Connecting Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Pulling your website and app analytics into Google Sheets takes just a few clicks. Because Metric Might connects directly to the GA4 Data API, you can pull live Sessions, Event Counts, and E-commerce Revenue across all your client properties instantly.

1. Prerequisites (Required Permissions)

Before you can pull data, you must have the correct permissions inside your Google Analytics account.

  • You must have at least Viewer or Analyst access to the specific GA4 Property you wish to query.
  • If you manage multiple clients, ensure your Google Workspace/Gmail account has been granted access to their respective Analytics Properties before authenticating in Metric Might.
  • Note: Universal Analytics (UA) was retired by Google and is not supported. You must use a GA4 Property.

2. How to Connect

You can connect your Google Analytics account without leaving the query builder.

  1. Open the Metric Might Web App and navigate to the Queries page.
  2. Under the Data source section, click the dropdown and select Add Data Source.
  3. Choose Google Analytics 4.
  4. A secure popup will ask you to log in with Google. Review the permissions and click Allow.
⚠️ Popup blocked? If nothing appears when you click to connect, your browser may be blocking the authentication popup. Allow popups for app.metricmight.com and try again.
💡 Agency Tip: When you authenticate your Google Account, Metric Might will automatically detect and unlock access to all of the GA4 Properties your email address has access to. You do not need to authenticate every client individually.

3. Available Metrics & Dimensions

Unlike older versions of Google Analytics, GA4 records all interactions — page views, clicks, purchases — as Events. This affects how metrics and dimensions relate to each other.

When building your query, click into the Metrics or Dimensions dropdowns to open the search overlay. You can search for standard fields like Sessions, Total Users, Event Count, and Total Revenue.

Scope Compatibility: GA4 enforces strict rules about mixing “User-scoped” dimensions with “Event-scoped” metrics. In practice this means some dimensions — like those describing a user’s first visit — cannot be mixed with session or event-level metrics. Metric Might’s live compatibility matrix handles this for you automatically. If you select a dimension (like First user medium), Metric Might will automatically disable any metrics in the search overlay that Google’s API prohibits querying alongside it.

4. Token Expiry

Just like Google Ads, GA4 access tokens rarely expire.

Once you authenticate Google Analytics 4 in Metric Might, the connection will remain active indefinitely unless one of the following happens:

  • You change your Google account password.
  • You manually revoke Metric Might’s access from your Google Account Security settings.
  • Google detects suspicious activity and forces a security logout.

If a GA4 query stops working unexpectedly with an authentication error, go to the Connections page, click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to the GA4 data source, and select Sign In Again.

5. GA4-Specific Quirks & Gotchas

GA4’s API is incredibly complex and heavily prioritises user privacy. If your data looks slightly different from what you expect, or if rows appear to be missing, it is almost always due to one of the following.

Data Thresholding (Missing Rows)

If you pull a highly granular report (e.g., breaking down traffic by City and Device Category), you may notice that the total Sessions or Users in your Google Sheet is lower than the total in your GA4 dashboard.

This is called Data Thresholding. To prevent you from identifying individual users, Google will intentionally hide rows from the API that contain very low user counts.

  • How to fix it: Try pulling broader date ranges, or remove highly specific dimensions from your query so that every row has a large enough user count to pass Google’s privacy filters.

Processing Delays (24–48 Hours)

Unlike older Analytics tools, GA4 does not process data in real-time. While you can see a “Realtime” overview in the GA4 web dashboard, the official GA4 Data API only serves fully processed, settled data. It can take 24 to 48 hours for Google to fully process daily events and e-commerce transactions. If you query data for “Today” or “Yesterday,” the numbers will likely be incomplete.

Data Sampling

For GA4 properties with very high event volumes, Google may return sampled data via the API — meaning results are estimated rather than exact. If your totals look slightly off on high-traffic properties, this is the likely cause. Google Analytics 360 (paid) properties have higher sampling thresholds.

”(not set)” Values

If you see (not set) appearing in your dimension columns (like Session source / medium), it means Google received the event but could not attach the necessary context. This usually happens due to missing UTM parameters on your ad campaigns, privacy browsers blocking referral data, or iOS 14+ tracking restrictions.

What’s Next?

Did this page help you?