Rollup Properties in Google Analytics

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What is a Rollup Property in Google Analytics?

A rollup property is a GA 360 only feature and unique in that it allows you to aggregate multiple source properties into a single property and allows you to see that data together in the same reports. Rollup properties allow you to consolidate enterprise data into one place without disrupting the ecosystem of how other teams can access and use the same data. There are a few considerations to be aware of as you begin thinking about creating a rollup property.  

When is a Rollup Property Needed?

Let’s say a company owns three different domains and has them on three separate properties. One site is an online store that sells camping equipment, one for looking up nearby campsites and making reservations, and the last is a blog where people can share their adventure stories with others. These are separate sites but you want to see and report on data from all of them, combined, to answer questions such as, “How many sessions happened on all of my sites last year?”, “Which campaigns drove the most traffic to each of my sites?”, and, “What blog posts lead to the most transactions and reservations?” Creating a rollup property will allow you to answer questions like these and analyze data across multiple properties in one, centralized location. If a company owns just one domain, there's no need to create a rollup property because there's nothing else to compare that one domain to.  

Mobile Applications and OTT Data:

You also have the ability to include data from mobile applications and OTT devices (Amazon Alexa, Google HomePod, etc.) into a rollup property. Mobile apps and OTT devices are tracked differently than browser content, even if they appear the same and deliver the same content. It is best practice keep web, mobile, and OTT data separate in different properties in GA, with separate properties for iOS and Android as well. Rollup considerations are particularly important here. Firebase cannot be added to a rollup property, which makes sense because it is a completely different platform (used to build mobile applications). The next step would be to decide whether or not you want to include your mobile and OTT properties into a rollup. If you find that the data and content is similar or the same, it definitely would be worth including. However, if you find there' s little in common with the data and content between the properties and would gain little  for analysis, it's best to keep them separate.

How to create a Rollup Property?

Unfortunately you cannot create a rollup property yourself, you'll need to reach out to  your  Google Account Manager or Reseller who can assist you with getting one setup.  The  following information will need to be provided in order for Google to create the new property:
    1. Account Number
    2. Time Zone
    3. Default Website URL
    4. View Type (Web or App)
    5. Number of Rollup Properties
 

Once you have your Rollup Property:

When you have confirmation from Google that the rollup property has been created it will show up as just another property in the current list.     The most important thing to do in a new rollup property is to add all necessary source properties from which you want to collect data. This can be done by going into the rollup Admin > Property > Roll-Up Management. Remember, when you're reaching out to Google to create a rollup property, you're not specifying which properties you want included into it, so it's crucial to remember and manually add them yourself.   There are also a number of considerations to be aware of with rollup properties.
  1. Data Limits: Each hit in a rollup property is counted as .5 of a hit rather than 1 as it applies toward your monthly billable hit volume.
  2. Session Merging: You need to have same client ID across source properties in order to merge sessions, otherwise it will be counted as two separate sessions. If you have a logged-in function across multiple sites, and have User-ID enabled, sessions will be unified and de-duplicated in the rollup property.
  3. Data populated in Rollup property is on a go-forward basis, no historical data is added.
    Once the source properties have been added, all reports in the rollup will report on the aggregated data. Under ‘Audience’, there is a new section called ‘Roll-Up Reporting’ which allows you to see high level data (sessions, users, bounce rate, etc.) broken out by the individual property.         In conclusion, if a company has multiple domains with data in separate websites, or mobile applications and OTT data that they would like to analyze all together, rollup properties are the answer. It is no different than a normal property, with the exception that you have the ability to feed multiple source properties into it and view the aggregated data from all of them. If a company only has one domain, there is no need to create a rollup since there's no other data to compare it to. Although you cannot create one yourself and instead must go through Google, it's a very quick and simple process, and before you know it you'll be able to tackle and answer even bigger questions.       If you need any help implementing a Rollup Property, feel free to contact us !