Google Analytics Universal Analytics Services Cease Guide
Confused about a recent Google Analytics Universal Analytics notification email? Find out how to export your UA data before the July 1, 2024 deadline with Google Sheets.
"All Universal Analytics Services Cease To Function Starting July 1, 2024"
If you've seen this phrase, your email is associated with one or more legacy Google Universal Analytics (GA UA) accounts. Google sent this email out on April 2, 2024, to confirm they are in the last steps of sunsetting GA UA. The email specifically calls out exporting your GA UA data and being mindful of any GA UA product integrations that will break once the GA API is discontinued. The full email is below:
Google Universal Analytics Is Officially Discontinued - July 1, 2023
By this date, you should have already implemented a new instance of Google Analytics 4 or completed Google's guide to migrate your existing implementation to a new Google Analytics 4 instance. If you're confused about the differences between the two, explore Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics: Top 10 Differences.
Google Universal Analytics Stops Collecting New Data - Early-Mid September 2023
Google Universal Analytics actually stopped collecting visitor, pageview, and event data around early-mid September 2023. Even if you still have GA UA implemented on your website you won't see any new data after this date (everything will show up as zeros).
Google Universal Analytics APIs End - July 1, 2024
Per the above email, this is the date Google is discontinuing all outstanding related GA UA services such as APIs which will break existing third-party integrations, Google Adwords to GA UA integrations, audience lists and Looker Studio reports that rely on the API. Google explicitly states access the web interface for GA UA will end on July 1, 2024 as well. This means you have until July 1, 2024, to export your legacy Google Analytics Universal Analytics reporting data or lose it permanently.
How To Export Google Analytics Universal Analytics Data
Google's email references (and suggests) BigQuery as an export option, though if you are a smaller organization/website you likely aren't using BigQuery or another data lake technology. Your best option in this case is to export the data via the (still functional) GA UA API. The easiest way to do this is with the legacy GA UA Google Sheets plugin.
Exporting Google Analytics Universal Analytics via API & Google Sheets
Confirm You're Exporting GA UA & Determine Your Data Time Range
Log into your GA UA profile to confirm you're accessing a GA UA account and confirm what time range you are looking to export. You'll know you're looking at a GA UA profile if you see a big migration warning. You really can't miss it!
Pull a large time range of data to confirm when you started and ended collecting GA UA data. In my example, I identified Dec 1 2019 through June 30, 2021.
Install Google Analytics Universal Analytics Google Sheets Plugin
Make sure to log in to the Google profile with access to the UA account and install the Google Analytics Universal Sheets plugin. This is the link: Google Analytics Universal Analytics Google Sheets Plugin. This is the plugin documentation link: Google Analytics Universal Analytics Google Sheets Documentation.
Make sure the plugin says "Google Analytics" not Google Analytics 4, Report Builder, or similar. Once you've installed the plugin and refreshed sheets, select the plugin and you'll see a screen like below where you can configure your report and metrics.
Define Your Export Data & Metrics
Depending on your implementation complexity and data volume, you'll want to define what data to export. You can use the GA UA query explorer to combine different metrics and segments and test pulling small amounts of data to see if the dimensions are compatible.
Make sure you select GA UA in the top left and then type in any metric/dimension and you'll see the API name. For example, to pull data by date you'll see ga:date.
Notably - you'll find that some dimensions are not compatible (even if they were before July 1, 2023). For example, if you try to combine source/medium with hostname, country or device type (mobile/desktop/tablet) you'll get 0's in your reports.
Run A Sample Report
Using your Google sheet report configuration or the template below, export your data.
Determine Your Sampling Threshold
Depending on how many dimensions you combine, how much data you're exporting, and how long the time range is you're exporting you may see your API export sampled. In this case, your report sheet will show "Contains sampled data: Yes". In this case you have two options - either simplify your report threshold or pull a smaller set of data. For example, if you're pulling a year's worth of data and get sampling, pull a quarter's worth of data at a time, or even a month.
Google Analytics Universal Analytics API Export Template
For most websites using the standard GA UA implementation without much customization - you'll want to run a few standard user reports (as users are a metric continued in GA 4), a page view report, and an event export.
You can use the below Google Sheets plugin link to do so - clone the Google sheet, change your Google Analytics profile ID and time range, and hit run report.
