When Does Analytics Stop Measuring and Start Interpreting?

When Does Analytics Stop Measuring and Start Interpreting?

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When Does Analytics Stop Measuring and Start Interpreting?

When Does Analytics Stop Measuring and Start Interpreting?

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How to Build Reliable Channel Grouping in GA4 BigQuery Without Fighting source/medium Forever

How to Build Reliable Channel Grouping in GA4 BigQuery Without Fighting source/medium Forever

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Why Your BigQuery Numbers Don’t Match “Reality” (Or GA4)?

Why Your BigQuery Numbers Don’t Match “Reality” (Or GA4)?

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What Does Session Duration in GA4 Actually Measure – and Should You Trust It?

What Does Session Duration in GA4 Actually Measure – and Should You Trust It?

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How an Analyst Loses Control of Metrics — Even Knowing SQL

How an Analyst Loses Control of Metrics — Even Knowing SQL

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How Bad Event Timing Breaks Every Product Conclusion?

How Bad Event Timing Breaks Every Product Conclusion?

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Why it's challenging to compare MoM in BiQuery?

Why it's challenging to compare MoM in BiQuery?

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Which GA4 Fields Should Never Be Used for Business Decisions?

Which GA4 Fields Should Never Be Used for Business Decisions?

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How Do You Explain GA4 Number Mismatches to a CEO?

How Do You Explain GA4 Number Mismatches to a CEO?

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How Can One Window Function Break Your Metrics?

How Can One Window Function Break Your Metrics?

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Are You Measuring Retention — or Just Recounting Sessions?

Are You Measuring Retention — or Just Recounting Sessions?

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How to Measure Time-to-Purchase in BigQuery Without Distorting the Customer Journey

How to Measure Time-to-Purchase in BigQuery Without Distorting the Customer Journey

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Can You Rely on GA4’s Attribution Models for Budget Decisions?

Can You Rely on GA4’s Attribution Models for Budget Decisions?

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Why GA4 and BigQuery Don’t Always Agree on Daily Metrics

Why GA4 and BigQuery Don’t Always Agree on Daily Metrics

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Why Do Metrics Start Contradicting Each Other — Even From the Same Source?

Why Do Metrics Start Contradicting Each Other — Even From the Same Source?

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How to Measure Conversion Rate by Landing Page in BigQuery

How to Measure Conversion Rate by Landing Page in BigQuery

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Why Does Decision-Making Get Harder When All Data is Available?

Why Does Decision-Making Get Harder When All Data is Available?

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Why Does “agreeing on data” Often Create Even More Distrust?

Why Does “agreeing on data” Often Create Even More Distrust?

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Why Does Analytics Increase Tension Between Marketing, Product, and Finance?

Why Does Analytics Increase Tension Between Marketing, Product, and Finance?

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How to Rebuild Sessions in GA4 + BigQuery Without Relying on session_start

How to Rebuild Sessions in GA4 + BigQuery Without Relying on session_start

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Why Does a CMO Feel Responsible For Numbers He Doesn’t Actually Control?

Why Does a CMO Feel Responsible For Numbers He Doesn’t Actually Control?

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How to Calculate Retention with SQL Window Functions (Without Mixing Everything Together)

How to Calculate Retention with SQL Window Functions (Without Mixing Everything Together)

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Why Does Having More Data Make Uncertainty More Visible Instead of Reducing It?

Why Does Having More Data Make Uncertainty More Visible Instead of Reducing It?

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Why Do Numbers Stop Helping Teams Agree — And Start Defending Positions?

Why Do Numbers Stop Helping Teams Agree — And Start Defending Positions?

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Why Do Metrics Stop “holding together” Once a Company Grows Beyond One Channel?

Why Do Metrics Stop “holding together” Once a Company Grows Beyond One Channel?

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How to Shift Attribution from Last Click to First Click in SQL

How to Shift Attribution from Last Click to First Click in SQL

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Why Does Adding More Reports Increase Blindness Instead of Transparency?

Why Does Adding More Reports Increase Blindness Instead of Transparency?

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How Confident Are You That GA4 Preserves Your UTM Parameters?

How Confident Are You That GA4 Preserves Your UTM Parameters?

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How Does Blurred Ownership Of Metrics Turn Analytics Into a Source of Anxiety?

How Does Blurred Ownership Of Metrics Turn Analytics Into a Source of Anxiety?

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Why Does a CMO Trust Numbers More Than the Team — And Still Doubt Both?

Why Does a CMO Trust Numbers More Than the Team — And Still Doubt Both?

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Why Do Metrics Stop Reflecting Reality When the Business Becomes More Complex?

Why Do Metrics Stop Reflecting Reality When the Business Becomes More Complex?

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Why Meta Often Claims Credit for Conversions Finalized Through Email

Why Meta Often Claims Credit for Conversions Finalized Through Email

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Why Does Automation Increase CMO Frustration Instead of Reducing It?

