Integrating Google Analytics on Clarisights
Connect your Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) accounts to Clarisights to bring website sessions, conversions, transactions, and revenue data into your reporting alongside your ad spend.
Note: This article covers the legacy Universal Analytics integration. Universal Analytics stopped processing new hits on 1 July 2024, so this connector is for accessing historical data only. For new properties, use the Google Analytics 4 integration instead. If you need Google Analytics as a primary, dimension-rich data source (e.g. for SEO, organic, affiliate reporting), see the Alternative — POD-GA section below.
At a glance
Authentication | OAuth 2.0 (Google) |
Permissions needed | Read & Analyze on each Google Analytics view, plus access to manage users (read-only) |
Account discovery | Automatic on credential validation; you select which accounts, properties, and views to connect |
Data freshness | Daily (historical data only — Universal Analytics no longer processes new hits) |
Lookback window | 7 days |
Backfill on connect | Last 7 days from the property's last available date |
Timezone | View timezone (configured in Google Analytics) |
Currency | View currency (auto-converted to your reporting currency by Clarisights) |
Levels supported | Account · Property · View |
Limited rollout | No (legacy connector — historical access only) |
Prerequisites
A Google account with access to the Universal Analytics accounts you want to connect
At least Read & Analyze permission on each view that should be synced
Permission to grant third-party apps access to your Google account
One Google Analytics view per property identified as the primary view — this is the view that will be joined to your advertising channel data in Clarisights
Steps to Connect
Step 1 — Start the connection from Clarisights
In Clarisights, go to Integrations, find the Universal Analytics tile, and click + Connect.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Integrations page with Universal Analytics tile and Connect button]
Step 2 — Sign in to Google and grant access
You'll be redirected to Google to sign in. Choose the account that has access to the Universal Analytics properties you want to connect. On the consent screen, grant Clarisights read access to your Google Analytics data.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Google OAuth consent screen for Clarisights]
Common error: "Access blocked: This app's request is invalid" → You signed in with a Google account that doesn't have access to any Universal Analytics property. Sign out of Google, sign back in with the correct account, and retry.
Step 3 — Select properties and views
Clarisights automatically discovers every Universal Analytics account, property, and view your Google user can access. Tick the properties and views you want to connect.
You can select more than one view per property, but in the next step you must designate one primary view per property — that is the view that gets joined to your advertising channel data. Other selected views are available as raw data sources but are not joined.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Property and view selection screen]
Step 4 — Choose the primary view per property
If you selected more than one view in a property, pick the primary view now. Make sure it's the view that contains the marketing data (UTMs, campaign / source / medium) you want joined to your ad data.
Important: the primary view cannot be changed from the Clarisights UI later. To change it, you'll need to re-run this integration. Reach out to your Clarisights CSM if you're unsure.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Primary view selection]
Step 5 — Confirm
You'll land on the integrations page with your selected properties listed. From here you can enable / disable each property and refresh the OAuth token.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Integrations page after Universal Analytics is connected]
Verify the connection
Go to Integrations → Universal Analytics. Each connected property should show as Active with the primary view tagged.
Click the + button next to a property to confirm which view is marked as primary.
For historical data, the existing data should be queryable immediately. There is no live data flow because Universal Analytics no longer processes new hits.
Quick start: create a report, add Universal Analytics as the data source, and add Source / Medium / Campaign and metrics like Sessions, Transactions, Revenue.
Data available
Hierarchy
How Universal Analytics' native levels map to standard Clarisights levels. Universal Analytics is an analytics source (not an ad source), so its data is joined onto your ad channels rather than reported standalone at the campaign / ad level.
Native level (Universal Analytics) | Clarisights level |
Account | Account (analytics) |
Property (web property) | Property |
View (one primary view per property) | View — joined onto Account / Campaign / Ad Group / Ad of the connected ad channels |
Clarisights uses the UTM dimensions (Source, Medium, Campaign, etc.) on the primary view to dereference and join Universal Analytics data to your advertising channels.
