GA4 Not collecting Data + Multiple Site tags

Thanks for reaching out @mattatlevel. From checking your site I can see that you have consent mode enabled within your Site Kit settings. Site Kit recently added this mode option due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes, so only visitors who have explicitly given consent are tracked. You’ll find more on this here. This is a requirement in some regions, such as the EEU.

In your case, the problem is that you didn’t provide a mechanism for users to your site to grant consent. You’ve configured consent mode, which is great, but you also need to configure a third party plugin to provide consent, as per this guide. I don’t see any consent popup or feature on your site, so you’ll need to configure this as per the plugin you choose. After doing so, users to your site will be able to grant consent, and they’ll then be tracked in Google Analytics.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above. I’m happy to check your site your site once more after you enabled a third party consent plugin also. Thank you.

Hi James. It’s interesting that you say we haven’t provided a mechanism for users to your site to grant consent.

I’ve installed (and been using for the last 3 weeks) the Cookiebot CMP by Usercentrics plugin, as reccommended in the guide shared.

Edit
I see that I had to purchase CookieBot in order for it to work. I’ve gone ahead and done that, but I hope there’s a free solution in the pipeline. The 2 official recommendations are paid solutions. Given that they’re required for Analytics to work in the EU, users will need to purchase a solution to track visitor data now.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by Matt.

Thanks for the update @mattatlevel. You’re correct, in that I do see a consent popup when I visit your site from an incognito browser session. I’m not sure why it didn’t appear when I last checked.

To troubleshoot this further, as I can see your site tracking when using tagassistant.google.com, can you confirm that you are seeing some traffic, and that the issue is more to do with a drop in traffic? You can also check that your tag is firing when using the GA4 real time reporting tool.

Thanks James. I’ve had to purchase Cookiebot to re-enable it.

Can you confirm that you are seeing some traffic, and that the issue is more to do with a drop in traffic?

Yes. I’ve used the following tools to make sure that traffic hasn’t dropped:

1. Semrush
2. SERanking
3. Cloudflare Analytics
4. Server logs
5. Google Search Console

All of which are consistent since our drop in traffic on April 14th. (I will share a preview of this traffic drop below)

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by Matt.

Appreciate the update @mattatlevel. With the DMA changes and consent mode enabled, it’s not uncommon that there will be a drop in traffic. All visitors from the EEU, UK and soon Switzerland will not be counted in Analytics reports by default, until they click on the consent button with your Cookiebot consent banner.

While you may be encountering this drop in traffic, I can confirm that you have configured Site Kit correctly, as you did with your consent management plugin. When you stated that you do receive some traffic, this is an indication that your Analytics snippet is working as expected and the loss of traffic is more related to not all visitors granting consent.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

James, if what you are saying is true, how can GA4 be of any use going forward? I’ve set up everything correctly, paid for a consent management solution (as per the guide linked above), and my client reports remain to have an accuracy level of less than 1% (see other traffic sources below).

Cloudflare

GSC

Apologies my last message was quite direct. What you’re saying is difficult to digest.

I do greatly appreciate the support you’ve offered here James. Thank you.

I can completely understand the frustration. I’m happy to troubleshoot this further with you to confirm that the issue regarding a drop in traffic is related to users not granting consent if you wish. In order to do so, for testing purposes, can you disable consent mode within Site Kit and also your consent management plugin. We can then perform some checks on your site using the real time reporting tool, and checking in with you tomorrow. If traffic looks normal and expected, you can enable consent mode and your consent management plugin once more.

Note also that the changes regarding consent mode are not set by Site Kit, they, it’s an EU wide consent policy, with more details here. If we can determine all is working as expected with Site Kit active and Google Analytics visits firing once consent mode is deactivated and your consent management plugin is also temporarily deactivated.

In relation to the consent management plugin used, there are many options available, some non-paid versions also. Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Apologies my last message was quite direct. What you’re saying is difficult to digest.

No need to apologize, and of course these changes can make a huge difference in Analytics reporting. We’re here to answer any questions you wish in relation to consent mode and how it works within Site Kit. Thank you!

OK James. Thank you for your offer above. I’m going to let the site run for another 22 hours, and monitor the traffic. If I can see a significant uplift – then I can verify the purchase has made a difference.

If I don’t see any changes then I’m happy to proceed with, and learn from, your suggestion.

Sounds like a plan! I granted consent a couple of times from visiting your site, so my own site visits should be recording. Feel free to revert here at any stage. Thank you!

We’re still at an all time low with Analytics visitors records.

I’ve installed Matomo to further verify – and that’s recording 200+ visitors a day.

That’s unfortunate @mattatlevel, but thanks for the update. With consent mode, it’s very possible that users may be not granting consent with the consent management plugin you have active. Unfortunately not all users typically grant consent, so with these recent?Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes, the loss of traffic is most likely from EEU and UK visitors, as they will not be tracked until consent is explicitly granted.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Is it possible to fire a visitor tag before consent is given? Or at least count the number of times consent is denied to better approximate visitor numbers? There’s got to be a way around it. I feel everyone is using SiteKit/GA4 with confidence, and I can’t see the use of it.

Additionally, I don’t understand why other platforms are collecting visitor data and GA4 isn’t.

If you have consent mode enabled within Site Kit, which is required for EEU and UK visitors, tags won’t fire for these users until they have granted consent.

It’s also possible that you have similar configurations applied for non EEU and UK visitors with your consent management plugin, so it’s very possible that all visitors are set to not track until they grant consent. This would be a consent management plugin configuration.

Additionally, I don’t understand why other platforms are collecting visitor data and GA4 isn’t.

Other platforms may also have their own consent mode, I can’t be sure unfortunately. I am aware that the DMA changes are not specific to Google Analytics. A loss of reporting when you don’t have a loss of traffic is certainly not ideal, but hopefully you can configure a consent management plugin to ensure only EEU and UK traffic is defaulting to consent denied.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.