Does applying filters in Google Analytics affect Moz Data?
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Hello,
I'm dealing with spam in google analytics, applying filters (and using segments for historical data)
Does applying a filter in GA affect Moz data, future or historical?
Is there a way of doing this?
Thank you!
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Charles-Olivier - Yep, you got it!
Radi - So, to answer your initial question:
- Simply applying filters in GA will not affect Moz data.
- However, creating a GA profile in which filters are applied and connecting it to your Moz campaign will result in your campaign showing filtered data.
Many thanks to Erica, Chiaryn, and Tori, because to be honest I had no idea about #2.
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I think it makes sense.
I just looked back at how you connect and you choose an Account - so far it ain't hard. The profile is a collection of all views found in your different Analytics Properties.
So let's say I choose my Account and the Profile dropdown gives me;
- "Raw DATA (UA-XXXXX-1)"
- "Filtered DATA (UA-XXXXX-1)"
- "Test DATA (UA-XXXXX-1)"
- "Raw DATA (UA-XXXXX-2)"
If I want to pull data that is filtered, I'll select the "Filtered DATA (UA-XXXXX-1)". Since Google just filters out the data, it can't really give Moz the raw data since the source is filtered and, therefore, "can't be reprocessed".
Am I understanding right Matt?
Croy,
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Actually, you're half right, and I should've been more clear. If you're using your default GA profile, the filters won't apply to Moz campaigns, because the GA API only gives us the raw data.
You can, however, connect your campaign to a filtered GA profile, but you have to be using the filtered US code as the GA profile in your campaign. So, if your primary GA profile has the code has the suffix "-1" and the filtered one has "-4," your Moz campaign will have to be connected to "-4" in order to reflect the filters.
Does that make sense? I'm finding this weirdly hard to explain.
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I disagree, it should be using filters as they're applied on the view this is also the data that will be gathered from the API that Moz is using. So if you apply filters (not to be confused with segments) than it should be reflected on Moz as well, but only with future data.
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Thanks Matt. So is there a way of 'cleaning' my moz data of ghost/spam referral?
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This is exactly what I was thinking! Thanks for the clarification Matt.
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Hi Radi! No, it does not. Google doesn't share with us what filters you've applied.
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