Dimensions
Universal Analytics data in Clarisights is keyed by the standard UTM and traffic dimensions exposed by the Google Analytics Reporting API:
Dimension | Description |
Date | Hit date in the view's timezone |
Source | Traffic source ( |
Medium | Traffic medium ( |
Campaign | UTM campaign name ( |
Ad Content | UTM content ( |
Keyword | UTM term / search keyword ( |
Device Category | Desktop / Mobile / Tablet |
Country / Region / City | Geographic dimensions |
Metrics
Core Google Analytics metrics
Metric | Description |
GA: Visit | Total number of sessions |
GA: New Users | First-time users in the period |
GA: Bounces | Single-page sessions |
GA: Bounce Rate | Bounces / Visits |
GA: Leads | Lead conversions reported by Universal Analytics |
GA: Revenue | Ecommerce revenue (in view currency) |
GA: Transactions | Ecommerce transactions count |
GA: RPV | Revenue per Visit (Revenue per Session) |
GA: CVR | Conversion Rate |
GA: CPL | Cost per Lead |
GA: Avg Order Value | Average ecommerce order value |
GA × Facebook joined metrics
When Universal Analytics is joined to Facebook ad data, these joined metrics become available:
Metric | Description |
GA-FB: CPT | Cost per Transaction of the Facebook ad elements |
GA-FB: CPV | Cost per Visit of the Facebook ad elements |
GA-FB: CTR | Click-through Rate (Visits / Impressions) of the Facebook ad elements |
GA-FB: ROAS | Return on Ad Spend (GA: Revenue / FB: Spend) of the Facebook ad elements |
GA-FB: RPC | Revenue per Click (GA: Revenue / Clicks) of the Facebook ad elements |
GA × AdWords joined metrics
Metric | Description |
GA-AW: CPT | Cost per Transaction of the AdWords ad elements |
GA-AW: CPV | Cost per Visit of the AdWords ad elements |
GA-AW: CTR | Click-through Rate (Visits / Impressions) of the AdWords ad elements |
GA-AW: ROAS | Return on Ad Spend (GA: Revenue / AW: Spend) of the AdWords ad elements |
GA-AW: RPC | Revenue per Click (GA: Revenue / Clicks) of the AdWords ad elements |
Universal Analytics goals
Each goal configured in your Universal Analytics view is exposed as a separate metric:
Metric | Description |
GA: Goal-1 … GA: Goal-14 | Each numbered goal as configured in the Universal Analytics view (Goal 1 through Goal 14, excluding Goal 13 which is reserved internally) |
If a goal isn't appearing in Clarisights, confirm it's enabled in the corresponding Universal Analytics view and that the view is the primary view for the property in Clarisights.
Alternative — POD-GA
The Universal Analytics integration described above is a secondary data source: its metrics are joined onto the ad-channel objects (Account / Campaign / Ad Group / Ad) of your connected advertising channels by matching UTM parameters, and GA's own dimensions (Source, Medium, Landing Page, Page Path, Device, etc.) are used internally as join keys rather than being available as columns in your reports.
POD-GA is a different connector that brings Google Analytics data in as a primary data source. With POD-GA, GA dimensions are stored alongside the metrics and are first-class fields you can group, filter, and pivot on.
Primary vs Secondary data, in one example
When Clarisights imports a primary data source (e.g. an ad channel like Google Ads), we keep all of its metrics and dimensions. A row in Clarisights might look like:
Account | Campaign | Country | Device | Spend | Clicks |
Google Ads — DE | Holiday Sale | DE | Mobile | 1,200 | 5,400 |
For a secondary source like Google Analytics, we drop the GA-side dimensions and use them as join keys instead. The same row, after GA is joined, looks like:
Account | Campaign | Spend | Clicks | GA: Visit | GA: Revenue |
Google Ads — DE | Holiday Sale | 1,200 | 5,400 | 4,300 | 9,500 |
The GA dimensions (utm_source, utm_medium, Landing Page, Device, etc.) are no longer columns — they were consumed during the join. That's why standard Google Analytics isn't a standalone source in the report builder; its metrics show up automatically when an ad channel it joins to is added to a report.
Why use POD-GA instead
Use POD-GA when you need any of the following:
Organic, SEO, influencer, and untracked traffic — sessions and revenue that don't come from a paid ad channel won't appear under
GA:metrics (because there's no ad-channel row to join onto). POD-GA surfaces them directly.GA dimensions in widgets — group, filter, and pivot on GA dimensions like Source, Medium, Landing Page, Page Path, or Device Category as if they were ad-channel dimensions.
Filter-scoped channels — spin up purpose-built channels such as Google Analytics — SEO (filter:
mediumcontainsorganic) or Google Analytics — Influencer (filter:mediumcontainsinf) and pick a different metric / dimension set per channel.Separate report-builder sources — each POD-GA channel appears as its own data source in the report builder, with its own metric and dimension groups in the picker.
GA integration vs POD-GA at a glance
Universal Analytics integration | POD-GA | |
Source type | Secondary (analytics) | Primary |
GA dimensions stored | No — used as join keys only | Yes — first-class dimensions |
Customizable metrics / dimensions | No — fixed metric set | Yes — chosen at channel setup |
Visible as a standalone data source | No — joined onto ad channels | Yes — selectable when building reports |
Captures organic / SEO / influencer / untracked traffic | No | Yes |
Filters at import | No | Yes — AND/OR filters applied at import |
Setting up POD-GA
Two important caveats before you start.
