Last Updated on July 7, 2022
You use data filters to include or exclude event data from your reports based on event-parameter values. Data filters are configured at the property level and are applied to all incoming data.
Filters are evaluated from the point of creation forward, and do not affect historical data.
Once you apply a filter, the effect on the data is permanent; for example, if you apply an exclude filter, that data is never processed and will never be available in Analytics.
Filter types
There are currently two types of data filters with GA4: internal traffic and developer traffic. The filters are based on parameters that you add to your events. Below shows how to setup an internal filter.
GA4 IP Address Filters
GA4 properties automatically set up an Internal Traffic Filter. You need to activate it and add IP addresses to the Data Stream. This video will show you how.
Here are the written steps:
- Click on “Data Streams” under property in the admin section, then select the data stream
- Click on “More Tagging Settings” at the very bottom of the screen, then select “Define internal traffic”
- For each organization or user, click “Create” on the upper right, name the filter, then set the appropriate match type and enter the IP address you want to filter out in the “Value” box. Clicking on “Add condition” will allow you to enter multiple IP addresses for the same organization or user, such as an IPv4 and IPv6 for Sebo or multiple devices that the client regularly uses to access the site. For example, “Jeff’s laptop” and “Jeff’s iPhone” used to have to be entered as separate filters in UA, but can be combined into one “Jeff’s IPs” filter in GA4
- After all the internal traffic rules have been created, go back to the main admin screen, click on “Data Settings”, then select “Data Filters”
- Click on the three dots on the right, then “Activate filter” and “Activate” (Sometimes a white box with nothing inside it will appear and nothing will happen after clicking on “Activate filter”. If this happens, click on the arrow next to the three dots, scroll down, select “Active” from the list, then click “Save” in the upper right corner and “Activate filter”)
Google Signals
What is Google Signals?
Identity spaces in Analytics
Ways Google uses to understand user journeys.
In Analytics, data is processed using all available identity spaces. First, Analytics looks for User-ID because this feature uses the data you collect. Next, it tries Google signals, and finally, if there isn’t a match for either, it relies on the device ID. From there, Analytics creates a single user journey from all the data associated with the same identity.
Because these identity spaces are used in all reports, they allow you to de-duplicate users and tell a more unified, holistic story about their relationships with your business.
- Good – Device ID
- Analytics also automatically uses device ID as an identity space. On websites, the device ID comes from the user’s browser. On apps, the device ID comes from app-instance ID. You don’t need any further setup in Analytics to use device ID.
- Better – Google signals
- Google signals uses data from users who are signed in to Google. With Google signals enabled, Analytics associates event data it collects from users on your site with the Google accounts of signed-in users who have consented to sharing this information.
- Enabling Google signals is very simple. You don’t have to make modifications to your website or app to get started with this feature — just follow the instructions in this Help Center article to enable this in your property settings.
- Best – User-ID (Sebo probably won’t ever have clients where this method will be used)
If you create your own persistent IDs for signed-in users, you can use this data to accurately measure user journeys across devices. To enable the User-ID feature, you must consistently assign IDs to your users and include the IDs along with the data you send to Analytics. To learn more about the User-ID feature, visit this Help Center article.
How to enable Google Signals
- Under property in the admin section, click on “Data Settings”, then “Data Collection”
- Click the blue “Get started” box on the right, click “Continue”, then scroll down and select “Activate”
- Optional: If the client has the appropriate permissions and privacy disclosures to collect and process user data, scroll down to the bottom of the “Data Collection” screen, open the “User Data Collection Acknowledgement” section and click “I acknowledge”