Pipeline GA4 Tables - Client Table
- Table name:
ga4_mrt_clients - Scoping: Client Level
- Table Contains: Client level dimensions & metrics.
- Each Row Presents: One row per client.
Each row of this table represents someone using your site on one day and information about what they did.
It’s not a “true” user however, it’s a unique browser + device. So if you access from a phone and laptop, that would be two rows.
We call this browser + device - a client. In GA4 this is a user, if you’ve done no additional set-up.
Why don’t we call it a user?
Please see here to see the difference between Client ID and User ID.Dimensions - Keys
Keys are unique IDs that help track and organise data.
In this table there are unique identifiers for clients and for the steam.
Dimensions - Dates
The table contains several date fields based on when the user visited the site.
These date fields come in different formats - both timestamp and date.
If you are unsure of which column to use, use date__pt_dt (Pt Dt) as this is the partition column.
Use what what a parition column is? See this section.
Dimensions - First Session Attribution
These dimensions provide information about the users first session on the site/ app.
First user dimensions are the most logical way of interacting with user (client) metrics as this is the best way to understand how they came to the site initially.
Example: By looking at the dim__first_source_session we can see the source for the first session for this specific user.
Dimensions - Last Non Direct Attribution
These dimensions relate to the first user interaction with the site using the Last Non-Direct Click (LNDC) attribution method. This is the GA4 default attribution method.
This method attributes the traffic acquisition to the last channel the user clicked through to the site over the past 90 day period (though you can customise this yourself), excluding direct visits.
Example: By looking at the dim__first_source_lndc we can see the source for the first session for this specific user based on the last interaction that was not direct.
Dimension - Traffic Source All Time
These dimensions are provided directly by GA4 and provide information about the traffic source that first acquired the user.
Dimensions - Device
These dimensions provide information about the device which the user used to interact with the site/app on their first user session.
Dimensions - Landing Page
These dimensions relate to the first Landing Page the user came across, or in other words, the first page that the user came to on the app/ website to start the session.
Dimensions - Location Information
These dimensions relate to the location of the first user session based on the IP address.
Dimensions - Paid Dimensions
These dimensions relate to the paid traffic sources.
These can be broken down into:
- First Daily - These are the first paid interactions with the site by a user on a given day.
- Last Non Direct - These are the last paid interactions with the site by a user on a given day.
Dimensions - Other
This is a combination of other miscellaneous dimensions.
Metrics
This is all the metrics which can be combined with the dimensions listed above.
There are some metrics such as Users, Active Users and Returning Users, which will need to be calculated using formulas - as these need to be calculated at the final stage of data visualisation. Why is that? See the FAQ on this page