GA4 Users Explained: New, Active, Total, Returning (And how to make a New vs. Returning Report)
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- Опубліковано 29 лис 2022
- All about Google Analytics 4 users. How are New Users calculated? How about Total Users? How about Active Users, which is a new metric compared to Universal Analytics? All that and more explained in this video, including a way to make a New vs. Returning users report.
Have questions or comments? Leave them in the comments. I'm always up for learning more...and for new video ideas.
There's typically a new video every week or two about GA4 or Google Tag Manager or Looker Studio or sometimes Google Ads or SEO. If you want to follow along with what I'm learning (trying to learn) you can subscribe at the link below:
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this was helpful and really easy to understand, thank you!
Glad to hear it. Thanks Camila! 🙂
Awesome! was very helpful. Thank you
Glad to hear it! Thanks for the feedback.
Very helpful! Thanks!
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the kind words!
Super helpful video. Thanks
So glad you found it useful. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback!
Best wishes on your GA4 journey. 🚌😎
Thanks for the video! Do you know how to rearrange the metrics after they have been created? I have the engagement rate on the first column and sessions on the last column and now I´d like the change the sessions on the first column, but I really can´t figure out how to do that!
Hi Jonna. Yes, you can do that!
You just need to customize your report (pencil icon) and then rearrange the "metrics" into the order you'd like to see.
Here's a video below that shows me customizing a report starting around the 4:20 mark. In this video, I'm customizing the "dimensions", but you'd just need to click into the "Metrics" button which is right next to it.
Let me know if this does it for you. Good luck and Godspeed! 🙂
ua-cam.com/video/NnfQF5sRZro/v-deo.html
Awesome explanation! I've tried to create a "returning users" audience. Still, the metric returning user or the dimension established is not available in this section (at least for me), can you please advise on how to create the such audience. Also tried to segment by users with seesion_start >1 but it shows a +400 users difference with the retention report. Thanks!
Hi Laura,
To clarify, you want to have this Audience for the purposes of engaging with them (i.e. remarketing) rather than just reporting?
I haven't done this myself, so I don't think I'm too useful for you. However, I think my first step would have been to try to use the 'New / established' dimension and see if I could isolate only the established users. It sounds like you may have tried that already.
I like your idea about using the session_start event and finding users who had more than 1 of those. Even if the data doesn't line up with the Retention report, I'd personally still feel comfortable using that. Unfortunately, lots of things don't line up precisely in GA4 and it's not super surprising to me that it doesn't line up with the Retention report.
Sorry I couldn't offer more help. If you find a way that works well for you, please feel free to share. I'd love to learn.
Good luck and Godspeed!
Zack
I know why there is a variance! If a user visits your site on Monday and Tuesday they are both a new user and a returning user!
Amazing Video, Best explanation. Instant Subscribe.
Just a quick question. New Users in UA and New Users in GA4 shouldn't that number be somewhat close if not same ? What could be the possible reason if I am seeing more New Users in GA4 than in UA ?
Once again Awesome Content
I would imagine they would be somewhat close. By "somewhat close", I typically see counts within 5% or so when comparing GA4 and UA. How far apart are yours?
With the data model being so different between GA4 and UA, there are always some differences.
Thanks for watching and for the kind words. Glad you found it useful!
Does g4 not show the User by Time Of Day?
Hi Bill,
GA4 added time of day as a dimension in fall of 2022 (for more reading if you're interested: searchengineland.com/hour-and-date-dimensions-now-available-in-ga4-389339).
With that said, it's not available in all the same places as it was in UA. So not quite as easy to access and use as it was before.
Best wishes.
Zack
Hi, thank you for the explanation. I have a question and hope you can answer this :), I am trying to create an explore report, and the number of sessions is bigger than the total of users. I have no idea, is any wrong with that? or did I have the wrong setting? Thank you in advance
Hello Ayu, it’s quite normal to have a larger number of sessions than the number of users.
For example, if I visited your website 3 times, I would be one user (just me!) but it would also be 3 sessions.
Now, if you had more users than sessions that would be most unexpected!
Excellent videos! How does GA4 events behave when dealing with Woocommerce cache for example? If cache is constantly being purged, will this reset GA4 events?
Hi Samir, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the specifics of this particular instance.
