a premium roll-up property.

#8 You can not backfill historical data to a premium roll-up property.

A premium roll-up property starts inheriting data from its source properties only from the date it was first created. 

You can not backfill historical data to a premium roll-up property. 

So if you are planning to set up a roll-up property then do it asap.

#9 Currently, a premium roll-up property can only be directly linked to Google Ads account. 

A roll-up property can not be connected to other accounts like the Google search console.

#10 User-defined report collections from source properties are not imported to premium roll-up properties.

As the name suggests, a report collection is a set of reports in GA4. 

This collection can be a predefined or user-defined collection.

Following are examples of pre-defined report collections:

1. Life cycle 
2. User

#11 A premium roll-up property does not automatically process the Google Signals data from its source properties 

You would first need to activate Google Signals in the roll-up property before the Google Signals data can be processed.

#12 There is an additional cost associated with creating and using premium roll-up properties. 

Premium Roll-up properties are not free to use. 

As per the terms of your 360 contract, the cost of processing the premium roll-up property events is one half of the cost of processing the events in each source property.

As long as data is flowing to premium roll-up property from one or more source properties, you will continue to incur charges. 

Note: There are two things you can do if you don’t want to be billed for a premium roll-up property: 

a) Delete the roll-up property by moving it to the trash can. 

b) Keep the roll-up property intact but disconnect it from all the source properties.

#13 You can not easily move a premium roll-up property from one GA account to another

This is because a premium roll-up property relies on its source properties for its data.

If you want to move a premium roll-up property from one GA account to another, you would first need to disconnect all of its source properties.

#14 You can not downgrade a premium roll-up property from 360 to standard

This is because a premium roll-up property can exist only as a GA360 entity.

#15 When you disconnect a source property from a roll-up property, the historical data from the source property remains available in the roll-up property.

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Dependencies of a premium roll-up property on its source property

Following are the various ways a premium roll-up property is dependent on its source property:

#1 A premium roll-up property cannot have events of its own. 

It can only inherit event data from its source property. 

So if the source property does not have the required event data, its premium roll-up property won’t have that data either.

#2 Any data you delete from a source property is automatically deleted from its premium roll-up property. 

However, any data that you delete from a premium roll-up property is only deleted from that roll-up property.

#3 When you delete a source property, its connection to the premium roll-up property is automatically deleted.

But the historical data from the source property remains in the premium roll-up property. 

Note: When you restore a roll-up property, new data automatically starts flowing to it from the source properties that are still connected to the roll-up property.

Dependencies of a source property on its premium roll-up property

Following are the various ways a source property is dependent on its premium roll-up property:

#1 If you want to move a source property from one GA account to another, you would first need to disconnect it from the premium roll-up property.

#2 If you want to downgrade a source property, then you first have to disconnect it from the premium roll-up property.

Premium Roll-up property and Product Integration

Currently, a roll-up property can only be directly linked to a Google Ads account. It can not be linked to other accounts like the Google search console.

A roll-up property can export roll-up data to a product only when it is linked to that product. 

For example, let us suppose you create audiences in your roll-up property. 

You now want to export these audiences to your Google Ads account. 

In order to export audiences, you would first need to connect your roll-up property with your Google Ads account.

Premium Roll-up property and Google Ads Integration

Once you connect your premium roll-up property with your Google Ads account, then all applicable data from all source properties are available for export to the Google Ads account.

In addition to this, the following data (but not limited to) is also available for export to your Google Ads account:

#1 The audiences you created in your premium roll-up property.

#2 The events you marked as conversions in your premium roll-up property.

Here is what happens when Source properties are connected to your Google Ads account but with different configurations.

Let us suppose your premium roll-up property is not connected to your Google Ads account. 

But two of your source properties are linked to your Google Ads account but with different configurations.

For example, 

One source property is linked to your Google Ads account with autotagging enabled. 

But the second source property is linked to your Google Ads account with autotagging NOT enabled.

Now GA will use the most permissive configuration of the multiple links to your Google Ads account and enables the autotagging for both Google Ads links in the roll-up property.

GA will also import the Campaign and Cost data from both Google Ads integrations to your roll-up property.

Note(1): A premium roll-up property and its source properties can all have independent integrations with the same product (like a Google Ads account).

Note(2): Google recommends that you link products (like Google Ads and Google Search Console) to the source property and not to its roll-up property to ensure data integrity.

Comparing Individual Source Properties in a Premium Roll-up Property

A premium roll-up property lets you compare the data from individual source properties to each other and to the aggregate.

You can accomplish this task by focusing on the following two source-property dimensions:

#1 Source Property ID – This dimension returns the ID assigned to the source property when it was created.

#2 Source Property Name – This dimension returns the name you gave to the source property when you created it.

For example, 

Through source property dimensions you can compare revenue for a single business unit to revenue for all business units.

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