Google Analytics Audit Test #

92

Product Name is Associated with Only One Id

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding product and website performance.

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 each product name (item_name) is consistently associated with a single product ID (item_id).

In ecommerce tracking, item_id is the unique identifier and should be the authoritative key—while item_name is a descriptive label.

When the same product name is tied to multiple item IDs, it creates confusion in reporting and can cause:

  • Fragmented revenue and performance metrics
  • Duplicated product rows in Google Analytics and downstream dashboards
  • Misleading insights into product demand, conversion, and inventory

This often happens when:

  • Product variants are not clearly distinguished
  • Item IDs are regenerated dynamically
  • dataLayer structure is inconsistent across events

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How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In Google Analytics > Explore, create a Free-form report:
    • Dimensions: Item Name, Item ID
    • Metric: Item Revenue, Item Views, or Add-to-Carts
    • Look for product names that appear with more than one unique item ID

Advanced QA

  • In BigQuery, run a query like:
    SELECT item_name, COUNT(DISTINCT item_id) AS id_variants
    FROM `your_dataset.events_*`, UNNEST(items) AS item
    GROUP BY item_name
    HAVING id_variants > 1
  • This will highlight inconsistencies in product identity across your GA4 tracking.

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Or hire a pro to clean up your product data model.

How To Fix

  • Review your product catalog structure and ensure every item_name maps to a single canonical item_id
  • Use additional dimensions (e.g., item_variant, item_category, or item_brand) to distinguish between true variants instead of duplicating IDs
  • Ensure all ecommerce-related events (view_item, add_to_cart, purchase, etc.) pull from a single consistent source for item_id and item_name
  • Avoid dynamically generating item IDs unless each truly represents a different product
  • Hire a pro to realign your product schema so your ecommerce reports reflect reality—not duplicate or fragmented data.

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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