Do you know how this functioned for you in the days of Universal Analytics? There's nothing material I know of in the GA4 data model that would cause it to behave differently than UA in this situation.
Not sure if this is useful, but if don't yet have your GA4 tracking set up for Woocommerce, we've heard good feedback so far from people on this tutorial: ua-cam.com/video/DleRUd6tECQ/v-deo.html
Best wishes!
@@rooted-digital yes I've already setup GA4 using the same plugin and JSON a few months ago. I was just wondering how cleaning cache from a website affected Google Analytics data, never thought about it in Universal, but raising the question now. Thanks anyway, love your content.
so helpful! what about when there are Event Counts but not Total Users? feel like that also doesn't make sense.
Jason,
I definitely agree with you. That would not make sense! Unfortunately, there are more than a few things in GA4 that don't seem to make sense.
With that said, if you want to share a little more (where are you seeing this, what events are counted in the event counts, etc), I can see if anything might come to mind.
Thanks for your sharing. I have a quick question about User.
What does it mean if New Users is significantly higher than Active Users? For example, I see 36,000 new users, but only 19,000 active users for the time period.
Hi Ryan,
This is confusing to me. I wouldn't think it's "possible" (although it's obviously happening in your situation) for New Users to be higher than Active Users.
Here's why:
GA4 says the New Users calculation is the sum of the new unique user IDs that logged the first_visit event on a website
GA4 says website user is defined as "active" if they have an “engaged session” OR when GA4 collects the first_visit event or the engagement_time_msec event parameter.
In other words, the Active Users calculation includes the New Users calc. So Active Users, by definition, should seem to "need" to be no lower than New Users.
www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-users-defined/
One thought: are you confident that the GA4 installation is configured properly? Double checking that might be a way to eliminate a potential variable. Link below, just in case:
www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-setup/
I'm sorry I can't provide anything more definitive here. I wish you all the best.
Zack
Even I have a similar doubt
Can we find a relation between users, new users and returning users??
Can we say Users = New users + returning users
If yes In that case the sum of new users and returning users are more than users
So are all returning users a part of users?? Please confirm. Thanks
Hey! Thank you for the explanation. I was wondering why I see "not set" as a third category (established, New & not set) when I click on yes to nested rows? What could I do to fix this?
Hi Abhilasha, here's what Google says about (not set):
"(not set) is a placeholder name that Google Analytics uses when it hasn't received information for a dimension." Here's Google's support article: support.google.com/analytics/answer/2820717?hl=en#zippy=%2Cin-this-article
The short story is (unfortunately), almost all GA4 properties will have (not set) showing up somewhere. How big of a deal this is comes down partially to how much of your data is showing as (not set). If it's a small percentage, I personally wouldn't worry about it. I have some of the same in my own data.
If it's a larger percentage, it may point to an underlying issue in your property setup. Here's another blog from someone else who has clearly done a lot more research than me on the subject: www.optimizesmart.com/how-to-remove-not-set-in-google-analytics/
Best of luck to you.
Zack
@@rooted-digital @Root & Branch Digital Marketing Thank you for the resources, Zack! You are a life saviour of marketers! 🦸
@@abhilashamishra3505 Very kind of you. The truth is that anything you might find here or at rootandbranchgroup.com that seems helpful, is probably only useful because I banged my head against the wall in frustration for days / weeks / months before it started (slowly) to click. Glad that pain has some positive dividends for others. 😆
@@rooted-digital So you really understand the pain point of marketers! Great job again 👏
Great video. If I understand this correctly than can you say that the New User is now a unique user? I'm always getting asked what the uniques are on our different sites.
Hi Jeff, if I understand your question correctly, all of these user metrics are "unique". Here's what I mean:
Total users: the total number of unique visitors on the site during the time frame
New users: the total number of unique visitors who visited the site for the first time
Returning users: the total number of unique visitors who visited the site and had been on the site before
Does that make sense?
In Modeling definition for Returning user: when you say GA will fill in the gap by copying the same users with "same property" that accepted the cookies for those who dont. what does that mean?
Hi Jerica, by the “same property” I mean the same GA4 property (same domain).
So Google has cookie data for some folks on your site who accept cookies, but there are also some visitors who don’t allow cookies. The behavior of the non-cookie visitors will be modeled off the behavior of the cookie visitors.
How does Google do this precisely? I don’t know. But this is my understanding of what they are saying about this.
