How to Fix (not set) Reporting Issues in Google Analytics 4

If you’ve been using Google Analytics 4, you might have encountered the dreaded “(not set)” appearing in your reports. This placeholder appears when GA4 cannot assign a value to a specific dimension. While common, it can lead to confusion, misinterpretation of data, and missed insights. In this guide, we will review the most common “(not set)” issues in GA4, explain why they occur and how to fix them.

What Is (not set) in Google Analytics 4?

Fixing the “(not set)” issues in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is essential for ensuring accurate data collection and reporting. “(not set)” in GA4 typically means that GA4 has been unable to determine a value for a particular dimension in your reports. This is often due to missing or incorrectly configured data collection.

When these issues occur, critical information like traffic sources, user behavior, and campaign performance is missing or incomplete, leading to skewed insights. Accurate data is crucial for making informed business decisions, optimizing marketing campaigns, and improving user experiences on your website. Without addressing these problems, you risk misattributing campaign success, overlooking important audience insights, and making decisions based on flawed data.

Correcting these issues also ensures proper attribution for paid advertising, enhances the understanding of your audience demographics, and allows for more effective use of marketing budgets. Additionally, having complete and reliable data is essential for compliance with reporting standards and ensures your analytics setup can scale with business growth.

How To Fix Common (not set) Issues In GA4

Just Give It Some Time

Sometimes, the easiest (and sometimes the hardest) solution is simply to wait. GA4 typically processes and displays data with some delay, especially if syncing your data from other platforms (such as Google Ads) is an issue. If this does not resolve the issue, continue through this article.

Steps to Resolve:

1. If you recently made changes to your configuration, wait up to 48 hours before checking the reports again.
2. Monitor data after 48 hours to see if the “(not set)” errors have cleared up.

Fixing Landing Page Is (not set)

A common issue occurs when GA4 isn’t properly tracking landing pages.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Check that the “Page View” event is configured correctly in your GA4 property.
2. Make sure the GA4 tag is properly installed on every page of your website, either manually or through a tag manager (e.g., Google Tag Manager).
3. Use the DebugView in GA4 to verify that page views are being recorded as expected.
4. In Google Tag Manager, ensure that the page title and page URL variables are properly defined in the “Page View” event.

Fixing Measurement Protocol Issues

The measurement protocol is used to send data from different platforms to GA4. You’ll see a “(not set)” value in various dimensions if it’s not configured correctly.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Verify that your measurement protocol is sending the correct values. This may require developer assistance.
2. Ensure that the measurement protocol is sending required fields such as client ID, page location, and event name to avoid gaps in tracking.

Fixing Source/Medium Is (not set)

This error often happens when traffic sources are not tagged correctly, such as missing UTM parameters in campaign URLs.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Use the Google Campaign URL Builder to add UTM parameters to your URLs.
2. Ensure that your UTM parameters (source, medium, and campaign) are correctly defined and match what you expect to see in GA4.
3. In Google Tag Manager, check that the referral URL variable is correctly captured.
4. If using Google Ads, link your Google Ads account to GA4, as this can sometimes be the cause of missing traffic source information.

Fixing Campaign Is (not set)

When campaigns are not tagged correctly, the campaign dimension can display as “(not set).”

Steps to Resolve:

1. Check the campaign URL tagging and ensure you use the correct UTM parameters (utm_campaign).
2. Verify that auto-tagging is enabled in Google Ads (if applicable).
3. If you’re running paid campaigns on other platforms, ensure URLs are correctly tagged with UTM parameters.

Fixing Google Ads Is (not set)

This issue typically arises when there’s a misconfiguration between your Google Ads and GA4 accounts.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Link your Google Ads account to your GA4 property via the “Admin” section in GA4 under “Product Links.”
2. Ensure that auto-tagging is enabled in Google Ads to correctly attribute campaigns to the right source.
3. Ensure that you have imported the conversions and audiences from GA4 back into Google Ads to ensure full syncing.

Fixing Page Location Is (not set)

When the page’s URL is not properly captured in GA4, it will show as “(not set).”

Steps to Resolve:

1. Confirm that the GA4 tag is installed correctly on every site page.
2. In Google Tag Manager, ensure that the “Page URL” variable is correctly captured in the “Page View” event.

Fixing Page Title Is (not set)

This error occurs when GA4 fails to record the page title due to incorrect setup.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Check your GA4 setup to ensure that the page title is being tracked correctly.
2. In Google Tag Manager, ensure that the “Page Title” variable is correctly configured for the “Page View” event.

Fixing Content Group Is (not set)

This occurs when content grouping is not properly set up in GA4.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Set up content groupings under “Admin” > “Property Settings” > “Content Groupings.”
2. In Google Tag Manager, create a custom variable to capture the content group, such as based on URL structure or page type.
3. Ensure that your tag and trigger settings align with your content grouping strategy.

Fixing Language Is (not set)

GA4 collects language data based on the user’s browser settings. If it’s missing, it may indicate an issue with tag installation.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Confirm that the GA4 tag is properly installed across all pages.
2. In Google Tag Manager, ensure that the “Language” variable is being captured correctly as part of the “Page View” event.

Fixing Country Is (not set)

Similar to language, this issue arises when there’s an incomplete data collection for the user’s geographic location.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Ensure that GA4 has access to the location settings by enabling geographic reporting in your GA4 property settings.
2. Confirm that the GA4 tag is installed correctly across all pages of your site.

Fixing Event-Scoped and Item-Scoped Dimensions Are (not set)

This issue occurs when custom dimensions or eCommerce item-scoped dimensions aren’t properly tracked.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Make sure that any custom dimensions or metrics you’ve set up are defined correctly in the GA4 interface.
2. In Google Tag Manager, ensure that all custom dimensions are being passed correctly with the relevant events (e.g., purchase events in an eCommerce setup).
3. Use the DebugView to ensure that these dimensions are being sent with the event data.

Fixing User-Scoped Custom Dimensions Are (not set)

User-scoped custom dimensions track information tied to individual users, and when missing, may lead to gaps in reporting.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Set up user properties in GA4 under “Custom Definitions” to track user-scoped data.
2. In Google Tag Manager, define user properties correctly, and pass them with appropriate events (e.g., user ID).

Fixing Technology Dimensions Are (not set)

These dimensions include browser, device, operating system, and network data. If they show as “(not set),” there may be an issue with configuring your tags.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Check that the GA4 tag is set up correctly to capture device and technology data.
2. Use DebugView to confirm that technology dimensions are being recorded.

Need Help?

The appearance of “(not set)” in your GA4 reports is often a symptom of misconfigured data collection, missing parameters, or reporting delays. By following the steps outlined above, you should be able to address the most common issues and ensure your GA4 data is accurate and complete.

If problems persist, feel free to reach out to the analytics team at Emulent, and we can help you diagnose and fix the issue.