AMP is Now Supported in Google Analytics 4
buayaberdiri.blogspot.com - If you are using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) on your website, you might be wondering how to measure their performance and user behavior. AMP is a web framework that enables fast loading and engaging mobile web experiences.
AMP pages are typically served from a cache, which means they have a different URL structure than your regular pages. This can pose some challenges for analytics tracking, especially if you want to unify your AMP and non-AMP data.
Fortunately, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has recently announced support for AMP pages, making it easier to track and analyze your AMP traffic. GA4 is the latest version of Google Analytics, which offers a more flexible and integrated way of measuring your website and app data.
GA4 uses a new measurement model that is based on events and parameters, rather than sessions and hits. This allows you to capture more granular and customized data about your users and their interactions.
In this post, we will explain how to set up GA4 for your AMP pages, and how to use the new features and reports that GA4 offers for AMP analytics. We will also share some best practices and tips for optimizing your AMP pages and improving your user experience.
How to implement the integration AMP in Google Analytics 4
If you are using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure your website performance, you might be wondering how to implement the integration with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). AMP is a web framework that allows you to create fast-loading and user-friendly mobile web pages.
AMP pages can be served from Google's cache or from your own domain, and they can have different URLs than your canonical pages. This can pose some challenges for tracking and reporting in GA4, but fortunately, there is a solution.
How to implement the integration AMP in GA4 using the official AMP Client ID API. This API enables you to link the user activity on your AMP pages with the user activity on your non-AMP pages, regardless of the domain or URL.
This way, you can get a unified view of your users across all your web pages, and avoid issues such as duplicate sessions, inflated bounce rates, and inaccurate attribution.
The integration AMP in GA4 consists of three main steps:
1. Enable the AMP Client ID API in your GA4 property settings.
2. Add the amp-analytics component to your AMP pages and configure it with your GA4 measurement ID and the AMP Client ID API parameters.
3. Add the gtag.js script to your non-AMP pages and configure it with your GA4 measurement ID and the AMP Client ID API parameters.
Let's go through each step in detail.
how to integrate AMP in GA4 using two methods: the AMP linker and the gtag.js library. We will also explain the benefits and limitations of each method, and how to verify that your integration is working correctly.
Method 1: The AMP linker
The AMP linker is a feature of the AMP runtime that allows you to link user sessions across AMP and non-AMP pages on your site. This way, you can track user behavior and conversions more accurately, and avoid duplicate reporting of users and sessions.
To use the AMP linker, you need to enable it in your GA4 configuration on both your AMP and non-AMP pages. You also need to specify a list of domains that you want to link, such as your own domain and any third-party domains that host your AMP pages (e.g., Google Search or Google News).
Here is an example of how to enable the AMP linker in your GA4 configuration on your AMP pages:
<amp-analytics type="gtag" data-credentials="include">
<script type="application/json">
{
"vars" : {
"gtag_id": "G-XXXXXXXXXX",
"config" : {
"G-XXXXXXXXXX": {
"groups": "default",
"linker": {
"domains": ["example.com", "cdn.ampproject.org"]
}
}
}
}
}
</script>
</amp-analytics>
And here is an example of how to enable the AMP linker in your GA4 configuration on your non-AMP pages:
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX', {
'linker': {
'domains': ['example.com', 'cdn.ampproject.org']
}
});
</script>
Note that you need to replace G-XXXXXXXXXX with your own GA4 measurement ID, and example.com with your own domain name. You can find your GA4 measurement ID in the Admin section of your GA4 property, under Data Streams.
The AMP linker works by appending a query parameter called _gl to the URLs of the pages that you want to link. This parameter contains a client ID and a timestamp that identify the user and the session. When a user navigates from an AMP page to a non-AMP page, or vice versa, the AMP runtime or the gtag.js library will read the _gl parameter and use it to associate the user and the session across the pages.
One limitation of the AMP linker is that it only works for navigation events, such as clicks on links or buttons. It does not work for other types of events, such as scrolling, form submissions, or custom events. To track these events, you need to use the second method: the gtag.js library.
Method 2: The gtag.js library
The gtag.js library is a JavaScript library that allows you to send data to GA4 and other Google services. You can use it to track events and conversions on both your AMP and non-AMP pages, and to customize your tracking configuration.
To use the gtag.js library, you need to add it to your AMP pages using the amp-script component. The amp-script component allows you to run custom JavaScript code on your AMP pages, with some restrictions and limitations. You also need to add the gtag.js library to your non-AMP pages using a standard script tag.
Gtag.js is a JavaScript tagging framework that simplifies the configuration and deployment of tags on your website. It allows you to use a single snippet of code to install multiple tags from different Google products, such as GA4, Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, etc. Gtag.js also enables you to use common features and settings across different products, such as event tracking, conversion measurement, remarketing, etc.
Gtag.js supports both regular web pages and AMP pages. For regular web pages, you can use the gtag.js snippet to install the tags directly on your website. For AMP pages, you can use the gtag.js snippet to install a special tag called the AMP Google Analytics tag (`amp-analytics`), which is a custom element that communicates with the AMP JavaScript library and sends data to GA4.
Using gtag.js for AMP has several advantages over other methods of integrating AMP with GA4, such as:
- It simplifies the installation and configuration process by using a single snippet of code for both regular and AMP pages.
- It allows you to use the same measurement ID (also known as stream ID) for both regular and AMP pages, which means you can see all your data in one place in GA4.
- It supports most of the features and settings that are available for regular web pages, such as event tracking, conversion measurement, remarketing, etc.
- It automatically handles some of the challenges and complexities of measuring AMP pages, such as cookieless tracking, cross-domain linking, consent management, etc.
However, using gtag.js for AMP also has some limitations and caveats that you should be aware of, such as:
- It requires you to use the latest version of the AMP JavaScript library (v0.1 or higher), which may not be compatible with some older or custom AMP components or features.
- It does not support some of the advanced features and settings that are available for regular web pages, such as custom dimensions and metrics, user properties, enhanced measurement, etc.
- It may not work well with some third-party analytics tools or platforms that are not compatible with gtag.js or AMP.
- It may require you to make some changes or adjustments to your existing analytics setup or code, such as updating your triggers, variables, filters, etc.
If you can see your data in the Realtime report, congratulations! You have successfully integration AMP in GA4 using the gtag.js library. You can now use GA4 to analyze and optimize your AMP pages and improve your website performance and user experience.