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So before GA4 came into effect I would use what this documentation page describes in order to add a 1x1 beacon to the end of emails in order to track email opening using Google Analytics.

This would result in an HTML code like so:

<img border="0" src="https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=<PROPERTY_ID>&cid=<CLIENT_ID>&t=event&ec=email&ea=open&cs=campaign&cm=campaign&cn=campaign_001&dp=%campaign_001%2Fopen" width="1" height="1">

But I'm lost when it comes to the way the new GA4 Measurement Protocol works. Is it still possible to do what this code did? If so, how?

witchysofia
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  • No this is the measurement protocol for ga4 https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/ga4 – Linda Lawton - DaImTo Jul 18 '23 at 16:16
  • yes, it should still be possible with GA4. I guess you would hardcode the client id. But GA is just not made for tracking email opens. We usually track opens separately from GA since these opens don't meaningfully map to the other data due to the difference in client id/session id. You'd just end up using your GA as a very very simple counter. It would likely be a waste to use it for email opens tracking. – BNazaruk Jul 18 '23 at 17:45
  • @BNazaruk with the old UA, following the documentation page I provided on my post, I used the img tag with the GA MP v1 link to create a beacon and it worked pretty well. It seemed to handle most things automatically, showing data like the device the email was being read (mobile/desktop) without me needing to configure anything to send that data to GA. But since the new GA4 MP only works with POST requests I can't use it in a img src and even when I make a POST request it seems like I need to add all data manually. The new MP simply doesn't work like the old one? Seems like a downgrade to me. – witchysofia Jul 19 '23 at 02:48
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    oh, GA4 is definitely in many aspects a downgrade. They reduced maintenance with it very significantly, imposing new limits on the data and removing a lot of old functionality. I wouldn't surprised if they sunset tracking through gets. – BNazaruk Jul 19 '23 at 03:26

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