Tikra help

Connect Google Analytics 4

Names in bold such as Home, Orders, Platforms, Events, Incidents, Billing and Help are pages and buttons of the Tikra app. You open it from Apps in your Shopify admin.

Tikra sends each paid online order to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) as a purchase event. For GA4 purchase tracking on Shopify you need the measurement ID of your web data stream and a Measurement Protocol API secret.

1. Find the measurement ID

1. In Google Analytics, go to Admin > Data streams and open your web stream.
2. The measurement ID starts with G-, like G-AB12CD34EF.

2. Create the API secret

1. On the same web stream page, open Measurement Protocol API secrets.
2. Click Create.
3. Copy the Secret value.

3. Decide about the store's own GA4 tracking

GA4 starts getting orders from Tikra as soon as you save. If the store's own Google Analytics tag still sends purchases, GA4 can count a purchase twice.

Tikra sends only purchases to GA4. The store's own Google Analytics tag sends much more: page views, sessions and traffic sources, product views, add to cart and checkout steps. The Google & YouTube sales channel has no switch for purchases alone, so removing its Google Analytics connection stops all of these events, and GA4 then also cannot show where buyers came from. Do not remove it only to stop its purchases.

Choose one:

• Keep the store's own GA4 tracking as it is. Then do not connect GA4 in Tikra yet. GA4 keeps getting everything, including purchases, from the store's own tag.
• Stop only its purchases. If your Google Analytics tag runs in Google Tag Manager, a custom pixel or your theme code, remove only its purchase event there and keep the other events. Then connect GA4 in Tikra (step 4).

Also remove any other Google Analytics tag that sends purchase events. More in Turn off the store's own tracking.

4. Connect GA4 in Tikra

1. In Tikra, go to Platforms.
2. On the Google Analytics 4 card, paste the measurement ID into Measurement ID.
3. Paste the secret into Measurement Protocol API secret.
4. Tick the box The store's own Google Analytics 4 purchase tracking is off. I understand that Google Analytics 4 then gets only purchases from Tikra. Tikra does not save without it.
5. Click Connect Google Analytics 4. In the Shopify admin, click Save at the top of the page instead.

Tikra sends a test event to Google's validation server first. When Google finds no problem with its format, the card says Google Analytics 4 is connected and its status changes to Connected. This check does not look at the measurement ID or the API secret, so a wrong one passes it too (step 5).

On the free diagnosis the form has no tick boxes, and GA4 gets nothing from Tikra: the card says Free diagnosis: no orders sent yet. Keep the store's own GA4 tracking on until you choose a plan. Then stop its purchases (step 3), click Go live on the card and tick both boxes there.

5. Check your next order in GA4 Realtime

Google's check looks at the format of the events only. It does not check the measurement ID or the API secret. With a wrong one, Google still accepts each order and records nothing, and Tikra cannot see that. Google answers the same way whether or not it records an order, so Home shows Google Analytics 4 orders as sent, not confirmed, and Realtime is the real check.

After your next paid order, open the Realtime report in GA4 and look for the purchase. If it does not appear:

1. Open the order on the Orders page in Tikra. If Google Analytics 4 shows Skipped, the order was never sent, and the line under it says why, for example that the buyer declined analytics consent.
2. If it shows Sent, check that the measurement ID belongs to your store's web stream.
3. Create a new API secret on that web stream and save it in Tikra with Change details.

Send a test

Click Send test on the card, then Send test. Tikra sends a sample purchase to Google's validation server. It never appears in your reports. The test checks the event format only. It does not check the measurement ID or the API secret either, so Realtime stays the real check.

Order data: value, product ID and customer type

On the GA4 card, click Order data to open it (it is closed until you click it, and a line under it shows your current choice). There you can change what Tikra sends. Click Save order data. New orders use your choice, and refunds follow it.

• Value. The default is the subtotal without tax: items after discounts, with no tax and no shipping. You can choose Total (what the buyer paid, with tax and shipping) or Subtotal (items after discounts, before shipping). A card that was connected before this choice existed keeps sending as it did until you choose. Once you choose, the card cannot go back to "as before". Email support@tikratracking.com if you want that.
• Product ID. By default each item carries its SKU, or the product ID when there is no SKU. Choose another format when your GA4 items must match a product feed, for example the Google & YouTube ID, which needs the two-letter country of the feed.
• Send customer type (new / returning). Tikra adds customer_type and new_customer to the purchase. When Tikra does not know, it sends nothing. It never guesses. On WooCommerce the type is worked out only from orders Tikra has seen since your store connected. A guest checkout without a customer account or email stays unknown.

What GA4 receives

• One purchase event for each paid online order (placed through your store's checkout) the buyer's consent allows. GA4 needs analytics consent. See Consent. Point of sale sales, draft orders marked as paid, subscription renewals and orders other apps or marketplaces create without a checkout are not sent. See Order proof.
• The Shopify order ID as the transaction ID.
• The value as Google asks for it: the products' prices after discounts, without tax and without shipping. When your store's prices include tax (for example VAT in the EU), Tikra takes the tax out. The tax and the shipping are sent as separate fields.
• Your store's currency, also when the buyer paid in another currency, and the products: each with its price after discounts and without tax, and the discount per item. Google takes at most 200 products per purchase and 100 characters per name or SKU, so a longer list or name is shortened. The value always counts every product.
• The buyer's Google Analytics client ID and session ID, when the pixel read them with analytics consent. Without them, Tikra uses an ID made for the order: the revenue counts, but GA4 cannot show where the buyer came from.
• The buyer's approximate location and device, so GA4 shows the country and the device type of each purchase: a shortened form of the buyer's IP address (the full address is never sent), and the device type (for example mobile or desktop), operating system and browser. They go with the purchase, so the same consent rule applies. A store that accepted an earlier version of the Data Processing Agreement gets them only after it accepts the version that lists them. Home then shows Updated terms with what changed: the store owner or an admin ticks the box and clicks Accept.
• A refund event for each Shopify refund of an order GA4 got. A refund of the whole order is sent without products, a partial refund with the refunded products, and the value is the refunded goods without tax. A refund with no product (for example only the shipping) is not sent. The refund is dated when it was made, at most 7 days back. WooCommerce refunds are not sent yet.
• The ad consent signals, set to granted only when the buyer allowed marketing and did not opt out of the sale or sharing of data. Otherwise they are set to denied.

Tikra sends to Google's collection address for the EU.

GA4 takes a purchase dated at most 72 hours back. An order that goes out later, for example after a problem was fixed, is sent up to 7 days after payment and dated 71 hours before it was sent: GA4 shows it on that day, it may not be tied to the buyer's visit, and the order's page in Tikra says so. Older orders are not sent to GA4.

Change the details, pause or disconnect

• Change details: paste new values. Leave the secret empty to keep the saved one.
• Pause: orders paid while GA4 is paused are not sent and do not count toward the match rate.
• Resume: GA4 gets new paid orders again. Orders paid while it was paused are not sent later.
• Disconnect: Tikra deletes the saved secret and stops sending orders to GA4.

Still stuck? Email support@tikratracking.com with your store address and your measurement ID.