In the fast-changing digital marketing field, understanding audience behavior is most crucial. Google Analytics 4 is an extremely helpful tool for gaining insights into user interaction with websites or apps. Of the many dimensions it includes are user-scoped and session-scoped dimensions, which become two of its most vital features that can make so much difference in data analysis. But when should you use each? Let’s break it down.
What Are User-Scoped Dimensions?
In GA4, the dimensions on a user scope track data at the user level. This means that the kind of dimensions described here provide an overview of the history of each user’s interaction with a website or application. More precisely, user-scoped dimensions tell you where new users are coming from. Dimensions are assigned a value that remains the same across all subsequent visits that users make to your site or app.
Key Points:
- Consistency: When a value is set to a user-scoped dimension, this value persists across new visits.
- First User Primary Source / Medium: Examples of dimensions at the user scope which denote where the user first landed.
What Are Session-Scoped Dimensions?
Whereas session-scoped dimensions track data per session, whereby every time a user initiates another new session on your site or in-app, another set of values will be assigned to these dimensions. They become very instrumental in understanding the context of each visit, whether based on a new or returning visitor.
Key Points:
- Dynamic updates: Values change with each new session. Refreshing perspective on user behavior.
- Session Primary Source / Medium: Examples of session-scoped dimensions that tell where each session originated from.
Which Dimension to Use & When?
The choice between user-scoped and session-scoped dimensions is founded on what is most important in your analytics: either individual user journeys or how each individual session is performing.
When to Use Session-Scoped Dimensions
Session-scoped dimensions are very close to Universal Analytics reporting. If you’re a person looking mostly at the performance of individual sessions—things like campaign performance or user behavior during specific visits—then session-scoped dimensions are what you want.
Examples of use cases:
- Campaign Analysis: Knowing where each visit is coming from will help in assessing the efficiency of marketing campaigns.
- Session performance: Knowing user engagement, behavior during specific visits for the purpose of optimization, or any improvements to the site content or layout.
When to Use User-scoped Dimensions
The user-scoped dimensions are perfect when you really want to know the long-term value and origin of each user. For example, if you want to identify which user acquisition channels are performing best or see how users’ cumulative behavior is performing over time, the way to go is with user-scoped dimensions.
Use cases:
- User Acquisition: Knowing which sources can drive the most valuable users
- Lifetime Value: The kind of long-term engagement and retention across multiple sessions is in tracking for users.
The Wrap Up
While in GA4, both user-scoped and session-scoped dimensions have different advantages, knowing when to apply either one of them can make a huge difference in your analysis. If you do these dimensions correctly, it will really help you understand how your users behave in a much better way, thus optimizing the marketing strategies for better results in your business.
Ready to take your analytics to the next level? Schedule a call with one of our experts to help refine your strategy and make the most of the powerful features in GA4.