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Integrate Google Analytics

Set up your GA4 connection, find your Measurement ID, and follow best practices for accurate visit tracking.

Updated this week

Overview

With our Google Analytics (GA4) integration, tracking your MNTN campaigns in Google Analytics is simple. Our pixel will automatically collect your GA4 Measurement ID from your site and map the integration accordingly. From there, Last Touch Verified Visits will be transmitted from our pixel to GA4 leveraging their Measurement Protocol API. Verified Visit data will be recorded as session start events, and all behavioral and conversion tracking will be collected and attributed by GA4 alongside your other marketing channels.

Why we use it:

MNTN leverages the power of the GA Measurement Protocol API to provide you with comprehensive cross-device performance data within Google Analytics 4. This allows Google Analytics data to better align with our Cross-Device Last Touch Verified Visit attribution model, which is used in our Last Touch reporting.

It enables you to track user activity across all devices within a household, giving you valuable insights into the performance of your Connected TV campaigns due to GA's household reporting capabilities.

📝 Note: The Measurement Protocol API is a feature of Google Analytics that is openly available for use by all platforms.

How it works:

MNTN leverages the GA Measurement Protocol API for our integration into GA4. The integration uses your Measurement ID to pass the correct information through the Measurement Protocol API into your GA Account. The Measurement ID is accessed through your site's data layer, and the connection is made via our pixel during the pixel go-live process. You can also request the integration be mapped to a specific Measurement ID instead.

Our pixel will fire data to your Measurement ID via the Measurement Protocol API when a Last Touch Verified Visit occurs as outlined below:

  1. A user interacts with a MNTN ad.

  2. The user later visits your site within the Verified Visit window you have assigned, following our Cross Device Last Touch Verified Visit attribution model.

  3. If the visit qualifies as a Last Touch Verified Visit, we transmit the visit data to Google Analytics as a hit using the Measurement Protocol API.

  4. Google Analytics then interprets the data according to its own setup, allowing you to view users, sessions, and events generated from your MNTN Performance TV campaigns.

  5. Google Analytics assigns the Session Event credit to 1 Source, deduplicating any additional session events that may have been driven by an organic or direct source hit to the site within that same singular session

📝 Note: We do not transmit conversion data from MNTN to GA4. The attribution of events and purchases will be determined based on your unique attribution settings within Google Analytics.

How To

Find your Measurement ID in GA4

The Google Analytics Measurement Protocol API allows our pixel to send data to a single property. We have the ability to hardcode the property to measure performance. If you’d like to use GA4 as your new source of truth, the Measurement ID is required to update the mapping.

To find your Google tag ID (which usually starts with "G-"), do the following:

  1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account.

  2. Click Admin.

  3. Under Data Collection and Modification, click Data streams.

  4. Click the 🌐 web data stream.

    Don't see a Data streams option in the Property column? You have a Universal Analytics property instead of a GA4 property.

  5. Your Measurement ID will appear in the top right-hand corner. It should start with a "G-" and include a mix of letters and numbers.

    📝 Note: We are unable to retroactively move data. Once mapping is updated to the new GA4 property, data will be sent to GA4 from that point moving forward only.

    ga4_measurement_id_10.20.31_AM.png

Map your Measurement ID to MNTN

Our Google Analytics integration is powered by the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol API. To pass your campaign data to GA, you will need to provide your account’s Measurement ID to the MNTN team.

Our Pixel automatically maps your Measurement ID based on what is on your site. Still, it's always important to confirm that data is going to the correct location if you have multiple data streams within your GA4 account or need to define a specific stream to send data to.

Set attribution in GA4

GA4 has a setting that allows only Google paid channels to receive session and conversion credit in attribution. This setting will not allow channels like MNTN to get credit within the platform. Ensure Channels that can receive credit are set to Paid and organic channels.

Instructions for selecting your attribution settings can be found here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10597962

Set conversion windows in GA4

Conversion windows determine how far back in time a touchpoint is eligible for attribution credit. We recommend setting the Acquisition key events to 30 days and All other key events to 90 days. The Engaged-view key events setting does not impact MNTN data.