Does that make some sense? Thanks for the good question.
I remember when I could do this in 3 Clicks on Google Universal. Why do I need to become a data analyst in GA4 just to get a few numbers.
Yea, I don't disagree with you. Not that things were always simple with UA, but it was much more straightforward in many ways.
Hang in there and good luck.
Ps. If you get extra annoyed with GA4, there is a free tool called Piwik PRO that is good and is much more similar to UA. You can just Google it, or if you're curious, I had made this comparison video of some basic reporting functions between Piwik, UA, and GA4: ua-cam.com/video/9joQHXH_XXI/v-deo.html
Seems odd to me that GA4 counts a new web visitor who stays under 10 seconds and leaves w/out taking any action an Active User.
Yes, I agree with you. Kind of a confusing name isn't it?
Not sure if it will help you, but I made a 1 page cheat sheet with all the different User groups in GA4 (definition, where to find them in GA4, any other notes) to help me keep it straight.
Here's the link if you're interested: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GA4-Users-Grid-Root-and-Branch.pdf
@@rooted-digital Thanks for sharing, that is helpful!
@@arnejohnson8623 glad to hear it, Arne. Have a great one out there today!
Is there any update for looker studio when we use GA4 as a data source. Kindly can you make a video for this.
Hello there, Sangamithra! I have a few videos about building Looker Studio reports with GA4 data. Here are a couple:
ua-cam.com/video/mKFnkv1jYcU/v-deo.html - Looker Studio reporting on conversions and conversion effectiveness with GA4 data
ua-cam.com/video/_zKU3sW-Jng/v-deo.html - Doing scroll depth reporting with Looker (involves a custom event for tracking scroll depth beyond the 90% that is given by default with the GA4 enhanced measurement event)
Hope this helps! Good luck you.
Zack
Thank you for the video! I can't understand why the total number of users (3100) is so much higher than the number of new users (605) and returning users (396). How is that possible? I tried using the report Landing page. Can you also tell me what is actually the difference between this metric new/returning in Segment and only new and returning, because it gives also different numbers? And keep going with the great content!
Hmmm...That does seem like a huge difference. I couldn't say without digging in and knowing more.
This blog (www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-users-defined/) might be worth a shot. There is a clickable table of contents at the top so you can go straight to the definition of the user group you're looking for.
It also *might* help to know that the numbers don't always make 100% sense to me either. I tend to use them as directional guides, especially for things like understanding whether more or less repeat visitors are coming to the site over time. Best wishes to you.
A user can be both a new user and a multiple time returning user.
One metric I currently check weekly is new/returning users to a specific page on a specific date. I can't figure out how to get that data in GA4. I thought this report might help but I'm not getting the result. Suggestions?
Hi Christy, I think the best way to do this might be with creating segments for new vs. returning users and then use the dimensions of the specific page you want to see and the specific date you want to check.
I published a new video this week going deeper into new vs returning users. Here's how to set that up if you're interested: ua-cam.com/video/VTyNqhr68NI/v-deo.html
Good luck!
Hi, is new users + returning users = total users in GA4?
Hi Tarun, yes, that should be the case. Although, like many things, GA4 doesn't always make things simple. For example, Returning users was not an available audience until earlier this summer and you needed to build it yourself as a custom segment.
Here are the definitions of those 3 audience groups.
TOTAL USERS: The Total Users metric is defined as the total number of unique users who logged any kind of event during the time period in question. For example, the automatically collected session_start event would count.
Total Users should be the sum of New + Returning:
NEW USERS: It is a sum of the new unique user IDs that logged the first_visit event (on a website) or
first_open event (on an app) in GA4.
RETURNING USERS: Returning users can be identified by their device by the _ga cookie that was sent to their browser on their first visit
This blog has more information - and a 1 page PDF cheat sheet download - if you are looking for more: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-users-defined/
Best wishes!
I want to know:How can i see the difference of the new user in every step in funnel exploration?Can you hep me?
Hi Jerry, here's what I would do.
Open a new Funnel Exploration report. Add the "New / established" dimension to your Variables.
If device category is shown in your "Tab Settings" (under Breakdown), remove it. Double click on "New / established" so you can now see your funnel report at each step for new vs returning (established) users.
Revise the steps of your funnel report if need be.
Hope this helps.
