Page dimensions & metrics (GA4)

A lot of Google Analytics 4 dimensions and metrics can be derived straight from the tables without performing calculations on the data. With the help of unnest and parse for dates or timestamps we can do the trick.

Other dimensions and metrics that you might need are a bit harder to access. You will have to (re)calculate them, which can require some serious SQL-skills.

While designing the course Query GA4 Data In Google BigQuery I've learned a lot about best practices to calculate dimensions and metrics. To share this knowledge with you I will provide a combined query for default dimensions and metrics, and a single example query for every non-default dimension or metric.

As always, drop a line in the comments if you have any questions, feedback or suggestions related to this article.

Default page tracking dimensions

• hostname

select
    device.web_info.hostname,
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
group by
    hostname
order by
    page_views

Calculated page tracking dimensions

• page (location)

select
    (select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location') as page,
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
group by
    page
order by
    page_views desc

• previous page (location)

select
    lag((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'), 1) over (partition by user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'ga_session_id') order by event_timestamp asc) as previous_page
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• page path level 1/2/3

select
    case when split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(4)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)] = '' then null else concat('/',split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(4)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)]) end as pagepath_level_1,
    case when split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(5)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)] = '' then null else concat('/',split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(5)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)]) end as pagepath_level_2,
    case when split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(6)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)] = '' then null else concat('/',split(split((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'),'/')[safe_ordinal(6)],'?')[safe_ordinal(1)]) end as pagepath_level_3,
        countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
group by
    pagepath_level_1,
    pagepath_level_2,
    pagepath_level_3
order by
    page_views desc

• page title

select
    (select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_title') as page_title,
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
group by
    page_title
order by
    page_views desc

• landing page

select
    case when (select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'entrances') = 1 then (select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location') end as landing_page,
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
group by
    landing_page
having
    landing_page is not null
order by
    page_views desc

• second page

select
    case when (select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'entrances') = 1 then lead((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location'), 1) over (partition by user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'ga_session_id') order by event_timestamp asc) else null end as second_page
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• exit page

select
    case when (select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location') = first_value((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location')) over (partition by user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'ga_session_id') order by event_timestamp desc) then ( select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location') else null end as exit_page
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

Calculated page tracking metrics

• entrances

select
    count(case when (select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'entrances') = 1 then concat(user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where key = 'ga_session_id')) end) as entrances
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• page views

select
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') as page_views
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• unique pageviews

select
    count(distinct case when event_name = 'page_view' then concat(user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where key = 'ga_session_id')) end) as unique_pageviews
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• pages per session

select
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') / count(distinct concat(user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where key = 'ga_session_id'))) as pages_per_session
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• pages per user

select
    countif(event_name = 'page_view') / count(distinct concat(user_pseudo_id)) as pages_per_session
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))

• exits

with prep as (
select
    user_pseudo_id,
    (select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'ga_session_id') as session_id,
    event_timestamp,
    first_value((select value.string_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'page_location')) over (partition by user_pseudo_id,(select value.int_value from unnest(event_params) where event_name = 'page_view' and key = 'ga_session_id') order by event_timestamp desc) as exit_page
from
    -- change this to your google analytics 4 export location in bigquery
    `ga4bigquery.analytics_250794857.events_*`
where
    -- define static and/or dynamic start and end date
    _table_suffix between '20240701'
    and format_date('%Y%m%d',date_sub(current_date(), interval 1 day))
    and event_name = 'page_view')

select
    exit_page,
    count(distinct concat(user_pseudo_id,session_id)) as exits
from 
    prep
group by 
    exit_page
having 
    exit_page is not null 
order by 
    exits desc