Collecting accurate statistics sounds easy, but it’s not as easy as you think. An Analytics account is your gateway to Analytics. An account can include multiple properties and property types such as Data Streams, Events, or Conversions, but a property can belong to only one Analytics account, thus, you need to think smart about your analytics gateway.
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A property lives within an account. Properties are the containers for your reports based on the data you collect from your apps and websites. It’s the level at which Analytics processes data and where Analytics can connect with other Google products like Google Ads, Search Ads 360, and Big Query.
A data stream lives within a property and is the source of data from your app or website. A property can have one or many data streams, such as Web (for websites), IOS (for IOS apps), or Android (for Android apps) which are a flow of data from your website or app to Analytics. So, it’s important to think smartly about your Analytics gateway.
In Analytics, data is processed using all available identity spaces. First, Analytics looks for User-ID because this feature uses the data you collect. Next, it tries Google signals, and finally, if there isn’t a match for either, it relies on the device ID. From there, Analytics creates a single user journey from all the data associated with the same identity.
Think smart about your analytics gateway
Because these identity spaces are used in all reports, they allow you to de-duplicate users, cleaning up your data base, and tell a more holistic, unified story about each relationship with your business, thus Analytics creates a single users journey from all the data associated with that same identity.
- To use User ID as an identity space, you need to send data to Analytics.
- You can use Google Signals as an identity space, by enabling it in your property settings.
- Analytics automatically uses the Device ID as an identity space.
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