Support for choosing the conversion counting method of each conversion event

[Stephen986]

GA4 allows for either counting multiple conversions in a session, or maxing out at one conversion per session (the traditional UA way). This can be configured separately for each conversion. Details here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/13366706?hl=en&utm_id=ad .

Currently, this package only supports the new way that counts multiple conversions in a session. There's two ways this could be supported:

1. Either separate out the conversion events that should be counted uniquely from the ones that should be counted in total with different project variables. ie if you only want 1 'download' to count, but want multiple 'purchases' to count, you'd put this in your dbt_project:
   per_event_conversion_events:['purchase'] (EDIT: this should just be 'conversion_events' so that people on previous versions don't have to update)
   per_session_conversion_events:['download']
2. For each conversion, add both a count_ field and a is____conversion field. ie a session with 3 purchases would have both a 'purchase_count' of 3 and an 'is_purchase_conversion' field of true.

Any thoughts on a preferred approach? I could attempt to implement.

[adamribaudo-velir]

I'm not sure I agree that the current implementation uses the 'once per session' methodology. As you can see in stg_ga4__session_conversions_daily, we simply run a countif on the conversion events (ce)

countif(event_name = '{{ce}}') as {{ce}}_count

So the current implementation is "once per event". If someone wanted to implement "once per session" it would be as simple as adding a new column calculated as {{ce}}_count >= 1 to the session fact table.

[Stephen986]

@adamribaudo-velir I said the same thing: "Currently, this package only supports the new way that counts multiple conversions in a session."

[adamribaudo-velir]

Sorry, I was thinking the 'new way' is once-per-session because Google just released that feature as part of GA4 :)

Given that Google provides this feature as an on/off configuration in the property, I would suggest we do something similar rather than count using both methods and potentially confusing users. What I would propose is:

• A new var conversion_count_method with values once-per-session and once-per-event that defaults to once-per-event
• If once-per-session, Update stg_ga4__sessions_conversions and stg_ga4__sessions_conversions_daily to swap out the countif() expression for an expression that will return a 1 if any conversion event is in the session and 0 otherwise.

So the column names would remain the same, but the calculation method would change depending on the new variable.

[Stephen986]

@adamribaudo-velir It's an on/off setting for each event!

[adamribaudo-velir]

oh wow. well that complicates things.

I'm ok with your option 1 but I'd like to support this in a way that doesn't require updates for existing users of the package. Perhaps we can keep the conversion_events variable and add a new, optional per_session_conversion_events variable as you describe.

I don't LOVE it, but it should make things smoother for users without causing too much confusion.

[Stephen986]

@adamribaudo-velir Makes sense to not break things for existing users. Just updated the description.