CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidgoogle-analyticsgoogle-analytics-filters
Mohru
Mohru

Reputation: 743

Google Analytics tracking the latest parameter value

In my Android app I use Google Analytics, and I have to track a single parameter for each user. I'm interested only in the latest value of this parameter (user can change it inside the app).

I thought that this could be solved with custom dimensions. I created a user-scope dimension, but it turned out that it preserves value for current and future sessions, and values from previous sessions are unchanged (we have more that one value for a single user). This disqualifies the solution for my use.

Is there any option to track a parameter only for current value? Or is there any option to create a custom report to show only the latest value of a custom dimension for each user?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 265

Answers (1)

Max
Max

Reputation: 13334

After reading the documentation again. It seems that this is the expected behaviour. The documentation reads:

if two user-scoped custom dimension values are set within the same session, the last value set gets precedence for the current session, and is applied to future sessions for that user.

What user-scope dimensions do:

  • Overwrites multiple values within the same session (keeps last one)
  • Sets the same value for future sessions (until a future session overwrites it with a different one)

What user-scope dimensions don't do:

  • Overwrites values from previous sessions

So it's normal to see multiple values for each user if different values were set across different sessions.

Workaround report
You can workaround this problem by:

  • Creating a report with your user-scoped parameter dimension, a time dimension (e.g. ga:date) and another user-scoped dimension containing the user ID so you can distinguish users
  • Make a unique list of those User IDs, and for each, grab the last parameter value

That way you get to see only 1 (last) value per user. This Google Sheets add-on should help you automate this reporting task pretty easily.

Upvotes: 0

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