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Recording Google Analytics Goal by API

Is it possible to use userID and the API to record a user having done an event (i.e. reached a goal) by API?

For example, if I set up my GA installation to record userID for logged in users, but the Goal I want to record is something that happens when the user is offline.

Can I use an API somehow to tell Google "User 001 completed Goal X"?

Or, alternatively, can I pull a unique identifier from a user's cookie, store it on my server side linked to the user id, and fake a js call back to Google once the goal is reached, as if the user were viewing a success page?

Solution

  • You can fetch the client id from the cookie. Google recommends to use their get function:

    ga(function(tracker) {
  var clientId = tracker.get('clientId');
});

    as

    developers should not directly access the cookie analytics.js sets as the cookie format might change without warning.

    You can then send an event or virtual url using the measurement protocol and set up a goal based on that url or event (btw. there is nothing "fake" about it, this is exactly the thing the measurement protocol is supposed to cover).

    The caveat is that the data will probably end up in a new session, so the original source might get lost (that's an issue if you do advertising).

    Another approach, if your users are usually logged in, would be the User-ID feature (despite it's name it does not ID individual users, but it allows to collect user data across devices as long as an unique ID is sent per user from each device. The Id is not exposed in the interface).

    You would again use the measurement protocol but this time send along the user id (you still need to send a client id, but it will be overwritten by the user id). If you enable session unification the logged-in visits of the users (and your measurement protocol calls) will be stitched together into a user-level reporting (this required a special data view which will include only data from visits that have a User Id set). Unlike the client id, which is generated by the Google Analytics Javascript code, the User ID is generated on your server and passed in to GA.