Google Analytics 4 notes/limitations
What to know before you build GA4 widgets in DashThis, including permissions, unsupported views, metric compatibility, result limits, and Google's data quotas.
Grant every permission when you connect
When you connect Google Analytics 4, make sure to grant every permission DashThis requests.
- Check all the boxes: if any permission is left unchecked during authorization, your widgets can fail with a permissions error.
- How to fix it: reconnect the source and confirm that every checkbox is selected before you continue.
What DashThis does not support
DashThis reports on your GA4 data as metrics and dimensions in tables and charts. GA4's reporting API does not return its Exploration views as data, so these cannot be pulled into any reporting tool, including DashThis:
- Conversion paths
- Path explorations
- User flow and user path diagrams
Google offers funnel explorations only through a pre-release (alpha) version of its API, so those are not supported yet either.
As a workaround, take a screenshot of the visualization in GA4 and add it to a Comment widget on your dashboard.
How advertising metrics work
Advertising metrics (such as ad cost, ad clicks, and return on ad spend) can only be combined with a specific set of advertising, campaign, source, and medium dimensions.
- Pairing rule: if you pair an advertising metric with an unsupported dimension, the widget returns an error. Keep them with ads, campaign, source, or medium dimensions.
- Single-value widgets: these metrics also work in single-value widgets, where DashThis automatically groups them by campaign for you.
When a metric and dimension will not work together
GA4 does not allow every metric to be combined with every dimension. If you select an incompatible combination, your widget shows this message:
- “Oops, the metric(s), dimension and filter(s) you selected cannot be used together.”
To fix it, remove or swap the conflicting metric, dimension, or filter. This most often happens when an item-scoped dimension (like Item name) is paired with an event-scoped metric (like Event count).
The 1,000 row limit
A single dimensioned widget returns up to 1,000 rows.
- What this means: if your breakdown has more values than that, only the top rows for your selected sort order are shown.
Quotas: why a widget shows “quota reached”
Google limits how much data can be pulled from GA4 in a given time, for every property connected to GA4. This rule applies to everyone, and it protects the system from overload.
- What you see: when a widget hits that limit, DashThis shows a “quota reached” message and tells you when to check back, for example after the next hour or after midnight Pacific Time.
- What to do: nothing on your end. This is a Google restriction, not a DashThis error, so your data returns on its own once the quota resets.
You can read more on Google’s Limits and Quotas on API Requests page.
Need help with Google Analytics 4?
Contact our Support Team here 💪🏼
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