Understanding User Counts in Google Analytics 4
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Understanding User Counts in Google Analytics
21 Oct 2024Are you finding strange anomalies in the count of Users, New User and Returning Users in your Google Analytics reporting?
Have you ever looked at your Google Analytics User data and felt like something was off? Maybe your numbers didn't quite add up, or you saw strange anomalies in your user counts.
Well, you're not alone! Let's dive into the world of Google Analytics user metrics and uncover some of the mysteries that can arise.
The Case of Undercounted Returning Users and Overcounted New Users
The count of New Users is overcounted – this screenshot is from an Intranet where almost everyone should be a Returning User First, let's talk about returning users. These are folks who've visited your website before. But commonly the count of Returning Users is strangely low.
On the flip side, you might find that your New User count is higher than it should be.
Why? Well, it turns out that Google Analytics isn't very good at recognizing returning visitors. If someone switches browsers or device, or uses incognito mode, it can get confused and think they're a new user.
When you visit a website for the first time, Google Analytics will allocate you a unique identifier via the User cookie, and identifies 'returning users' through the use of Cookies and Google Signals (i.e. where visitors are signed in Chrome users)
However, cookies are stored on your devices browser - so if you return on another device, or browser, you are likely to be counted as a New User.
If you visit Incognito or in Private Browsing mode, or clean your cookies, you are also likely to be counted as a New User.
Another possibility is that you might have some pesky bots or spammers artificially inflating your numbers. Bots tend to be reported as New Users.
You can't do anything about this - you just have to bear it in mind that everyone gets an undercount of returning users, and the count of 'New Users' is always an overcount.
Users, Active Users and Total Users - What's the Difference?
You can edit your metrics in standard reports to compare User counts Things can get even more confusing when you try to add up your new users and returning users - the total doesn't match the count of Users!
To understand why, first, we have to understand how the User metrics are calculated.
Just to add some extra joy to our lives Google Analytics has three metrics for Users :-)
The count of 'Users' includes both new and returning visitors.
However, in GA4 the count of 'Users' is, by default, the count of 'Active Users', not the count of 'Total Users'.
'Active Users' are users who visit your website and spend over 10 seconds on your site.
'Total Users' is a count of all users - active and inactive.
A website visitor who triggers a first_visit event, but leaves within 10 seconds, is likely to be counted as a Total User but not an Active User.
Anomalies in your User count
Here are some of the scenarios where your user data may look odd.
Scenario 1: You have more New Users than Users
If you are seeing more 'New Users' than 'Users' in your Google Analytics account, this may be because you have lots of visitors, bots, spiders etc that are visiting your website but not spending longer than 10 seconds on the site.
These visitors will be reported as 'New Users' but not be reported as Users as they are not 'Active Users'.
It could also be that your website is being visited by a spam bot that is inflating your 'new user' count.
In GA, the "first_visit" event is an Automatically Collected Event, and most people think that only Google Analytics generates this Event.
However, technically, this Event can be generated and transmitted to GA by anyone.
Consequently, the 'New Users' metric can be artificially inflated, either inadvertently, or intentionally by malicious parties seeking to manipulate your data.
(Users of Google Analytics are used to seeing spammy referral data in our accounts - again this is people transmitting data into our Analytics accounts.)
Scenario 2: New Users + Returning Users equals MORE than the count of Users
The count of New and Returning users is greater than the count of Total Users This scenario is likely to be caused by one, or probably both, of the reasons below.
1. You are getting lots of 'visits' where there is no engagement. So you get a New User or Returning User that does not qualify as an Active User.
If your New User count is significantly larger than the Active User count it would probably be because a bot/automated script is pinging your site, creating a single page_view without any engagement.
Another case in mind, is an Intranet which is automatically loaded on users pcs when they start up. In this case there will be lots of single page views without any engagement. So 'Returning Users' outnumber 'Active Users'.
2. If you use the metric 'Total Users', you can still find that the number of New Users + Returning Users is greater than the 'Total User' count.
This is simply because you can be a 'Returning User' and a 'New User' in the set date period.
If you visit a website as a new user, and then return, (within the reporting date period and if Google is able to track you for both visits), you will be counted as a 'New User' and 'Returning User'.
Scenario 3 - New Users + Returning Users equals LESS than the count of Users
If you find that the count of new and returning users is fewer than the count of users in Google Analytics, this could be for a number of reasons, such as:
- You have lots of users using Incognito or InPrivate browsing mode. Google identifies that there is a user but cannot check if they are new or returning. In such cases, these users are usually reported as New Users but it is possible that there is a User counted but no New or Returning User identified.
- You have lots of visitors who reject cookies. Google may report these as a user but cannot identify them as a new or returning user.
- Google is predicting users who are arriving on your website via an app (eg lots of Social Media visitors) or on a device/browser with high privacy settings. Google may pick up that the website has a visitor and report a User but cannot check if they are a new or returning user because the Client IDs are not shared by the app source or their device/browser due to privacy settings.
However, it is more likely that your website is being visited by a spam bot that is inflating your 'user' count.
- Another possibility is that your tracking is not correctly implemented, and you need to check you are not double counting users using the debug mode.
New users and active users should never exceed Total users. If they do you have a problem with your tracking or a spam bot.
The Great User Detective
Exploration Report So, how can you solve these mysteries? Well, it's like being a detective in the world of Google Analytics.
You'll need to examine your data closely, look for patterns, and consider the different factors that can influence your user counts.
If you want to see the data in a clearer way, you can create an Exploration Report with the metrics:
- - Active Users
- - Total Users
- - New Users
- - Returning Users
- - Sessions
- - Engaged Sessions
- - Engagement Rate (% of Engaged Sessions)
This should provide some insight into what is happening.
PS. Also remember that your User count could also include some predictive data.
And if you're still stumped, you can try Googling it! Or reach out to Google Analytics expert or take a course with M Training.
Click here for our Google Analytics courses
References
Understand User Metrics - Google Analytics https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12253918?hl=en
Author
Martin Woodfield is a Digital Marketing Trainer, running courses for M Training and various universities. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has worked for some of the UKs leading companies. He has 20 years experience in digital marketing and has worked in senior marketing roles for over 30 years.
