Sampling when querying custom variable even with less than 500.000 sessions

[Jerry W]

Hi,

I'm still using classic google analytics. I'm using a custom variable.

When I send a query with ga:customVarValue1 in the filters-section or as a dimension I get sampled data even  when querying just one day.
The amount of sessions of this day is far less than 500,000 (as mentioned on https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsSampling).
The google-account I'm using has 20+ analytics-accounts. Each of them has 1-5 properties with 1-5 views. Is this the cause of the sampling problem?

Any other idea why I get sampled data?

TIA,
JW

[Kushan Shah]

Hi Jerry,

Can you post the full query that is being sampled? Are there any other dimensions apart from ga:customVarValue1 in the query?

[Jerry W]

I'm using Query Explorer:

dimensions: ga:date,ga:customVarValue1
metrics: ga:users
filters: ga:customVarValue1=~[56789]
start-date: 2014-11-13
end-date: 2014-11-13

Even when I don't use filters or set the filters and set dimensions to ga:date I get set sampled sampled.

[Jerry Who]

But I don't understand why sampling is an issue at all: there are less than 500,000 sessions in this property. So to my understanding there's no reason for sampling.

Am Dienstag, 18. November 2014 schrieb Pete :

This is likely because the Default sampling level is being used for the Query Explorer.

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v3/reference#samplingLevel

You can submit a feature request for this parameter to be added as a configurable option of the Query Explorer. See the help section on GA Demos & Tools for links to GitHub where you can open a new issue:

https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/#help

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[Pete]

ah, I misread the question.

Can you share the request and response you're getting? I suggest you use the APIs Explorer (https://developers.google.com/apis-explorer/#p/analytics/v3/analytics.data.ga.get) to get this information (the data in the response isn't needed).

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[Jerry W]

Hi Pete,

I hope that's what you're asking for:

GET https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/data/ga?ids=ga%3A46005136&start-date=2014-11-13&end-date=2014-11-13&metrics=ga%3Ausers&dimensions=ga%3Adate%2Cga%3AcustomVarValue1&filters=ga%3AcustomVarValue1%3D~%5B56789%5D&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

Authorization:  Bearer XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X-JavaScript-User-Agent:  Google APIs Explorer

{

"kind": "analytics#gaData",

"id": "https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/data/ga?ids=ga:46005136&dimensions=ga:date,ga:customVarValue1&metrics=ga:users&filters=ga:customVarValue1%3D~%5B56789%5D&start-date=2014-11-13&end-date=2014-11-13",

"query": {

"start-date": "2014-11-13",

"end-date": "2014-11-13",

"ids": "ga:46005136",

"dimensions": "ga:date,ga:customVarValue1",

"metrics": [

"ga:users"

],

"filters": "ga:customVarValue1=~[56789]",

"start-index": 1,

"max-results": 1000

},

"itemsPerPage": 1000,

"totalResults": 4,

"selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/data/ga?ids=ga:46005136&dimensions=ga:date,ga:customVarValue1&metrics=ga:users&filters=ga:customVarValue1%3D~%5B56789%5D&start-date=2014-11-13&end-date=2014-11-13",

"profileInfo": {

"profileId": "46005136",

"accountId": "23380416",

"webPropertyId": "UA-23380416-1",

"internalWebPropertyId": "45806927",

"profileName": "www.textilwirtschaft.de IS",

"tableId": "ga:46005136"

},

"containsSampledData": true,

"sampleSize": "30061",

"sampleSpace": "36299",

"columnHeaders": [

{

"name": "ga:date",

"columnType": "DIMENSION",

"dataType": "STRING"

},

{

"name": "ga:customVarValue1",

"columnType": "DIMENSION",

"dataType": "STRING"

},

{

"name": "ga:users",

"columnType": "METRIC",

"dataType": "INTEGER"

}

],
[results following ........]

As you can see the report contains sampled data.

Cheers,
JW

[Jerry W]

Hi Pete,

do you see any reason why I get sampled data here?

Cheers,
JW

[Jerry W]

Once again me :-)

If I understand the output correctly

"containsSampledData": true,

"sampleSize": "30061",

"sampleSpace": "36299",

means that 36299 sessions exist for this special date and 30061 of them are used for the statistics.

But when I remove ga:customVarValue1 from the dimensions and also remove the filter I get not sampled data with 33849 users or 36299 sessions.
That's well below the 500,000 sessions mark of https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsSampling.

On Friday, November 21, 2014 8:51:27 AM UTC+1, Jerry W wrote:

[Mike Sullivan]

I don't see where you included  samplingLevel=HIGHER_PRECISION 

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v3/reference#samplingLevel

[Pete]

Still looking into this. Once I have more information I'll let you know.

[Jerry W]

Hi Mike,

> I don't see where you included  samplingLevel=HIGHER_PRECISION 

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v3/reference#samplingLevel

that's right, I haven't used it because I'm using API 2.4 in my scripts where I can't set this parameter. But my question is why sampling is an issue after all because to my understanding it shouldn't because I'm not hitting the sampling limits.

Cheers, JW

[Jerry W]

Hi Pete,

On Wednesday, November 26, 2014 2:31:56 AM UTC+1, Pete wrote:

Still looking into this. Once I have more information I'll let you know.

thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to hear from you.

Cheers,
JW

[Jerry W]

Hi Mike,

using the API explorer and setting samplingLevel to HIGHER_PRECISION results still in sampled data :-(

[Jerry Who]

Hi Pete,

just a shy question if you've got any new information?

I'm still struggling with this sampling problem.

Cheers,

JW

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[Pete]

Still investigating but hopefully there will be some info to share later this week. I'll follow-up with you.

On Monday, December 8, 2014 8:45:24 AM UTC-8, Jerry W wrote:

Hi Pete,

just a shy question if you've got any new information?

I'm still struggling with this sampling problem.

Cheers,

JW

Am 26.11.2014 um 02:31 schrieb Pete

[Jerry W]

Hi Pete,

is there anything new about my sampling problem?

Best regards,
JW

[Manuel deF]

Hi, I am having the same issue. Any update on this?

It would be really helpful

Thanks a lot

M 

[Jerry W]

Hi Manuel,

great to hear that I'm not alone with this problem. But I haven't heart anything for 3 months. 

Cheers,

JW

[Atish Haria]

I am having the same problem with custom variables. However, if you use the custom variable in an advanced segment then it will give you unsampled data (if less than 500,000). Don't know exactly why that would be the case.

[Kannapiran R]

Even i'm facing the same sampling issue.

Any clue to retrieve full data.

Thanks,

Kanna