Google Analytics Audit Test #

102

Transactions with No Revenue

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding how your site is performing and determine which sources of traffic are profitable.

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 any purchase events or transactions in Google Analytics are recorded without a revenue value (i.e., total value = 0). This is typically a sign of:

  • Misconfigured or incomplete purchase event implementation
  • Revenue data not passed or overwritten in the data layer
  • Backend server events firing with missing parameters
  • Edge cases like post-purchase page reloads or failed tag conditions

The result is serious underreporting in Google Analytics:

  • Revenue shows $0 for real transactions
  • ROAS, LTV, and product-level performance metrics are inaccurate
  • Attribution reporting is skewed and devalues high-performing campaigns
  • Ecommerce funnel performance becomes unreliable

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How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In Google Analytics > Explore, create a Free-form report:
    • Dimensions: Transaction ID, Item name
    • Metrics: Purchase revenue, Event count
    • Filter for Purchase revenue = 0
  • In Reports > Monetization > Ecommerce purchases, look for transactions with zero revenue

Advanced QA

  • In BigQuery, run this query:
    SELECT
      ep.value.string_value AS transaction_id,
      MAX(CAST((SELECT value.double_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'value') AS FLOAT64)) AS revenue,
      COUNT(*) AS purchase_events
    FROM `your_dataset.events_*`, UNNEST(event_params) AS ep
    WHERE event_name = 'purchase' AND ep.key = 'transaction_id'
    GROUP BY transaction_id
    HAVING revenue = 0 OR revenue IS NULL
    ORDER BY purchase_events DESC;
  • If there are many transactions with revenue = 0, GA4 cannot be relied on for accurate financial reporting.

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How To Fix

Fixing 'purchase' Events

  • Use the recommended push to the dataLayer:
    gtag('event', 'purchase', {
      transaction_id: 'T12345',
      currency: 'USD',
      value: 129.99,
      tax: 10,
      shipping: 5,
      items: [...]
    });
  • In Google Tag Manager, verify:
    • The data layer has value or purchase_revenue populated at the time the purchase tag fires
    • The Google Analytics event tag correctly maps to this value field
  • If using server-side tagging, confirm that revenue is passed correctly to the server and not dropped in transit
  • Use DebugView to simulate real transactions and confirm all parameters are firing as expected
  • Hire a pro to troubleshoot and repair your Google Analytics revenue tracking—so your reporting reflects actual business outcomes.

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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