In Part 1 of this tutorial, which you can find here, we began to introduce the potential you can exploit with Google Analytics 4.
Briefly, you have the ability to enhance your web analysis and marketing campaigns by creating user segments, which you can in turn create by leveraging custom properties.
Starting with version 2.2.0 of My Agile Pixel, we have introduced a feature that is both simple and powerful to create these custom, privacy-compliant user properties.
Imagine you have an e-commerce site containing products, generic items, and pages specifically aimed at sales. Here is an example of a possible configuration.
Part 1 – Configuring My Agile Pixel
To access this interface, simply navigate to My Agile Pixel > Tracking User Properties.
Here’s what you’ll find:
- On the left side, you’ll see the menu items.
- On the right side, you’ll find information specific to the menu item clicked.
Click on “User Property List.” Here, you can enter the user properties we’ve outlined:
- is_blog
- is_commercial_post
- is_product
These correspond to generic articles, commercial articles, and product pages, respectively.
You can add or remove items by clicking the plus and minus buttons. Here’s what the screen will look like after entering the information:
It’s recommended to use lowercase characters and avoid spaces. Instead, separate words describing the property using hyphens or underscores.
Once you’ve entered the properties, click on “Save Settings,” and you’re ready for the next step.
Part 2 – Configuring Google Analytics 4
You’ll then navigate to the Google Analytics 4 control panel, select the desired Analytics property, and go to the “Custom Definitions” menu item.
You’ll see a screen similar to the following:
Then click on “Create custom dimension.”
A form will appear where you simply need to paste the information you entered for each individual property.
Here’s how to enter the “is_blog” dimension:
- For Dimension Name, choose “is_blog.”
- For Scope, select “user.”
- For Description, you can enter a brief description of the property, along with an optional entry date.
- For User Property, you’ll again indicate “is_blog.”
Repeat the process for each user property you created until you have a result similar to the following:
Part 3 – Association properties to pages and articles
Back in My Agile Pixel, the final step is to associate user properties with pages and articles on your website.
For instance, by navigating to the “Post Type List” menu, you can associate the “is_blog” property with all articles on your site.
To do this, select “Active” with the user property “catch all” and specify the property “is_blog” as shown in the screenshot below:
Alternatively, for a granular configuration, i.e., item by item, you can choose the “Active – custom” option, as illustrated in the image below:
Don’t forget to click on “Save Settings” to confirm the selected configuration.
Part 4 – Verification
All that’s left is to verify the effective tracking of user properties.
To do this, we recommend temporarily enabling debugging data submission. You can find this setting in the My Agile Pixel menu > Google Analytics 4, where you’ll select the option to Send debugging information to Google Analytics.
Once saved, return to the Google Analytics 4 dashboard and open the “Debugview” screen. Then, visit one of the pages you’ve configured for custom property activation. After a few seconds, the screen should display the tracked data as shown below:
That’s correct. The highlighted entry in orange indicates the transfer of ownership that has occurred.
This means that the user (in this case, you) has visited a page that is commercial in nature.
Bonus: what about Google Tag Manager?
If you’re using Google Tag Manager to send additional user properties, your configuration is perfectly suitable, thanks to the compatibility of Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and My Agile Pixel. We recommend reading the article “How to Make the Most of Tag Manager with My Agile Pixel” to ensure you’re as compliant as possible.
How to use this information to enhance web analysis and web marketing?
Please continue to follow us for the third and final part of this tutorial, where we’ll provide all the information for building user segments. These segments are crucial for reporting and web marketing purposes.
Stay tuned for the next installment, “How to leverage GA4’s user properties with My Agile Pixel to enhance web analysis and marketing.”
