CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sessiongoogle-analytics
parisa mostafavi
parisa mostafavi

Reputation: 61

Can anyone explain how session_start event count in GA4 is different from session metric?

I studied the definitions of session metric and session_start event in GA4 documents. it mentioned that every time a session starts a session_start event is counting, but comparing session metrics in reports and session_start event count I get two significantly different values. can anyone explain to me how these two are different?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 12900

Answers (3)

Greg-Jordan Metoui
Greg-Jordan Metoui

Reputation: 1

Sorry but that's completely fake. In the scenario you are describing you have two sessions (on per device) but only one user. You are confusing metrics...

Upvotes: 0

Eric Anderson
Eric Anderson

Reputation: 21

I know this is an old post, but I ran across this post looking for a similar explanation and want to pose an alternate theory.

In GA4, it's quite possible to have more session_start events than sessions, because GA4 does a better job of tracking across devices.

For example, we have a travel site. A user might start by looking on their phone for a vacation and then switch to desktop when booking. In this case we would register two session_start events, but only one session.

There's a great explanation of that here.

https://help.analyticsedge.com/article/misunderstood-metrics-sessions-in-google-analytics-4/

Upvotes: 2

BNazaruk
BNazaruk

Reputation: 8111

The metrics are different.

When you select a period and ask to count sessions, every hit with a unique session id counts as a session.

When you do the same, but ask for session starts, only starts will count.

Basically, you should always see more sessions than starts. Rarely will you be able to see equal numbers there. Also, the difference should remain approximately the same number regardless of the time window size.

You can read here more on definitions.

Upvotes: 1

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