Instructions for setting your conversion can be found here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10597962

Set your Reporting Identity in GA4

If you are leveraging a 3rd Party implementation for funneling data into Google Analytics from your website (such as Segment, Elevar, or Shopify), we recommend updating your Reporting Identity to Device-based. This will ensure consistent identity resolution between your MNTN-driven events and Google Analytics events to get the most accurate representation of MNTN performance.

Instructions for setting your reporting identity can be found in this Google Analytics Support Article.

📝 Note: Google Signals and Modeling data can create hashed identifiers that do not match the GA Client IDs passed from our integration, and therefore the Integration will not work as expected.

If you are experiencing low engagement metrics associated with MNTN and have activated Google Signals or Google Modeled Data methods, we recommend working directly with the Platform Experience team.

Set Visit Tracking tags in MNTN

By default, MNTN will auto-populate UTM tracking tags on your creatives in the campaign setup process. We recommend reviewing your UTMs each time you upload new creative to ensure they follow your preferred setup. This will make it easy for you to filter for your MNTN campaign performance within Google Analytics when viewing the Traffic Acquisition report.

Instructions for customizing your Visit Tracking Tags can be found here: https://intercom.help/mntn/en/articles/6633832-implementing-site-served-visit-tracking-tags

Align Conversion Events

To ensure you are able to compare MNTN performance with your Google Analytics performance appropriately, we recommend tracking the same conversion events both in Google Analytics and in the MNTN account.

Pro Tips

Use session source to evaluate MNTN traffic

When evaluating your MNTN Data in Google Analytics, we recommend leveraging the Traffic Acquisition report with the Dimension set to the "Session Source/Medium" or "Session Source" instead of the default "Session Default Channel Group" dimension categorization.

Review your MNTN performance data

Sessions Metric

  • We recommend that you leverage the "Sessions" metric as your main source of truth for evaluating visit data, as the Session metric is where our "Verified Visits" are reported.

  • Your GA4 Sessions may be higher than Verified Visits in the MNTN dashboard

    • A session will end when there has been more than a 30-minute period of inactivity (depending on the session timeout settings).

    • If a user comes back after a session timeout, it will start a new session.

    • There can be multiple sessions per 1 impression served in GA4, whereas MNTN will only ever record 1 verified visit per Impression served.

  • Your GA4 sessions may be lower than UA sessions.

    • Sessions in GA4 are not restarted at midnight or when new campaign parameters are encountered.

    • These new session designation rules can result in lower session volume reported in GA4 than in UA.

Event + Conversion Event Metrics

  • Since MNTN only sends visit data to GA4 through the Measurement Protocol API, all recorded events are based on your GA4 event and attribution settings.

  • MNTN does not influence event or conversion data in any way, and credit is assigned in GA4 the same way it is for any other marketing channel.

  • Due to differing attribution models and windows, conversions, and order amounts in MNTN are likely to appear higher than conversion events and order amounts in GA4.

Quick Answers

What MNTN data is passed into GA4?

At MNTN, we strive to enable a fair comparison of your CTV channel with other marketing efforts. Therefore, we only send Last Touch Verified Visit data to GA4.

When a user on your site is registered as a Last Touch Verified Visitor through our tracking pixel, we use the Measurement Protocol API to signal to GA4 that the user is attributable to MNTN. The data transmitted includes the following:

  • Last Touch Verified Visit data in the form of a Session Start Event

  • Supported UTM suffix

  • GA Client ID

  • Session Timestamp

  • Your GA Account and your GA Property ID

When GA4 receives this visit data from MNTN, it reports Last Touch Verified Visits as Sessions and categorizes them under your MNTN-designated UTMs. This process ensures accurate session and event credit assignment against GA4's attribution modeling, allowing you to evaluate MNTN against all other marketing channels.

Supported UTM Parameters

Our integration currently supports the following UTM Parameters. Any additional UTMs or custom parameters may be stripped at the time of the Measurement Protocol API hit:

  • utm_campaign

  • utm_source

  • utm_medium

  • utm_content

  • utm_term

💡 Tip: We recommend leveraging the Session Source or Session Source / Medium dimension as the data is most comprehensive.

Is MNTN integrated into BigQuery?

No. MNTN is integrated into the Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics instances.

That said, you can export data (either daily or continuously) from your Google Analytics property into the BigQuery sandbox. To get this setup, we suggest either working back with your GA rep or consult our help center.

A reminder of the data MNTN is sending into GA4 can be seen above.

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