Why Does Automation Increase CMO Frustration Instead of Reducing It?

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Building a Custom Attribution Model in SQL: A More Realistic Way to Assign Credit

Building a Custom Attribution Model in SQL: A More Realistic Way to Assign Credit

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What Breaks When One Team Owns Growth and Another Owns Accuracy?

What Breaks When One Team Owns Growth and Another Owns Accuracy?

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Why Does Adding More Metrics Reduce Confidence Instead of Improving Control?

Why Does Adding More Metrics Reduce Confidence Instead of Improving Control?

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Why Do CMOs Doubt Data Most When Everything Looks “too perfect”?

Why Do CMOs Doubt Data Most When Everything Looks “too perfect”?

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Using ARRAY_AGG in BigQuery to Rebuild User Paths from Raw Events

Using ARRAY_AGG in BigQuery to Rebuild User Paths from Raw Events

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Why Do Different Teams Read The Same Report — And Make Opposite Decisions?

Why Do Different Teams Read The Same Report — And Make Opposite Decisions?

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Rethinking Conversion Rate in BigQuery: A Practical Approach

Rethinking Conversion Rate in BigQuery: A Practical Approach

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How Do Deduplication Errors End Up Affecting Careers — Not Just Metrics?

How Do Deduplication Errors End Up Affecting Careers — Not Just Metrics?

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Why Does a CMO Stop Trusting Data During Growth — Not During a Crisis?

Why Does a CMO Stop Trusting Data During Growth — Not During a Crisis?

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How Do Metrics Change Their Meaning When Marketing Scales Faster Than the Analytics Model?

How Do Metrics Change Their Meaning When Marketing Scales Faster Than the Analytics Model?

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Why GA4 Often Shows Fewer Transactions Than Your Payment Gateway

Why GA4 Often Shows Fewer Transactions Than Your Payment Gateway

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What Happens to Attribution When Marketing and Product Speak Different Event Languages?

What Happens to Attribution When Marketing and Product Speak Different Event Languages?

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Calculating CLV With SQL: Why Window Functions Change the Entire Approach

Calculating CLV With SQL: Why Window Functions Change the Entire Approach

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Why can two analysts honestly read the same data — and disagree completely?

Why can two analysts honestly read the same data — and disagree completely?

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How do time zones, attribution windows, and aggregation rules quietly break reports?

How do time zones, attribution windows, and aggregation rules quietly break reports?

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Why does “properly configured” tracking still feel unreliable?

Why does “properly configured” tracking still feel unreliable?

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Identifying Abandoned Carts in GA4 BigQuery Without Overcomplicating the Logic

Identifying Abandoned Carts in GA4 BigQuery Without Overcomplicating the Logic

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What happens when you trust GA4 modeling - but never look at raw events?

What happens when you trust GA4 modeling - but never look at raw events?

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Counting New Users in GA4 BigQuery? Avoid the first_visit Trap

Counting New Users in GA4 BigQuery? Avoid the first_visit Trap

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Why do executive dashboards hide problems more often than they reveal them?

Why do executive dashboards hide problems more often than they reveal them?

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Why does the same user become three different people in GA4, BigQuery, and your CRM?

Why does the same user become three different people in GA4, BigQuery, and your CRM?

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How can server-side GTM make your data worse — even if it was set up “by the book”?

How can server-side GTM make your data worse — even if it was set up “by the book”?

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Stop Using session_start as Your Primary Session Counter in GA4 BigQuery

Stop Using session_start as Your Primary Session Counter in GA4 BigQuery

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Why do analytics reports look correct — but still lead to bad business decisions?

Why do analytics reports look correct — but still lead to bad business decisions?

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How to Calculate Net Dollar Retention (NDR) With SQL Window Functions?

How to Calculate Net Dollar Retention (NDR) With SQL Window Functions?

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How does Consent Mode quietly rewrite your reports - and why don’t you see the real scale of loss?

How does Consent Mode quietly rewrite your reports - and why don’t you see the real scale of loss?

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How to Track N-Day Retention With SQL Window Functions in BigQuery?

How to Track N-Day Retention With SQL Window Functions in BigQuery?

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How to Calculate ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) in BigQuery?

How to Calculate ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) in BigQuery?

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How to Track Subscription Renewals in GA4 Export Data?

How to Track Subscription Renewals in GA4 Export Data?

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How to Calculate Churn Rate in SQL Using GA4 Export Data?

How to Calculate Churn Rate in SQL Using GA4 Export Data?

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What’s Left of Analytics If You Lose Access to the GTM Container?

What’s Left of Analytics If You Lose Access to the GTM Container?

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Can You Really Trust Average Session Duration in GA4?

Can You Really Trust Average Session Duration in GA4?

