Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google Analytics 4 behavioral data tracks your subscribers' interactions with your digital products. Subsets uses this data to understand content engagement patterns and subscription behavior.

Data Format

GA4 data can be delivered in two formats - we accept either:

1. Raw nested format - Native BigQuery export structure with RECORD types. Simply provide the full GA4 export tables - no field extraction required.
2. Flattened format - Pre-processed tables with unnested event parameters and properties as individual columns.

Both formats are acceptable. Choose based on your data pipeline capabilities and preferences.

Required Fields

Based on the official GA4 BigQuery export schema, include the following fields:

Core Event Fields

Field	Type	Description
event_date	STRING	Date when the event was logged (YYYYMMDD format)
event_timestamp	INTEGER	Time (in microseconds, UTC) when the event was logged
event_name	STRING	Name of the event (e.g., page_view, session_start)
user_pseudo_id	STRING	Pseudonymous identifier for the user
user_id	STRING	User ID set via setUserId API (if available)

Nested Records

Include these nested RECORD fields (raw format) or extract relevant subfields (flattened format):

Field	Type	Key Subfields
device	RECORD	device.category, device.operating_system
event_params	RECORD (repeated)	ga_session_id, ga_session_number, engagement_time_msec, page_location, page_title
platform	STRING	Platform where the event originated (web, iOS, Android)

Custom Event Parameters

In addition to the standard GA4 fields above, include custom event parameters that identify:

• Content identifiers: article_id, content_type, content_group, category
• User attributes: subscription_id, customer_id (mapped from user_id)
• Engagement metrics: engagement_time_msec, scroll_depth
• Page/screen data: page_location, page_title, page_path, screen_name

These parameters are stored in the event_params array (raw format) or as individual columns (flattened format).

Data Synchronization

We recommend including:

• Sync timestamp field: A timestamp indicating when the data was synced (e.g., _fivetran_synced, synced_at)
• BigQuery partitioning: Partition by event_date for optimal performance

Please inform the Subsets team of your partitioning column and sync timestamp field names.

Reference

• Official GA4 BigQuery Export Schema