Automate Google Analytics 4 Reports in Google Sheets

Liubov Zhovtonizhko

,

Creative Writer

Oleg Kharchenko

,

Senior Digital Analyst

July 31, 2019

Understanding the essential types of Google Analytics reports and the importance of automation, this article delves deeper into streamlining your analytics workflow. Learn how to efficiently create and manage Google Analytics 4 reports directly in Google Sheets.

This guide will show you step-by-step how to set up automated reports that not only update according to your schedule but can also be emailed to key stakeholders automatically.

From connecting your Google Analytics account to Google Sheets to customizing data refresh and distribution, discover how to transform your approach to data analysis and reporting, making it more dynamic and accessible than ever before.

Note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and was completely updated in December 2024 on the Google Sheets report for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Introduction to Google Analytics Automated Reporting

Google Analytics Automated Reporting simplifies tracking and analyzing website data by automating report generation. Instead of manually pulling data, users can schedule customized reports with key metrics like traffic, user behavior, and campaign performance.

These automated reports are then delivered directly to inboxes or tools like Google Sheets for easy access and analysis.

This feature saves time, ensures up-to-date insights, and enables data-driven decision-making and quick identification of trends and progress. By eliminating repetitive tasks, businesses can focus on strategic decisions while avoiding missed data points.

Key Benefits of Google Analytics Automated Reporting

Google Analytics Automated Reporting offers numerous advantages for businesses seeking to make the most of their data. By leveraging automated reports, users can streamline workflows, enhance decision-making, and maintain a competitive edge. Here are the top benefits:

Time Savings: Automated reports eliminate the need for manual data extraction, allowing you to focus on analyzing Google Analytics data instead of compiling it.
Consistent Updates: Schedule Google Analytics automated reports to ensure you always have the latest insights without the risk of outdated data.
Customization: Tailor your Google Analytics reports to include the metrics and dimensions most relevant to your business, such as sessions, conversions, or traffic sources.
Improved Decision-Making: Access timely insights from automated reports to identify trends, track performance, and make data-driven decisions quickly.
Increased Efficiency: With Google Analytics automated reports, your team can reduce repetitive tasks and redirect efforts toward strategic planning and execution.
Actionable Insights: Transform raw Google Analytics data into meaningful insights that reveal opportunities for growth, bottlenecks, and performance improvements.
Enhanced Collaboration: Share automated reports with stakeholders easily, ensuring everyone stays informed and aligned with current metrics and trends.
Advanced Tools Integration: Integrate with tools like GA4 Add-On for Google Sheets or OWOX BI BigQuery Reports Extension for more detailed reporting, filtering, and data visualization.

Google Analytics Automated Reporting ensures that businesses can harness their data effectively, saving time and unlocking valuable insights for sustainable growth.

Automating Google Analytics 4 Reports in Google Sheets

Advanced tools like the GA4 Add-On for Google Sheets and OWOX Reports Extension for Google Sheets enhance automation further, offering advanced filtering, segmentation, and data visualization, for deeper insights. Automated reporting ensures businesses of all sizes turn data into actionable insights for growth and success.

Ready to simplify your reporting and boost efficiency? Follow these steps to automate Google Analytics reporting in Google Sheets using the GA4 add-on, and explore how the OWOX Reports Extension for Google Sheets can take your data management to the next level.

How to Automate Google Analytics Reporting in Google Sheets Using the GA4 Add-On

Automating Google Analytics reporting in Google Sheets with the GA4 Add-On simplifies data analysis by how automated reports work seamlessly importing and scheduling GA4 reports directly into your spreadsheet. This integration saves time and ensures your data is always up-to-date for better decision-making.

Step 1: Installing the Google Analytics Add-On

Getting started is simple. Just follow these steps to install the Google Analytics add-on and set it up in Google Sheets:

1. Log in to Google Drive and open a new Google Sheet.

2. Navigate to the menu bar, click “Extensions,” select “Add-ons,” and choose “Get add-ons.”

3. Search for “Google Analytics” and click “Install” on the GA4 Reports Builder for Google Analytics™.

4. Provide the required permissions to grant the add-on access to your Google Analytics data.

5. After installation, the Google Analytics add-on will appear under the “Extensions” menu.

Step 2: Creating an Automated Report

1. Go to “Add-ons,” select “Google Analytics,” and click “Create new report.”

2. Assign a descriptive name to your report and select the Google Analytics profile you want to use.

3. Choose the metrics (e.g., sessions, users, bounce rate) and dimensions (e.g., channels, source, country) to include.

4. Adjust the settings by specifying a date range or adding filters to focus on specific data segments.

5. Click “Create Report” to generate it. The data will populate in a new tab within your Google Sheet.

Your initial report is ready! Now, let’s fine-tune the settings to gain more detailed insights.

