Hi all. We want to let you know about upcoming changes to the Google Analytics data that you receive for your Envato Market account.
Note: This is an unlisted forum thread as the information here is only relevant to authors who have previously been using GA on their Market accounts: it’s accessible via a direct link (like the email that probably brought you in to this topic), but we don’t want to confuse any authors who have not previously used analytics, as they won’t have access to this data.
In summary: we will continue to provide you with access to behavioral analytics for your Envato Market account, but the format this takes will be changing.
What’s changing?
On July 1, Google will be closing down their GA3 product. After this point, analytics data will not be sent to any GA3 properties. In order to provide continuity of service to Authors who currently use Google Analytics data, we will supply you with weekly reports that contain analytics data in the current Universal Analytics format.
How will I get my data?
From the first week of June, you will be able to download weekly data for your account. We’ll be providing Audience, Pages, Geo and Campaigns reports in CSV format. You’ll receive detailed instructions on how to access these, when the new reports are available.
Do I need to do anything?
If you have already supplied a Google Analytics property ID through your account details page, we will generate these reports for you automatically. If you are using custom parameters in your URL (see more info here), it is critical that the Author ID value passed through the aid query parameter exactly matches your Author name as shown on site.
Why can’t I receive GA4 data for my Envato Market account?
The GA4 data model is very different to Universal Analytics (GA3) and requires significant changes to the way we collect, report, analyse and transport data - it is not an out-of-the-box solution. Additionally, though it is officially out of Beta, we expect the GA4 platform to continue evolving over the next year.
At this stage it’s unclear how or even if we’ll be able to send data to your GA4 properties. This is a temporary measure that will ensure you still have access to important analytics while we work towards a more sustainable solution.
FAQs
Will Envato keep providing this data in the future?
- At this stage, we’re not entirely sure what this will look like. We know this data is important to help you with your own marketing activities, and we aim to keep providing you with the most important behavioral analytics.
Can I use this with/import this into my GA4 account?
We don’t believe so. The data we provide through these reports is based on the traditional Universal Analytics (GA3) data model. The GA4 data model is entirely different to Universal Analytics. See this article for more information.
What do I need to do to get these manual reports?
If you have already supplied a Google Analytics property ID through your account details page, then we will generate the reports for you automatically.
- The reports will be provided on a new tab in the logged-in area of your account.
- Important: If you use query strings in your URLs, it is critical that the Author ID value passed through the aid query parameter exactly matches your Author name as shown onsite. This is because we can no longer rely on a specific Google Analytics property ID and therefore need a different method to associate incoming traffic with the right Author.
Why can’t you send my Envato Market account data to my GA4 property?
With GA4, Google has significantly changed the way it records customer behavioural data. GA3 (and earlier iterations of Google Analytics) was centered around the concept of Sessions and pageviews, whereas GA4 is all about Events. This significantly changes the way we have to collect, report, analyse and transport behavioural information and these changes will take time to be rolled out across Envato properties.
At this stage it’s unclear how or even if we’ll be able to send data to external GA4 properties. This temporary measure will allow you to see important analytics while we work on a more sustainable solution.
GA4 has been available since 2020, why aren’t you ready?
Envato is not actually “migrating” from GA3 to GA4. Instead, we are using this change in the Google Analytics collection model to better understand and configure our own internal analytics. This means we are building our own data models from the ground up. Some of that data will go to GA4 under some circumstances, but the GA4 platform itself is not our main priority.
- GA4 was released in October 2020, but they only announced that GA3 would be deprecated in March 2022 - before that point it was unclear if GA4 would actually replace GA3.
- Despite being out of beta, Google continues to change the way GA4 works. This makes it challenging to implement across a large and complex product set in a consistent way.
If you have questions about the new reports, please ask them here and I can raise them with our Data team for you.
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