Zack
Active users+ new users = total users..
is it right ( for traffic count ) Right???
Based on how these are defined, your active users will be "Any user who has an engaged session OR when GA4 collects the first_visit event or a specific event parameter relating to time",
In other words, your active user total will include your new user count. This is the written version of the same content which spells out the definitions a bit more clearly: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-users-defined/
I have double the number of new users vs users in the Acquisition panel. Can anyone help with an explanation as Google support was not that helpful?
Hi Diana,
This is certainly odd. The new users number should be lower than the users number.
New Users are the number of people who interacted with your website or launched your app for the first time. It is a sum of the new unique user IDs that logged the first_visit or first_open event in GA4. That shouldn't be able to happen without that same user also being counted in the Users field you're seeing.
By the way, this is from this blog if you're interested in reading more: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-users-defined/
I wonder if there might be something to double check in setup. I'm not quite sure what could have caused this, but I'm curious if you installed GA4 on your own or if Google set it up for you by auto migrating from a UA property (there have been some issues with Google's auto migration that I've heard of).
Wishing you all the very best. Here's a GA4 setup guide, just in case it's helpful: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-setup/
Unfortunately this metric of 'Established' is different from the 'Returning User' shown in the retention report. (In my case, returning was 13k while established was 9k.)
I cannot for the life of me figure out why they show 'Returning User' as a topline metric in the retention report, but give us no way to access this stat anywhere else. Sadly not even the 'new / established' metric is an option in Looker.
Hi Billy. You're right, this is bizarre. Thanks for pointing it out.
I published a new video this week after I played around with creating segments for new vs. returning users. Not sure if you'll find it exactly answers your situation but it may help: ua-cam.com/video/VTyNqhr68NI/v-deo.html
Good luck.
why is returning users + new users never equal to total users? also, if I want to use the new/established dimension it refers to the last 7 days, right? not any time range that I want?
The Total Users metric is de-duplicated. In other words, you can have a single user who is both a new user and a returning user in a single month. That will count as (1) new user and (1) returning user and also (1) total user.
If visitors only came a single time during your time period of analysis, you would expect new + returning to indeed = total users.
Hope that helps. It was confusing for me as well.
Why can't we create an exploration report with events and the metrics of new users and returning themselves? Why do new users show zero in that case?
You should be able to create an exploration showing new users and returning users?
For example, I just created an exploration with two segments (new users and returning users) for an event that tracks internal link clicks. My dimensions are event name and link URL and my metric is event count. I've also applied a filter on event name to only show the internal link click event name.
What are you trying to report on that is showing all zeroes?
How to check UNIQUE visitors per month?
Hi Milica, the implication in the users metrics is that they are all unique identifiers. Session count will show you the total number of visits, while user count will show you the number of visitors.
In user words:
Returning users = unique visitors who have been on your site before
New users = unique visitors who have never been on your site
Active users = unique visitors active who were on your site
Does that answer your question?
@@rooted-digital I actually need to see those three metrics: unique visits per month total visits per month and total page views per month, but if now total visitors are unique visitors how do I check just total visitors-all people that visited my site within a month
@@milica5528 I don’t think I’m understanding the difference in your question between total visitors and unique visitors. When you’re talking about users, the implication is that they are unique.
If I were in your spot and wanted those 3 metrics, here’s what I’d look for:
Total visitors (unique): look for the total users metric referenced in this video
Total visits: look for sessions in the traffic acquisition report (not in this video)
Total page views: look for the Views metric in the pages and screens report
Hope this helps!
@@rooted-digital ok, thanks
I thought unique visits-number of individual people who visited, not repeated visits e.g. person A visited site 1x Person B visited site 2x, it will count 2x in total as unique people, and total visits-even repeated visits e.g. Person A visits 1x Person B visits 3x total visits 4x
That's what I meant if it makes sense :)
this crap changes so much that none of it it's even there any more: no "life cycle", no "user acquisition", nothing.
Are you saying you don't see that language any longer in your "Reports" from the left-hand navigation in GA4? Some things have definitely changed, but I still see those things in the properties I manage...and Google's demo property too.
Reports > Life cycle > Acquisition > User acquisition
Here's how you can customize your reporting navigation if something got changed: support.google.com/analytics/answer/10460557?hl=en
(And also, I agree with you. Way too many changes to this platform. Makes it harder than it is already)