Great series of videos Nico! Relative noob here learning GA4 and Looker. Question: did the customizations in this file download setup require any GTM steps (your metric and custom event were pre-built before this video). Either way is there is a simple distinction as to when customizations in GTM must be made in order for customizations like this to fire? Thanks!
Thanks! The file_download event isn't custom, it's an enhanced measurement event that comes with the configuration tag. If you are not seeing it, it may be because file downloads on your site are not implemented as links to pdf, xls or other file formats that GA4 interprets as file downloads. I've encountered that with some websites and had to set up a custom event in GTM. I add the Downloads metric starting at about 5:33 in the video. In general, what I've found is that I do generally have to add custom metrics to report on events the way that I want, and I pretty much always do it by adding a _count parameter to the event and mapping that parameter to a custom metric, just like I did in this video. I routinely do that for scroll, file_download, video_start, and view_search_results events, as well as any custom events that I add.
@@Twooctobers Ok so custom metrics that are based on "native" events/parameters will not need GTM. And, these custom metrics are "connected" to native events/parameters with conditions by a newly configured parameter, like your file_download_count, that is created within the custom event. All of this with no need for GTM. Question: So if we just want a Downloads metric for use as a column in detail/exploration reports, but do not need any conditions to be set, can we just create the custom metric and tie it directly to the file_download parameter? This is really useful for reports, as you've said. If there is a suggestion box, a roadmap on understanding the various g-tags and IDs that exist after *migrating* from UA. Everything I can find on GTM setup seems to be about installing from scratch. Thanks again - Subscribed!
It would make sense, but unfortunately no. file_download is an event, and custom dimensions and metrics can only be generated from event parameters. Reporting on event counts (with other metrics) seems like such an obvious thing to want to do, but Google makes us go the long way around.
On the bright side, at least 50% of the time when I create a video demonstrating a GA4 workaround, Google fixes the issue so I have to remake the video. So here's hoping ;)
@@Twooctobers Heh, right on. I guess we hope Google keeps adding functionality, and I guess we are used to a somewhat constant learning curve. And thank you for clarifying that parameters are the key in custom metrics and dimension world - at the moment.
This gave me exactly the information I needed. Thanks!
Great series of videos Nico! Relative noob here learning GA4 and Looker. Question: did the customizations in this file download setup require any GTM steps (your metric and custom event were pre-built before this video). Either way is there is a simple distinction as to when customizations in GTM must be made in order for customizations like this to fire? Thanks!
Thanks! The file_download event isn't custom, it's an enhanced measurement event that comes with the configuration tag. If you are not seeing it, it may be because file downloads on your site are not implemented as links to pdf, xls or other file formats that GA4 interprets as file downloads. I've encountered that with some websites and had to set up a custom event in GTM. I add the Downloads metric starting at about 5:33 in the video. In general, what I've found is that I do generally have to add custom metrics to report on events the way that I want, and I pretty much always do it by adding a _count parameter to the event and mapping that parameter to a custom metric, just like I did in this video. I routinely do that for scroll, file_download, video_start, and view_search_results events, as well as any custom events that I add.
@@Twooctobers Ok so custom metrics that are based on "native" events/parameters will not need GTM. And, these custom metrics are "connected" to native events/parameters with conditions by a newly configured parameter, like your file_download_count, that is created within the custom event. All of this with no need for GTM. Question: So if we just want a Downloads metric for use as a column in detail/exploration reports, but do not need any conditions to be set, can we just create the custom metric and tie it directly to the file_download parameter? This is really useful for reports, as you've said. If there is a suggestion box, a roadmap on understanding the various g-tags and IDs that exist after *migrating* from UA. Everything I can find on GTM setup seems to be about installing from scratch. Thanks again - Subscribed!
It would make sense, but unfortunately no. file_download is an event, and custom dimensions and metrics can only be generated from event parameters. Reporting on event counts (with other metrics) seems like such an obvious thing to want to do, but Google makes us go the long way around.
On the bright side, at least 50% of the time when I create a video demonstrating a GA4 workaround, Google fixes the issue so I have to remake the video. So here's hoping ;)
@@Twooctobers Heh, right on. I guess we hope Google keeps adding functionality, and I guess we are used to a somewhat constant learning curve. And thank you for clarifying that parameters are the key in custom metrics and dimension world - at the moment.