Google Analytics Audit Test #

124

Item Variant in Item Name

Why It Matters:

Critical to functional product ecommerce reports.

Industries:

Ecommerce

Checks For:

Accuracy

How accurate is your recent data?

Insight Category:

Behavior

Can you tell what visitors are doing?

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Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test checks whether product variant information (e.g., color, size, model) is being embedded in the item_name field rather than being passed separately via the item_variant parameter in Google Analytics ecommerce tracking. When variant details are included in item_name, it creates:

  • Bloated product reporting (e.g., “T-shirt - Red” vs. “T-shirt - Blue” treated as different items)
  • Fragmented metrics across a product family
  • Higher cardinality in reports
  • Difficulty rolling up product performance

Properly separating item attributes ensures cleaner data, better filtering, and scalable product analysis.

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How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In Google Analytics > Explore, create a Free-form report with:
    • Dimensions: Item name, Item variant
    • Metric: Item revenue, Add-to-carts, or Purchases
    • Look for cases where item variant is empty or item_name includes variant details like:
      • “Sneaker – Size 9”
      • “Backpack – Blue”

Advanced QA

  • In BigQuery, you can check using this query:
    SELECT item_name, item_variant, COUNT(*) AS count
    FROM `your_dataset.events_*`, UNNEST(items) AS item
    WHERE event_name = 'purchase'
    GROUP BY item_name, item_variant
    ORDER BY count DESC

Automated, Free Audit

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Or hire a pro to ensure accuracy in your ecommerce event structure.

How To Fix

  • Update your ecommerce tagging implementation:
    • Pass the base product name in item_name (e.g., “Running Shoes”)
    • Pass the variant details in item_variant (e.g., “Size 10 - Black”)
  • Ensure consistency across all ecommerce events (view_item, add_to_cart, purchase)
  • If using Google Tag Manager, extract variant info from the product object or data layer and assign it separately
  • Avoid combining multiple attributes into a single field—each dimension (e.g., item_category, item_brand, item_variant) should be tracked individually
  • Hire a pro to restructure your ecommerce tracking for clean, scalable, and insightful product reporting.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

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An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

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