Google Analytics

With Google Analytics, you can optimize your sales funnels and improve performance across your sites, apps, and offline marketing. Google's analytics solutions can help you turn customer insights into action for your business. This guide provides an overview of the integration, instructions for setting up the integration, and support resources. 

Before you start

• Google is deprecating Google Analytics 3, also known as Universal Analytics, on July 1st, 2023. All merchants using Google Analytics 3 must migrate to Google Analytics 4.  
• Google Analytics is supported by Recharge for Shopify merchants. The app is considered in Early Adoption for BigCommerce and provided as-is.
• Google Analytics tracks data on initial checkout orders and checkout pages, but it does not track data on recurring orders. For more robust Google Analytics reporting, we recommend using Littledata - Google Analytics for Recharge. Littledata has an automated Google Analytics audit and set-up for sites using Recharge, including phone support and reporting.
• Enabling GTM automatically disables Google Analytics Tracking, refer to enabling Google Tag Manager with Recharge.

Set up Google Analytics 4

Step 1 - Setup your Google Analytics account

1. Create your Google Analytics account. All new users who set up Google Analytics for the first time will default to Google Analytics 4 IDs.

Step 2 - Connect Google Analytics to Recharge

1. From the Recharge merchant portal, click Apps and select Marketplace.
2. Locate Google Analytics and click Get.
3. Select Universal or Google Analytics 4 as the Google Analytics type.
4. Enter your Google Analytics Measurement ID in the Google Analytics ID field.
5. Your Measurement ID starts with a G- prefix. For steps on finding your Measurement ID, see Find your Google tag ID.
   
6. Click Activate.

Step 3 - Connect Google Analytics to store platform

You must connect Google Analytics to your store platform:

• Review Shopify's Setting up Google Analytics 4 guide for steps on connecting Google Analytics to Shopify.
• Review BigCommerce's Setting up Google Analytics 4 guide for steps on connecting Google Analytics to BigCommerce.

Migrate to Google Analytics 4

Google is deprecating Google Analytics 3, also known as Universal Analytics, on July 1st, 2023. All merchants using Google Analytics 3 must migrate to Google Analytics 4 to avoid interruptions in data. Use the following steps to migrate to Google Analytics 4:

Step 1 - Switch to Google Analytics 4

Use Google's Make the switch to Google Analytics 4 guide to switch to Google Analytics 4.

Step 2 - Migrate to Google Analytics 4 on your store platform

You must connect Google Analytics to your store platform:

• Use Shopify's Migrating to Google Analytics 4 to migrate to Google Analytics 4 on Shopify. 
• Review BigCommerce's Setting up Google Analytics 4 guide for steps on connecting Google Analytics to BigCommerce.

Step 3 - Update Google Analytics settings in Recharge

If you have not connected Google Analytics for Recharge, see Step 2 - Connect Google Analytics to Recharge.

If you already have Google Analytics connected to Recharge, use the following steps to update your settings: 

1. From the Recharge merchant portal, click Apps and locate Google Analytics from the Installed page.
2. From the Google Analytics type drop-down, select Universal or Google Analytics 4.
3. Replace your Google Analytics ID field with your Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID. Your Measurement ID starts with a G- prefix. For steps on finding your Measurement ID, see Find your Google tag ID.
   

Set up a goal funnel in Google Analytics

You need to create goal funnels to start tracking data. After setup, you should run a test transaction to trigger the goal. Data typically shows up in the next 24 hours.

When the customer goes from /cart to /r/checkout, they switch from your ecommerce domain to the Recharge domain.

Marketing attribution

To see which marketing campaigns result in paid subscriptions, Google Analytics must track both the first page of the user journey, which has the campaign UTM parameters, and the last page with the payment information. This process is easily disrupted. If you experience any errors, see Troubleshooting.

It is possible to see channels and campaigns for most of your payments with Google Analytics. However, for full attribution including repeat subscriptions, you will need to use Littledata - Google Analytics for Recharge.

Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble seeing the user journey in Google Analytics, check the following:

• Has the Google Analytics property ID been added in Recharge's Apps section, and is it set to the correct Universal or Google Analytics 4 type?
• Can you see traffic to the checkout pages and not the ecommerce conversion tracking? Or is it not showing any traffic at all?
• Is the ecommerce information missing for all orders or only some of the orders?

Common Enhanced Ecommerce Issues

Below are a few common issues merchants experience with Enhanced Ecommerce. 

Support

• For assistance with setting up and using Google Analytics, see Google's Help Center. 
• See the Littledata - Google Analytics for further support or help with custom reporting.
• You may also want to review the Elevar integration, which has experience handling more complex ecommerce tracking.