Step 3: Customizing Your Reports for Detailed Insights

The initial report offers a general overview, but you can refine it further by creating reports and modifying fields directly in the sheet. Below are key fields and their configurations:

View (Profile) IDs: Specify using the format ga:12345678 (replace with your profile ID).

Start and End Dates: Use formats like mm/dd/yyyy (e.g., 07/15/2024) or relative terms like yesterday or last week.

Last N Days: Leave blank if specifying Start and End Dates.

Metrics and Dimensions: Add fields like ga:sessions, ga:users, ga:country, or ga:bounces.

Sorting: Sort data by metrics or dimensions, e.g., ga:country (ascending) or -ga:sessions (descending).

Filters: Apply conditions to focus on specific data, e.g., ga:country==Italy or ga:medium==organic.

Segments: Analyze user groups with segments like gaid::abc123, depending on your segment definitions.

Sampling Level: Choose between FASTER for speedier results or HIGHER_PRECISION for more accurate data extraction.

Start Index and Max Results: Define the number of rows to retrieve.

After customizing your report, the next step is to automate updates to standard reports, ensuring you always have the latest insights.

Step 4: Automating Report Updates: Stay on Top of Your Data

The true strength of the add-on lies in its ability to keep your reports updated automatically, and save time. Here’s how to set it up:

Navigate to “Extensions,” select “GA4 Reports Builder for Google Analytics™,” and click on “Schedule reports.”
Choose how often you want updates: hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

With automated updates, your reports will always include the latest data, giving you continuous insight into your website's performance.

Want to take things a step further? You can enhance your setup using Google Apps Script for even greater customization.

Step 5: Enhance Your Reporting with Google Apps Script (Optional)

For advanced automation, leverage Google Apps Script to expand Google Sheets’ capabilities and streamline complex workflows. Here’s an example:

Automated Email Notifications: Use a script to send emails with your report attached whenever a key metric shows significant changes.
Setup: Open “Extensions,” select “Apps Script,” insert your custom function, and configure it as needed. For detailed guidance on creating custom functions, refer to the Google Workspace Guide.

Add a Trigger: Click the clock icon, set the desired email frequency, and save your configuration.

With Google Apps Script, you can elevate your reporting processes to a whole new level of efficiency.

Step 6: Turning Data into Visual Insights

While data holds immense value, visualizing it enhances its impact. Google Sheets provides a range of built-in charts and graphs to convert raw numbers content reports into meaningful insights. Here are some tips for creating effective visualizations:

Select the Appropriate Chart: Use bar charts to compare categories, line charts to display trends, and pie charts to show proportions.
Emphasize Key Metrics: Highlight critical data points using colors or formatting to make them stand out.
Use Clear Labels and Titles: Ensure your charts are easy to interpret at a glance by adding descriptive titles and labels.
Combine Visuals: Place multiple charts side by side to provide a more comprehensive view of your data.

Automating Google Analytics 4 Reports in Sheets Using OWOX: Reports, Charts & Pivots Extension

Automating Google Analytics 4 reports in Google Sheets seamlessly with the OWOX Reports Extension for Google Sheets. This tool allows you to effortlessly connect and query your GA4 data from BigQuery, enabling dynamic and automated reporting directly in Google Sheets.

Step 1: Collect Data from Various Sources

Google Analytics: Start by collecting data from your website using Google Analytics. This tool helps you gather valuable insights into user behavior and allows you to create a custom report that includes audience reports, specific metrics, and custom dimensions.

Google Sheets: Complement your data with information from other sources using Google Sheets. You can manually input data or import it from various data sources here.

Advertising Services: Add cost data from advertising services like Google Ads. You can also use tools like OWOX BI to integrate this data.

Step 2: Import Data into Google BigQuery

You can opt for the following methods:

[GA4] BigQuery Export: An integrated feature in GA4 for seamless data transfer to BigQuery, offering an automated, user-friendly process ideal for those seeking minimal configuration and ease of use.
Manual (CSV) Method: Involves exporting GA4 data manually into CSV format, allowing for detailed data manipulation before import. It is suitable for specific, controlled data handling but less efficient for large datasets.

However, these exports have key limitations, including delayed uploads and missing critical fields like traffic sources and transactions in intraday updates. Data distribution across multiple data centers causes further delays, making timely and complete reporting difficult, especially for free-tier users.

That's where OWOX BI can help. OWOX BI streaming ensures near-instant data export with minimal delays, capturing complete data, including traffic sources.

