When using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) alongside impact.com tracking, you should expect the numbers to report differently. This is because GA4’s tracking model favors attribution to Google channels over affiliate channels. You can change your GA4 settings in order to better align the 2 attribution methodologies, and return more alike data reports.
If you have noticed a decrease in affiliate channel revenue with the introduction of GA4, this is likely due to GA4’s updated Data-Driven Attribution (DDA) model. The current DDA model is best suited for tracking interactions on Google channels such as YouTube, Display Ads, or Search, as opposed to affiliate channels.
In your previous Google Analytics version, you may have had the Last Click attribution method set up instead of DDA, which would have caused revenue to be spread out more accurately among your affiliate channels. To revert your GA4 attribution to the Last Click method, see How do I better align GA4 metrics with my impact.com metrics? below.
If you have been using GA4 and impact.com tracking in tandem, you may have found it difficult to pinpoint what has changed. It is important to note that although you will have seen a change in GA4 numbers, the tracking and attribution within impact.com has not changed.
GA4 can be a helpful tool to continually reassess the value of all your cross-channel marketing touchpoints, but we recommend against using it as your sole source of truth for forecasting and budgeting. For a more comprehensive view, you may want to supplement GA4 with impact.com’s Forecasting and Anomaly Detection reports as you plan for the future.
If your impact.com credit policy is last click, consider changing the attribution settings in GA4 to align with this.
Log in to your GA4 account.
In the bottom-left corner, select Admin.
In the Property column, select Attribution Settings.
Under Reporting attribution model, from the
[Drop-down menu], select Last Click.Under Conversion window, configure the timeframe to align with your payout window on impact.com.
Select Save.
