[GA4] What is Thresholds? Explaining the Occurrences and Avoidance Methods

March 30, 2024

[GA4] What is Thresholds? Explaining the Occurrences and Avoidance Methods

This article clearly explains the concept of data thresholds in GA4, including an overview of thresholds, the conditions under which it is applied, and methods for avoiding it.

Notably, as of February 12, 2024, the removal of Google Signals as a significant factor for the application of thresholds from report identifiers is expected to reduce the likelihood of thresholds being applied in the future.

What is Thresholds in GA4?

In GA4, thresholds refers to a mechanism that excludes specific data from reports to protect user privacy, specifically to prevent the deduction of individual users' identities or confidential information based on user data.

When thresholds is applied, a "red triangle" icon appears at the top right of the affected graphs or tables, along with the following alert message:

Thresholding applied Google Analytics has applied thresholding to this card and will only display the data when the data meets the minimum aggregation thresholds

Conditions for Applying Thresholds

Thresholds are mainly applied in the following two cases:

User Attribute Data

If a report includes user attribute data, that data may be excluded.

Search Query Information

If a report includes search query information and the number of users does not reach a sufficient number, the data may be excluded.

Ways to Avoid Thresholds

Although the settings for thresholds cannot be adjusted by users, there are several methods available to reduce the likelihood of thresholds being applied.

Changing the Period

By extending the period of the report, you can increase the number of users who trigger events, thus preventing the exclusion of data due to thresholds.

Export to BigQuery

Exporting data from GA4 to BigQuery can avoid thresholds.

Finally: The Removal of Google Signals Likely to Reduce Thresholds in the Future

As mentioned at the beginning, Google Signals were removed from the report identifiers on February 12, 2024. This is expected to reduce the likelihood of thresholds being applied in the future.

While we introduced exporting to BigQuery as a way to avoid thresholds, it should be noted that BigQuery requires advanced analysis using SQL. Additionally, due to differences in the management interface and data aggregation methods, discrepancies in conversions by source/medium (increased proportion of (direct) / (none)) have been observed.

Since the issue of discrepancies in conversions is significantly greater than the minor and soon to be resolved issue of thresholds, it is advisable to carefully consider the use of BigQuery and to check how much the removal of Google Signals reduces thresholds.