How to Solve Google Analytics Data Sampling Problem?

Playing with GA data is a general scenario of a product manager's daily life, but sometimes you would have noticed different data set for the same query in a different date range/ dimensions.

Why fluctuation of data in Google analytics and how to resolve it?

Google Analytics is a free tool by Google but after a limit, it triggers sample data. As per the google, the following limit applies to Web Property / Property / Tracking ID:

• 10 million hits per month per property

What are hits and how to check hits quota? 

An interaction that results in data being sent to Analytics. Common hit types include page tracking hits, event tracking hits, and eCommerce hits.

PFB the steps to check the hits quota on Google Analytics:

1. Go to Admin
2. Click on Property Settings
3. Scroll down to “Property Hit Volume” section

As you can see in the above example, the last 30 days quota is exceeded. If we try to make a query in GA we may get sample data.

How to know your report contains sample data?

You can check the below icon. the green icon indicates no sampling in the data. If it’s not green then, you can click on it to check data sampling percentage.

After applying a secondary dimension(Source / Medium), we get to see data sampling in the report, as below:

Top 5 things to do reduce data sampling in Google Analytics:

• Audit your GA tracking: reduce some trackings if not required. For example, you can reduce GA events(If the site is stable we would always have option to check old GA events for future reference)
• Use a new GA ID for sub-domains or, different properties
• Exclude your internal IP(QA environments, etc.) to reduce unwanted data collection
• Use reports more often, when more than one dimension/ filters are required
• Use Google tag manager to set the sample rate for pageviews

Also, you can purchase the paid solution Analytics 360 of Google to reduce data sampling.

How to make a report in Google analytics with no sampling data?

Go to custom reports, select your matrics in the default tab. Now, if you want to know overall traffic and organic traffic separately; select below matric and dimension.

Once you save the report, no sampling should occur.

If you try to apply the same metrics and dimension in the "Landing Pages" section then, you get to see data sampling.

Please let me know if this is helpful. Happy to support if required.