With the help of a third-party solution/connector, it is possible to send data from Google Analytics to BigQuery without 360.

Follow the steps below to send Google Analytics data to BigQuery without using Google Analytics 360:

Step-1: While logged into your Google account, navigate to your Google Cloud Platform account at https://console.cloud.google.com/

Step-2: Select your country, read and accept the ‘Terms of Service‘ (by selecting the checkbox) and then click on the ‘AGREE AND CONTINUE‘ button:

Note: Here I am assuming that you are using the Google Cloud Platform for the first time.

You should now see a screen like the one below:

 
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Step-3: Type ‘bigquery’ in the search box:

Step-4: Click on the first search result:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-5: Click on the ‘CREATE PROJECT’ button:

Step-6: Name your project (say ‘Google Analytics’):

Step-7: Click on the ‘EDIT’ button to change the project ID:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-8: Change the project ID to something which is easier to recognize:

Note: Finding a meaningful project ID is not going to be easy as many IDs have already been taken. Once you change the ID, you cannot change it later.

Step-9: Click on the ‘Create’ button.

You should now see a screen like the one below:

You now have access to the BigQuery sandbox.

Step-10: Click on the ‘Upgrade’ button at the top right-hand side:

Step-11: Click on the ‘CREATE BILLING ACCOUNT’ button:

Step-12: Select your billing country from the ‘Country’ drop-down menu and then read and accept the terms of service by clicking on the checkbox:

Step-13: Click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Step-14: Set your account type, enter tax information,  name, address and credit card details and then click on the ‘START MY FREE TRIAL’ button:

Step-15: Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery and make sure that ‘Google Analytics’ project is selected.

Step-16: Click on your project ID (this ID could be different in your case):

Step-17: On the right-hand side of your screen, find and click on the button ‘Create Dataset’:

Step-18: Name your dataset (say GA_data_set) and then click on the ‘Create dataset’ button at the bottom:

We are going to use this new data set for storing data from Google Analytics.

You would now need to use a third-party solution for sending Google Analytics data to BigQuery. This is going to cost you based on your account usage.

Regardless of how much it costs you, it would most likely still be cheaper than paying $150k per year to Google for using the GA360 (which comes with the free connection to BigQuery).

You can either search for such third-party solutions online or use the one that I use which is ‘Supermetrics for BigQuery‘. They provide a free 14 days trial of their solution. No credit card required.

Step-19: Navigate to ‘Supermetrics for BigQuery‘ page.

Step-20: Click on the ‘Start a free trial’ button:

Step-21: Fill out the form and then click on the ‘Send’ button:

You should now be redirected to the page like the one below in your Google Cloud platform account:

Step-22: Click on the ‘Select a project’ drop-down menu:

Step-23: Click on ‘Google Analytics’ project:

Step-24: Type ‘supermetrics google analytics’ in the search box:

Step-25: Press the enter key and then click on ‘Google Analytics by Supermetrics’:

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

You should now see the ‘Data Source enrolled‘ status:

Note: If you are using the BigQuery Sandbox then you will not able to enroll as this Supermetrics connector requires active billing. So when you click on the ‘Enroll’ button, you should see a message box like the one below:

Step-27: Click on the ‘CONFIGURE TRANSFER’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below which is about creating a data transfer:

Step-28: Keep the data source (‘Google Analytics by Supermetrics’) intact and move on to the next step:

Step-29: Type a meaningful name for the ‘Transfer config name’ field:

Step-30: Keep the scheduling options (which specify when the transfer will run) to ‘Start now’ (unless you want to change it) and move on to the next step:

Step-31: Keep the ‘Repeats’ setting to ‘Daily’ to have new data added once a day and move on to the next step:

Note: The ‘Start date and run time’ setting is locked for editing when ‘Start now’ setting is selected.

Step-32: Select the data set you created earlier from the drop-down menu:

We are going to use this data set for storing Google Analytics data in BigQuery.

Step-33: Click on the ‘CONNECT SOURCE’ button:

Step-34: Click on the ‘Accept Agreement’ button:

Step-35: Click on ‘Sign in with Google’ button:

Step-36: Click on the name of the Google account which is associated with both your Google Analytics account and BigQuery project:

Step-37: Click on the button ‘Authorize with Google Analytics’:

Step-38: Click on the name of the Google account which is associated with your Google Analytics account:

Step-39: Click on the ‘Allow’ button:

Step-40: Click on the ‘Continue’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-41: Select the Google Analytics view (from which you to send data to BigQuery) from the ‘Accounts’ drop-down menu:

Step-42: Click on the ‘Submit’ button.

You should now see the ‘Source Connected‘ message below ‘Third party connection‘:

Step-43: Click on the ‘SAVE’ button to save the transfer and also start the initial data transfer:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Through the ‘Run History’ section, you can monitor the current progress of all of your data transfers.

When the data transfer is in progress you see the message ‘The transfer run is in progress’:

When the data transfer is complete you see the message ‘The transfer run has completed successfully’:

Step-44: Click on the ‘SQL WORKSPACE’ link from the left-hand side navigation:

Step-45: Navigate to the data set named ‘GA_data_set’ (which we created earlier).

This data set list all the data tables automatically created by supermetrics:

Step-46: Click on the data tables one by one to see what data it contains.

For example, GA_CONTENT_ data table contains the GA content data:

The GA_EVENTS_ data table contains the GA event data:

At this point, you can query a particular set of data by clicking on the ‘Query Table’ button:

That’s how you can send Google Analytics data to BigQuery without using Google Analytics 360.

Sending Google Analytics 4 data to BigQuery

Google Analytics 4 provides a free connection to BigQuery. So you don’t need to use a third-party solution for that.

This makes sending GA4 data to BigQuery a bit different.To send Google Analytics 4 data to Google BigQuery, check out this article: How to connect GA4 (Google Analytics 4) with BigQuery

Other articles on Google Analytics BigQuery

1. Advantages of using Google BigQuery for Google Analytics
2. Cost of using BigQuery for Google Analytics
3. Guide to BigQuery Cost optimization
4. What is Google BigQuery Sandbox and how to use it
5. Understanding the BigQuery User Interface
6. events_& events_intraday_ tables in BigQuery for GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
7. Using Google Cloud pricing calculator for BigQuery
8. How to access BigQuery Public Data Sets
9. How to use Google Analytics sample dataset for BigQuery
10. Connect and transfer data from Google Sheets to BigQuery
11. How to query Google Analytics data in BigQuery
12. How to send data from Google Ads to BigQuery
13. What is BigQuery Data Transfer Service & how it works.
14. How to send data from Facebook ads to BigQuery
15. How to send data from Google Search Console to BigQuery
16. How to pull custom data from Google Analytics to BigQuery
17. Best Supermetrics Alternative – Dataddo
18. Google Analytics BigQuery Tutorial
19. How to backfill Google Analytics data in BigQuery