With secure storage across 10 EU locations, it supports privacy compliance and flexible data structures for GA4 schemas. Tailored to your needs, OWOX BI provides consistent, real-time data flow for seamless analytics.

Step 3: Prepare the Data

Now that your Google Analytics 4 data is in BigQuery, preparing it for analysis is essential. This step involves cleaning, transforming, and structuring your data.

Data Cleaning: Review your data for inconsistencies, missing values, or errors. Use SQL queries within BigQuery to clean the data as needed. For example, you can remove duplicate rows, filter out irrelevant data, or handle missing values.
Data Transformation: Depending on your reporting needs, you might need to transform your data. This could involve aggregating metrics, calculating new metrics, or joining tables. SQL queries in BigQuery are powerful for these tasks.
Data Schema: Define a proper data schema for your dataset. A schema specifies the structure of your data, including column names, data types, and descriptions. A well-defined schema makes your data more user-friendly.

💡 Learn how to unlock the full potential of your analytics with our latest article, Extract GA4 User Properties and Metrics. Discover actionable techniques to access and analyze user data in GA4, empowering smarter, data-driven decisions.

Step 4: Use OWOX Reports Extension for Google Sheets

1. Access the Extension in Google Sheets: Open a Google Sheets document, go to the 'Extensions' tab, and select 'OWOX: Reports, Charts & Pivots'. Then, choose 'Add a new report'.

2. Set Up the Data Export: Enter your Google BigQuery project details. Click on 'Add new query'.

3. Input and Save Your SQL Query: In the provided field, insert the SQL query you wish to use. This could be for uploading data to BigQuery or for retrieving and processing specific data. Give your query a descriptive name for easy identification.

4. Run the Query: Finalize the process by clicking 'Save & Run'. This action will execute your SQL query and export the data from BigQuery to your Google Sheets.

Step 5: Automate Report Updates

1. In the Extensions tab, select OWOX: Reports, Charts & Pivots → Scheduled refresh to begin scheduling reports for automated Google Analytics updates.

2. In the window that opens, set the time and frequency for report updates and click ”Save”.

3. Specify when to start scheduled reports using the SQL query and activate email alerts if needed. 4. Save the settings; your report will automatically update according to the schedule.

Advantages of Using Google BigQuery in This Process

Lightning-Fast Data Processing: BigQuery can analyze terabytes of data in seconds.
Scalable for Any Business: It suits both small startups and large enterprises.
Cost-Effective and Serverless: Pay only for what you use. No server management is required.
SQL and JavaScript Support: Flexible querying options.
Data Security: Compliant with major certifications, ensuring data safety.
Seamless Integration: Works well with other Google Cloud services.
Data Lifecycle Management: Easily manage data throughout its lifecycle.
Machine Learning Integration: Built-in support for machine learning models.

💡 Dive into our comprehensive guide, BigQuery: Everything You Need to Know, and explore the tools and strategies to harness the power of this data warehouse. Learn how BigQuery simplifies data analysis, helping you make smarter, faster decisions.

Challenges of Using Alternative Google Sheets Plugins

Using alternative Google Sheets plugins for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data import can present several challenges:

Data Accuracy and Consistency: Ensuring the accuracy and consistency of imported data can be challenging. Different plugins may interpret and import data in varying ways, leading to potential discrepancies.
Customization Limitations: Some plugins offer limited options for customizing data reports. Users with specific reporting needs may find these limitations restrictive.
Complex Set-Up for Advanced Features: Setting up advanced features in some plugins can be complex and time-consuming, requiring higher technical expertise.
Data Volume Handling: Handling large volumes of data efficiently can be challenging for some plugins, potentially leading to performance issues.

Resolve Automated Reporting Challenges with OWOX

The OWOX Reports Extension for Google Sheets effectively addresses many challenges of using alternative GA4 data import plugins.

Seamless Integration and Compatibility: This extension integrates easily with Google Sheets, ensuring compatibility and smooth data synchronization.
Ease of Use: It offers a user-friendly interface, reducing the learning curve for new users.
Advanced Features: The extension provides robust functionalities, including creating custom queries and building charts directly in Google Sheets.
Scheduled Updates: Users can set a scheduled email to show regular updates for their reports and dashboards, enhancing reliability.
Data Privacy and Security: The extension is built on the secure Google Cloud Platform, ensuring data privacy and security.
Support and Maintenance: OWOX provides support and maintains the extension, ensuring it stays up-to-date and functional.

Enhance your reporting capabilities and experience seamless integration with Google Sheets. To see how it can transform your data analysis process, consider booking a free trial today. Explore the potential and optimize your reporting strategy with OWOX BI BigQuery Reports.