The metrics and dimensions you choose at setup are immutable once the first import runs (typically within ~12 hours of channel creation). Pick carefully — changing them later requires creating a new POD channel.
Google Analytics restricts which metric + dimension combinations can be queried together. If you pick an unsupported combination you won't see any data on Clarisights for that channel. Reference Google's documentation on valid dimension/metric combinations before saving.
Step 1 — Open the POD section of Integrations
In Clarisights, click the gear icon at the bottom-left of your dashboard, choose Integrations, then click POD. Click + Channel to start a new POD channel.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Integrations page with POD section and + Channel button]
Step 2 — Name the channel and set its abbreviation
Enter a name (used to identify this channel across Clarisights, e.g. Google Analytics — SEO) and an abbreviation (used as a metric prefix, e.g. SEO → metrics show up as POD-SEO: Sessions). Choose Source Type = Google Analytics.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — + Channel form with Name, Abbreviation, Source Type fields]
Step 3 — Choose one or more GA Profiles
Under GA Profile, pick one or more GA views that have already been integrated on Clarisights. You can select multiple views from the same property; each selected view will appear as an Account dimension within this POD channel.
Step 4 — Add filters (optional)
Add one or more filters that will be applied at import. All data you see in Clarisights for this POD channel will be post-filter — there is no way to bypass these filters at query time. Click Add Filter, choose a dimension, and set the predicate. You can chain additional filters with AND or OR.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Filter builder with AND/OR connectors]
Step 5 — Connect the source
Click Connect Source. The channel is now created and ready to have its metrics and dimensions defined.
Step 6 — Add metrics and dimensions
Click Metrics/Dimensions in the options next to the new channel. Add the GA metrics you want to pull (click +Metrics and search) and the GA dimensions you want to import (click +Dimensions). Optionally rename a dimension at this step — e.g. import GA's Landing Page but rename it to Page for this channel only.
GA allows a maximum of 10 metrics per query. If you need more than 10, split them across multiple POD-GA channels.
[TODO: Screenshot needed — Metrics/Dimensions picker with rename field]
Once you've saved the metric and dimension list, the first import will run within ~12 hours, and the new POD-{abbreviation} source will appear as a separate option (with its own metric and dimension groups) when you build reports.
Limitations & known constraints
Historical data only: Universal Analytics stopped processing new hits on 1 July 2024 (and 1 July 2023 for free properties). This connector queries historical data only — there is no new daily data to ingest.
Sunset of the API: Google has announced the deprecation of the Universal Analytics Reporting API. Once Google fully retires the API, this integration will stop returning data even for historical periods. Migrate to Google Analytics 4 for ongoing analytics.
Sampling: Universal Analytics samples queries that exceed certain row thresholds, especially over long date ranges. Sampled data is reported as-is by Google.
One primary view per property: only one view per property is joined to your ad data. Additional selected views are raw data sources only.
Goal slot limit: Universal Analytics supports up to 20 goals per view; Clarisights surfaces Goal 1–12 and Goal 14 by default.
UTM hygiene: data joins on Source / Medium / Campaign UTMs. Ads with missing or inconsistent UTMs will not join cleanly.
Token revocation: if you revoke Clarisights' access in your Google account, the integration stops working until you re-authenticate.
Operating notes
Refresh schedule: data is pulled on a daily schedule for as long as Google's Universal Analytics API responds. There is no live data because Universal Analytics no longer collects new hits.
Lookback: the connector pulls a 7-day window per cycle to backfill any late-arriving processed data.
Multiple Google users: a single Universal Analytics view should be connected through one Google user. If you re-connect under a different user, the existing primary view assignment is preserved.
Currency conversion: revenue and ecommerce metrics are pulled in the view's configured currency and converted to your reporting currency by Clarisights.
Credential rotation: OAuth refresh tokens renew automatically. You only need to re-authenticate if you change your Google password, revoke Clarisights' access, or remove the user from the Google Analytics account.
Migrating to GA4: connect your GA4 properties via the separate Google Analytics 4 integration. The two integrations can run side-by-side while you transition reports.
Need primary-source GA data? Use the POD-GA connector — see Alternative — POD-GA above.
Need help?
When contacting support from the in-app messenger, please include:
The integration name (Universal Analytics) and the property / view ID
The exact error message or screenshot
The step where the issue occurred (OAuth, view selection, primary view configuration, or data missing in a report)
When the issue started and any recent changes (Google password rotation, user permission changes in GA, etc.)