: Google Analytics User-level scope on a custom dimension resulting in different data than hit-level scope. Hit-level data is correct I am trying to figure out why the custom dimension I created

@Martha676

Posted in: #GoogleAnalytics

I am trying to figure out why the custom dimension I created with a User-level scope isn't collecting the right data.

I have set up two custom dimensions:

Job - User scope
Job - Hit scope

According to my understanding of how these dimension scopes work, I should really only need the "User scope", since the data I'm tracking is specific to the user, not the page view (Hit) or even the session. I set up dimensions for both User and Hit scopes because this is the first time I've done something like this and I wanted to be robust in my testing. Ultimately, I expected the exact same data from both scopes, an expectation that seems to be supported by Google's help page on the topic:


Note that although this same functionality could be achieved with hit
or session-level scope, user-level scope provides the most convenient
solution with the least amount of code.


However, the data I am getting is very different. There are 3 job options the Drupal user can select for their profile. I have created 6 test accounts, and given each job to two of the test accounts. The data I am getting looks something like this (the numbers are the amount of pageviews):

User Scope
Manager: 191
Administrator: 0
Developer: 0

Hit Scope
Manager: 63
Administrator: 56
Developer: 35

When doing this testing, I kept track carefully of what pages I visited with each user. The Hit scope data is definitely correct.

Why didn't the user scope data work correctly?

One thought is that since I used the same browser for these tests, GA considered to think I was the same user even though I logged into different accounts. So perhaps all the hit-level data, when added together along with some additional page views from my admin account, would equal the 191 value I get for Manager. Another thing that supports this is that I seem to have collected additional Manager page views on subsequent days, even though I never logged back in with one of those test accounts. So that makes it seem even more likely that my admin account was triggering some additional "Manager" page views incorrectly.

Does anyone else have experience with these kinds of issues, or see what conceptual mistake I have made regarding scopes?

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