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How to Track Trial-to-Paid Conversion in BigQuery for SaaS?

How to Track Trial-to-Paid Conversion in BigQuery for SaaS?

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Why Track Dozens of GA4 Events If the Business Only Needs Five?

Why Track Dozens of GA4 Events If the Business Only Needs Five?

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How to Calculate Net Revenue (After Refunds) in BigQuery?

How to Calculate Net Revenue (After Refunds) in BigQuery?

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Why Does the Same Channel Show Different Revenue in GA4 vs. BI?

Why Does the Same Channel Show Different Revenue in GA4 vs. BI?

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Why Does GA4’s Geography Report Not Match CRM Data?

Why Does GA4’s Geography Report Not Match CRM Data?

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Why Does the Funnel in GA4 Never Match Reality?

Why Does the Funnel in GA4 Never Match Reality?

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How to Calculate Time-to-Purchase in BigQuery Without Losing Accuracy?

How to Calculate Time-to-Purchase in BigQuery Without Losing Accuracy?

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What Happens to Analytics After the Only Analyst Leaves? How does it usually look?

What Happens to Analytics After the Only Analyst Leaves? How does it usually look?

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How to Calculate CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) With SQL Window Functions?

How to Calculate CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) With SQL Window Functions?

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Why Does Retention Look Different in Product Analytics vs. GA4?

Why Does Retention Look Different in Product Analytics vs. GA4?

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Can You Trust GA4 When Data Updates Lag by 48 Hours? Why does this matter?

Can You Trust GA4 When Data Updates Lag by 48 Hours? Why does this matter?

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Where Does the gclid Go When Landing Pages and Redirects Get Involved?

Where Does the gclid Go When Landing Pages and Redirects Get Involved?

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How to Build a True First Organic Click Attribution Model in SQL?

How to Build a True First Organic Click Attribution Model in SQL?

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Why Does Analytics Collapse When You Split With an Agency — And How to Avoid It?

Why Does Analytics Collapse When You Split With an Agency — And How to Avoid It?

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How to Calculate Payback Period on Marketing Spend in BigQuery?

How to Calculate Payback Period on Marketing Spend in BigQuery?

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How Excel and Google Sheets Turn You Into a Reporting Slave

How Excel and Google Sheets Turn You Into a Reporting Slave

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Why 20 CSV Files Will Never Give You Good Analytics

Why 20 CSV Files Will Never Give You Good Analytics

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Why Do We Collect Dozens of Metrics No One Uses?

Why Do We Collect Dozens of Metrics No One Uses?

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How to Correctly Calculate AOV (Average Order Value) in BigQuery?

How to Correctly Calculate AOV (Average Order Value) in BigQuery?

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Can You Trust Google Ads Data? What really happens to your clicks?

Can You Trust Google Ads Data? What really happens to your clicks?

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How to Attribute Conversions to the First Click (Instead of Last) in SQL?

How to Attribute Conversions to the First Click (Instead of Last) in SQL?

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Can You Trust GA4’s Attribution?

Can You Trust GA4’s Attribution?

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How do Safari and ITP affect attribution in GA4 and CRM?

How do Safari and ITP affect attribution in GA4 and CRM?

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Why client_id isn’t enough to link offline events to GA4?

Why client_id isn’t enough to link offline events to GA4?

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How to Correctly Calculate Retention Rate with SQL Window Functions?

How to Correctly Calculate Retention Rate with SQL Window Functions?

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How to understand traffic sources in GA4 without losing your mind?

How to understand traffic sources in GA4 without losing your mind?

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What’s the Right Way to Join GA4 Events and CRM Orders in BigQuery?

What’s the Right Way to Join GA4 Events and CRM Orders in BigQuery?

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How not to blow up on BigQuery bills?

How not to blow up on BigQuery bills?

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How does GA4 conversion rate mislead us?

How does GA4 conversion rate mislead us?

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Can GA4 multi-channel attribution be trusted?

Can GA4 multi-channel attribution be trusted?

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How to Build a Custom Attribution Model in SQL (Without Crying)

How to Build a Custom Attribution Model in SQL (Without Crying)

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Why does Meta Ads attribute to itself customers who bought via email?

Why does Meta Ads attribute to itself customers who bought via email?

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Top Three Ways to Reduce Your BigQuery Query Costs

Top Three Ways to Reduce Your BigQuery Query Costs

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Why do GA4 to BigQuery reports lag by a day?

Why do GA4 to BigQuery reports lag by a day?

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Why do GA4 reports show fewer transactions than the payment gateway?

Why do GA4 reports show fewer transactions than the payment gateway?

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author

Alex Ignatenko

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With over ten years of experience in product and marketing analytics, I help ecommerce companies earn more from each attracted user through a deep approach to traffic analysis and redistribution of the marketing budget. My mission is to enable data-driven decision making and effective experimentation for online businesses.

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