Google Analytics FAQ

You can open a Support ticket to have the discrepancies investigated if:

• The data gap observed at the pageview-level is > 10% and/or

• The data gap observed at the session-level is > 20%

• CS considers a session over after 30 minutes of inactivity. GA allows users to change this parameter (from a few seconds to several hours).

• GA starts a new session at midnight (in the Google Property timezone), irrespective of the 30-minute rule mentioned just above. So let’s say a real session starts at 11:00 PM and ends at 01:00 AM the next day: it will be split into 2 sessions in GA, while it’s not the case in CS.

• GA starts a new session when the campaign source changes: if a user lands on a page via a first campaign, leaves the page, and comes back to it via another campaign, then the visit will be split into 2 sessions in GA, while it’s not the case in CS.

Discrepancies can happen for a number of reasons: 

• CS tag issues in data collection
  • Ex: Adblocker extensions, network issues, the tag not being applied to subdomains or 404 pages while GA is applied to the entire site, or a cookie policy that relies on the site's end-user to accept. 
• Google Analytics sampling
  • If the traffic of your target GA view is > 1 million sessions a day, then Google samples your traffic before running the segmentation query. Sampling will prevent you from getting precise data for your GA segments in Contentsquare, but even with sampling, the integration can be very useful for understanding trends. 
  • You can reduce the traffic associated with the GA view associated with your integration to bypass this issue. 
• Differences in tag implementation
  • The Contentsquare tag is called after or before the GA tag (each second can add a 3 point gap).
  • The nature of the tag can be different (synchronous/asynchronous).
  • One tag can fire before the cookie acceptance while the other fires after (ideally they should both fire once the cookie is accepted). 

• Differences in perimeter
  • The compatible browsers are different. Ex: CS is only guaranteeing tag execution on Internet Explorer 11+
  • The property you are using in GA is not on the same perimeter as CS (different domains, subdomains, inclusion/exclusion of staging environments...) 
  • filters applied in both tools could be different (especially on the IP addresses). 
  • The bot exclusion rules could be different and not shared. 
  • The sampling methods differ
  • The timezone could be different and impact daily data, especially on transactions. CS data is saved on UTC time. 
  • Both tools use the browser’s user agent for device definition (desktop/tablet/mobile) but they are not using the same library, which can lead to gaps only on specific devices (such as mobile). 

• Differences in metric calculation
  • Session definition: CS considers a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. GA allows its customers to change this parameter. The sampling method and IP exclusion could also impact the number of sessions measured on a given period. 
  • Session duration and time spent on exit page: CS collects all the interactions on a page and the end of the session corresponds to the timestamp of the last packet of events sent. It is not the case in GA and time spent depends on the custom events set up on the exit page.
  •  Bounce rate definition: CS defines the bounce rate as the percentage of users with only one pageview. In GA, only visitors who do not trigger a tracked event on the landing page are considered as bounces. 
  • " data-renderer-mark="true">Load time: CS calculates load time from when the DOM first becomes interactive. The GA definition of page load time takes into account the entire timeline for page load, which includes a couple of steps beyond DOM ready. This means our load time would be less than that of GA. 
  • Transactions: CS counts the number of visits with a transaction whereas GA counts the number of transactions. 
  • Revenue: A transaction made in a different currency than the one set up in CS (€) is not converted. Revenue can therefore be higher or lower in GA.

There is a limit of 200 segments across all Contentsquare integrations that can be imported.

When you delete a Google Analytics segment in Contentsquare, it will not be synchronized anymore and will be deleted only in Contentsquare.

We will not be able to synchronize it anymore and will return an error. You will have to delete it in Contentsquare as well.

After the update, we automatically start to collect the updated data. However, the previous data will not be updated. If you want to make large changes in the segment parameters, we recommend you create a new segment.

The new segment name will be automatically synchronized to CS Digital.

Contentsquare automatically uses a distinguishing naming convention to prevent confusion:

[GOOGLE 360 ] [Integration Name] Segment Name

Ex: If you have two integrations "FR" and "US" to query two different GA views and both use the segment "SEO", the segments will be named "[GOOGLE360] [US] SEO" and "[GOOGLE360] [FR] SEO". 

Yes, when you import a segment, you now get the past 72 hours data retroactively. This works only for already existing integrations, not for a newly created one. It can take about an hour for this retroactive data to show on CS Digital.

The "Pending" status on the integration request means the synchronization did not start yet. It can take up to 24 hours to activate. When the status changes to "Turned on" the integration is complete and data will be available in Contentsquare. 

1. Install the CS Live chrome extension.

2. Make sure you are logged into Contentsquare in a separate tab.

3. Create a Custom Report in GA based on the custom dimension used for the GA integration you created in Contentsquare.

5. You should see the Contentsquare Session replay link next to the matching key that has the replay.

6. Click on any link to watch it in Contentsquare's Session replay feature.

1. Copy the exact csMatchingkey string from the GA Contentsquare report for the session replay you are looking to surface in the Session replay feature. 

2. Go to the Session replay feature in Contentsquare.

3. Use your Analysis context to build a Dynamic variable segment using the conditions shown below.

4. Paste the string into the "String" with a value that "equals" _____ field. 

5. Click 'Apply' 

Please verify that you are using Contentsquare with https.

Google Analytics does not support the main use case associated with Google Universal Analytics: pulling in segment from Google Analytics. We do not have any estimated date for Google Analytics 4 to support this use case.

Contentsquare does not support sending session replay links to Google Analytics currently. However, we are able to send Live Signals to Google Analytics and are integrated with other analytics platforms like Adobe Analytics, Eurlerian, and Pianos (Coming soon). 

For Google 360 users migration is not required until July 2024.