With our 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.
In this article, we'll review the following:
Why is MNTN Integrated into Google Analytics 4?
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 enhanced household reporting capabilities.
💡 Note: The Measurement Protocol API is a feature of Google Analytics that is openly available for use by all platforms. For more information on the GA Measurement Protocol API, check out this article.
How Does MNTN's Integration into GA4 Work?
MNTN's is integrated into Google Analytics 4 by way of the GA Measurement Protocol API:
A user interacts with a MNTN ad.
The user later visits your site within the Verified Visit window you have assigned, following our Cross Device Last Touch Verified Visit attribution model.
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.
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.
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.
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
🧠 Pro Tip: We recommend leveraging the Session Source or Session Source / Medium dimension as the data is most comprehensive.
GA4 Reporting Best Practices for Evaluating MNTN Data
🧠 Pro Tip: 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.
Navigating to the Correct GA4 Reporting View:
Select the "Reports" section, which is the second icon on the left-hand sidebar.
From here, you'll see a report snapshot as well as "Acquisition," "Engagement," "Monetization," and "Retention" reports, depending on your reporting setup.
We recommend that you utilize the "Acquisition" reporting category for MNTN performance evaluation.
In the "Acquisition" reporting category, you'll find an "Overview" Report as well as a "User Acquisition" and "Traffic Acquisition" report, depending on your reporting setup.
We recommend that you leverage the "Traffic Acquisition" report as MNTN Verified Visits are reported out as sessions, and the traffic acquisition report provides granular insight into the visit and event volume driven from the MNTN source.
Change the session categorization from "Session default channel group" to "Session source / medium", as MNTN data is uncategorized within the Session default channel group designation.
The Source / Medium that MNTN data is reported within GA4 will match the UTM Source and UTM Medium you designated on the Visit Tracking details for each of your MNTN creative assets.
Reviewing your MNTN Performance Data in GA4:
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.
💡 Note: Reach out to the support team if you have any questions about the reporting discrepancy between GA4 and MNTN.
FAQs
Question: Is MNTN integrated into BigQuery?
No. MNTN is integrated into the Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics instances.
🚩Disclaimer: Universal Analytics has stopped processing data on July 1, 2023 (unless paying for GA 360). For more information on this, check out this article.
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 following the details seen in this article.
A reminder of the data MNTN is sending into GA4 can be seen above. Details on the data sent into GA’s Universal Analytics instance can be seen here.