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How does google analytics measure active users vs. new users in measurement protocol .

How does it measure new users? , Is it based on ipaddress ? I send the same cid=555 for all requests.

In website I see that it uses cookies though

Thank you

user476566
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CID actually stands for client-id = random number generated by Google Analytics when you come to a website for the first time. You can easily grab it (even with GTM) and use it with Measurement Protocol.

If you use client-id that GA can recognize, it will stitch the data together (campaign source/medium) etc. If you use a new one (like '555' you mentioned), it will then see the incoming measurement protocol request as a request from new user.

Be smart though what you use as CID -- it the key that's vital to pairing any information you might already have about your visitors.

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Petr Havlik
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  • So If I need to capture returning users / new users , i should be using the user id parameter ( Example - Hash a user name and map to a user id ) so that we can accurately determine if the user is a returning user or a new user . – user476566 Apr 28 '14 at 22:10
  • is there a way how you can record CID generated by GA? – Petr Havlik Apr 29 '14 at 08:00
  • My app is a desktop application and not hosted on web. Thus need to use only measurement protocol and the http request constructs expects cid as a required parameter. Thus cid should be generated by the applicatoin itself as a unique id (UUID ), but I think to find out active vs. returning users it needs to be based on user id parameter ( which maps to unique username ) and not on cid ?? – user476566 Apr 29 '14 at 20:22
  • To be honest, I am not sure in this case. If you use your own IDs, then I would make sure you are using consistent ones for the same user - but I haven't validate this... – Petr Havlik Apr 30 '14 at 11:34
  • user id is for something else - stitching visits coming from the same users but different devices (and MP requires use of CID in all requests, USER ID then works as additional key, not the primary one!) – Petr Havlik Apr 30 '14 at 11:35
  • I am using the user id field to tie information for each unique user to my application. I created a new view for it , but not sure how to tell the view to base its data using User Id. In short , how to view profiles per User Id parameter . Thank you – user476566 May 01 '14 at 08:52
  • The only article I know is providing some context is this one: http://cutroni.com/blog/2014/04/10/understanding-cross-device-measurement-and-the-user-id/ – Petr Havlik May 01 '14 at 09:18
  • This hit does not seem to get registered in user id view in real time tab -- http://www.google-analytics.com/collect?&ul=en-US&v=1&tid=UA-xxxxx-2&cid={9ddbf6d0-1909-4ea8-afd0-bcbfbbfd1c3e}&t=pageview&dt=Stest%20tab&dp=test%20tab&uid=hsjfy4782jduyth6k4 – user476566 May 01 '14 at 09:21