Documentation

What is the Data threshold?

Data threshold is a mechanism in Google Analytics that applies system-defined limits to reports and explorations to protect individual users' identities and sensitive information, impacting data access in reports with specific demographics, interests, or other detailed signals.

When the data in a report or exploration is limited due to data thresholds, the data quality indicator at the top of the report includes the message, "Google Analytics has applied thresholding to one or more cards in this report and will only display the data in the cards when the data meets the minimum aggregation thresholds."

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You can learn more about GA4 Data threshold in the official Google article.

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When Data thresholds are applied

Demographics data

Data may be withheld when viewing a report or exploration or making an API call that includes demographic data or audiences defined using demographic data.

Google signals

Data may be withheld when Google signals is enabled and either the blended or observed reporting identity is used, and you have a low user count in the specified date range. When Google signals has been enabled, reports with low user counts may continue to be subject to thresholding for a period of time after Google signals is disabled. If the device-based reporting identity is used, you should not see data thresholding.

Search query information

If a report or exploration includes search query information, the row containing that data may be withheld if there aren’t enough total users.

How does the Data threshold affect Improvado reports?

For Improvado reports, Data thresholding means that some data can be lost and you won’t receive all the information in your report. To give you more transparency into your data, we added a new Subject to Thresholding field to all GA4 tables that indicates when the Data Threshold is applied or not.

What can I do to decrease the likelihood of Data thresholding in my reports?

Exclude “Users” metric from reports

Data Threshold is sensitive to the types of metrics included in a report. Data Threshold will not be activated if your report excludes user metrics like Total Users, Active Users, and Event Counts Per User. This exclusion is critical in reports where individual user data is less relevant, ensuring a clearer and more holistic view of the data.

Exclude dimensions with search query information from reports

Reduce the number of dimensions with search query information from your reports. This may increase the number of total users, enabling you to see the previously thresholded data.

Disable Google signals in your reporting identity

Google Signals can significantly impact your data reporting, particularly in demographic reports and remarketing in Google Ads. If there's no intention to use these features, it’s advisable to disable Google Signals.To manage this, navigate to Admin > Data Setting > Data Collection in the GA4 UI, and disable Include Google signals in reporting identity option.

Adjust the date range

Data may be withheld when viewing a report or exploration within a narrow date range if you have low user or event counts in that date range. Expanding the date range may increase the number of users who triggered an event, enabling you to see the previously thresholded data.