Forum Discussion

cowork16's avatar
cowork16
Frequent Visitor
9 years ago
Solved

Data from Google Analytics Doesn't Match!

I'm trying to figure out why there are such large discrepancies in data between Google Analytics and Power BI. I know sampling can be an issue but that be the cause of such large differences? Here's ...
Need Help
  • v-haibl-msft's avatar
    v-haibl-msft
    9 years ago

    cowork16

     

    I've got response from the product team.

     

    This is expected behavior. The API we're using for Google Analytics is the one available to free users, and that API is known to return less accurate values for high volume sites due to the way it samples data. Unfortunately, the API for Google Analytics Premium customers is significantly different than that for the free users, so we'd need to implement a new connector specifically for Premium in order to get the more accurate values. This is not currently on our roadmap. Customers who would like to see this feature should request it or upvote it (if already there) at ideas.powerbi.com.

     

    Best Regards,

    Herbert

PaulDBrown's avatar
PaulDBrown
Community Champion
7 years ago

michaelbilling 

 

Thank you for the input. A question if I may...

I am working on a client with an average of 100 K monthly visitors (1.2 million a year). So if I wanted to include their GA data in a report, with historical trends etc, would that cause data discrepancies?

I understand the implications of aggregate data and the risks involved in using it in reports. But can't we simply replicate data (by avoiding re-aggregating in sums etc in PBI) as seen on GA? It defeats the prupose of PBI in terms of slicing etc..., but on the other hand allows to centralise reporting from different sources in PBI to make PBI the single reporting tool.

I guess what I find a bit disconcerting is the original poster's comment that the data as seen in the query editor in PBI si the same as seen on GA, but discrepancies occur in reports...

 

(BTW, I have looked at your product and it does sound very impressive, albeit I am not sure if this particular client wants to spend on extra tools when he can access data on GA for free). 

 

Please excuse my obvious ignorance regaring GA, but I haven't needed to use GA data in PBI before. (btw, does the same problem happen with data extracted from Facebook, Instagram etc?)

 

Thanks for your help,

Paul.

 

EDIT: as an afterthought, does Google Data Studio show the same discrepancies as we might find in PBI?

melany's avatar
melany
Advocate I
7 years ago

In my experience, Data Studio accurately reflects GA.  I even embedded a Data Studio report in a Power BI dashboard as a workaround.  But we are still struggling with needing to consume some GA data pieces with Power BI data.

  • PaulDBrown's avatar
    PaulDBrown
    Community Champion
    7 years ago

    melany 

     

    Can you share how you embed a Data Studio report in a POwer Bi Dashboard (or help me find the right resources)?

    Thanks!

    • melany's avatar
      melany
      Advocate I
      7 years ago

      PaulDBrown 

      You simply

      1. use Data Studio to connect to your Google Analytics account
      2. create the report in Data Studio
      3. enable embedding and copy the link
      4. open PowerBI.com and select the workspace dashboard you want the report to appear 
      5. Add Tile
      6. Select Web Content
      7. Paste the Data Studio report lin
      8. There you go!