Client_ID retrieval

[evisifakis]

I had a question regarding this code and generally the Google Analytics API. Is there any way to retrieve the Client_ID (a unique identifier for a visitor of the website)? This is a visible component on the google analytics site, under Audiences and then under User Explorer, which means that the client_id is stored somewhere. However, when I search the UA Dimensions & Metrics Explorer page, it is not included as a dimension or metric. This is a problem I have also encountered when trying to export data from Google Analytics to Power BI.

If someone has tips on if this is possible through an API with the current libraries (and not deprecated ones), please let me know! Any tips help:)

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and project!

[tanyazyabkina]

Great question!
It looks like you might need to export to BigQuery first. I have not worked with GA data on that level, but I worked with other CDP data, which we exported into Snowflake, summarized, and then fed into a BI solution. You could follow the same pattern with GA. One thing I don't know if whether you will need GA360 to export client_id. If you find out, let me know!
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3437719?hl=en

[evisifakis]

Tanya, Thank you for your answer! For anyone still interested in this question, I found a couple of solutions. One, tanya mentioned in the comment. Another one you can implement without GA360 is creating a custom dimension and setting it to the client_id using cookies. However, this is not a retrospective function, which means that previous data cannot be used with the client_id, only future data. Unfortunately I am not working with real-time data, so I will have to work with the data set that I have! Thanks again :)