2 Ways Visitors are Counted in Google Analytics 4

Discover the two Scopes GA4 displays in the Standard Reports and why they don’t match each other or data in Universal Analytics.

Two User Scopes

GA4 has 2 main Scopes, including:

• First User
• Session

You’ll see both of these used in the Standard Reports.

First User Scope

The predominant Scope in Google Analytics 4 is called First User.

It is the same thing as New User – and perhaps they gave it a different name to distinguish that it is used at the Scope level.

In many of the Standard Reports, you’ll see some of the data is prefixed with First User. 

Unfortunately, there is no way to change that Dimension in those reports to see anything but new Users to your site. 

You can’t see the total User count in those reports.

Session Scope

The second scope in GA4 is Session and it  includes both New and Returning Users.

So, anytime you see just the word Users in a Standard Report, it is a Session Scope.

It’s a much more comprehensive view of all the traffic coming to your site.

GA4 Doesn’t Match UA Data

The use of Scopes is the primary reason why data shown in Google Analytics 4 does not match what you’re seeing in Universal Analytics, if you are comparing the two.

In GA4, you’re not always seeing the total User count unless you are looking at a Session based report.

Explore Reports Can Use Both Scopes

While you can customize the Standard Reports in GA4 to some degree, you can’t change the Scope used in them.

Thankfully, GA4 gave us a way to make our own custom reports from scratch.

They are called Explore Reports.

And there are several templates available to get you started.

Not only can use any Scope you want in them, you can bust out the Users into all 4 types, including:

• New User
• Returning User
• Active User
• Total User

This allows you to see which posts/pages are getting the most traffic and engagement by your current followers and which ones are bringing in new traffic.

See Clicks by User

What’s more, you can make a custom Explore Report to see clicks on your site, which is something that GA4 tracks natively.

And you can bust that out to see if those clicks came from New or Returning Users too.

That will let you know if folks follow you for a while before clicking on your optin or purchasing something from you, or if you’re capturing new visitors right away.