Hub Metrics Tracking with GA4

Question

Trying to understand GA4 tracking for Hub. We want to go beyond the basic number of page views, device type, geography metrics that seem straightforward to get at in GA4, but the one we really need is the number of downloads by users and which format they're downloading. In the Hub, depending on the item type, there are a number of formats and it would be nice to know if users are downloading as a shapefile, GDB, or geoJSON.

I've been struggling with finding a way to display these metrics in Google Analytics. Don't mean to rant, but I don't find their interface to be intuitive and it's hard to weed through all the vague terms and conventions they use.

I know that downloads are under Events, but that's the extent of getting at which items specifically are being downloaded and which type. I was able to do this with UA, but the translation isn't clear with GA4.

Can anyone provide steps for how to do this?

HungGi · Answer

Hi @KansasDASC , I'm still running some tests on the file_download report (above) I just generated today to see what the counts are.

It probably depends on the metrics used as well so you'll have to check on your end.

KansasDASC · Answer

Hi @HungGi, when Enhanced measurement is enabled does it inflate the counts? Not long after GA4 was added to Hub for tracking, Esri commented that that option 'double-counts' the metrics or are you saying that the file_download filter prevent that?

HungGi · Answer

You need to enable the "Enhanced measurement" and add  "File downloads". Once that's done, you can create a new Exploration report to see the numbers you get from the event file_downloads. Import Event Name, File Extension, and File Name into your report as the Dimensions and any metric, in my case i'm using Total Users
You'll need to filter on the Event to match file_download, otherwise you'll see other events listed.

Only thing with this I found is that it only gives you a reporting on the Documents you have available in Hub. I'm can't seem to find out which data format (shapefile, kml) users actually download from our OpenData site.

Hope this helps you or anyone else get started with G4A.