Troubleshooting GA4 Integration Issues

Overview

In this guide, you'll learn how to troubleshoot issues with Shoplift's GA4 integration and verify that your test data is flowing correctly to Google Analytics. You'll learn how to identify common problems, use debugging tools, and ensure your experience impression events are properly configured.

Prerequisites

Before troubleshooting, ensure you have:

• GA4 integration enabled in your Shoplift dashboard

• Google Analytics 4 property set up and connected

• Admin or Editor access to your GA4 property

• Google Tag Assistant browser extension installed

• At least one active test running in Shoplift

Common Integration Issues

1. Verify Integration Status

First, confirm your integration is properly connected:

• Navigate to Settings > Integrations in your Shoplift dashboard

• Check that GA4 shows as "Connected" with a green status indicator

• Confirm your Measurement ID matches your GA4 property (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX)

2. Check Event Processing Delay

GA4 typically processes events within 24-48 hours. However, you can verify real-time data:

• Open your GA4 property

• Navigate to Reports > Real-time

• Trigger a test experience on your store

• Look for experience_impression events within 30 seconds

Note that experience_impression events only fire once per user, when the user is added to the test. We recommend using incognito windows during debugging.

Data Layer Conflicts

If you're using Google Tag Manager alongside GA4, ensure there are no conflicting implementations:

• Check for duplicate GA4 tags

• Verify event naming conventions don't overlap

• Confirm trigger conditions don't exclude Shoplift events

Test Traffic Not Recording

When test impressions aren't being recorded despite proper integration:

1. Confirm Test Status

• Ensure your test is set to "Active" in Shoplift

• Check audience targeting rules match your testing conditions

2. Review Cookie Consent Cookie consent banners may block tracking until accepted:

• Test in an incognito window

• Accept all cookies before testing

• Verify Shoplift cookies (Shoplift_Analytics) are being set after accepting consent

3. Check Browser Extensions Ad blockers and privacy extensions can interfere with tracking:

• Temporarily disable ad blockers

• Test in a clean browser profile

• Use incognito/private browsing mode

Verifying Events with Google Tag Assistant

Google Tag Assistant provides real-time debugging for your GA4 integration. The web-based debugger allows you to monitor events as they fire and inspect their parameters in detail.

Setting Up Your Debug Session

1. Access Tag Assistant

• Open a new incognito browser tab and navigate to tagassistant.google.com

• You'll see the Tag Assistant dashboard with options to start debugging

2. Start a Debug Session

• Click the "Add domain" button

• Enter your store's URL (e.g., https://mystore.myshopify.com), or the URL of the page where a test is being run

• Click "Connect" to initialize the debugging session

• A new tab will open with your store and debugging enabled

3. Debug Mode

• In Tag Assistant, you'll now see a "Connected!" dialog. Press Continue and navigate to the tab containing your Google Analytics Measurement ID.

• Here, you'll see a real-time stream of all GA4 events

• Look for the experience_impression event in the event list

• Events appear within 2-3 seconds of firing

• Ensure the experience_impression event is in the Hits Sent list

If you don't see an experience_impression event fire, it's possible that your visitor was not added to the test, or was already added to the test by the time your debugging window opened. To re-fire the event, clear out the following cookies and local storage from your incognito window:

• Cookies: Shoplift_Analytics, Shoplift_Essential, Shoplift_Session, shopify_y

• Local Storage: Shoplift_Analytics, Shoplift_Essential , Shoplift_Session

Once your storage is cleared, refresh the page. You should be added to the test, and an experience_impression event should fire.

4. Inspect Event Parameters

• Click on the experience_impression event to view detailed information. Depending on your setup, you may see two events, one with a Data Layer value and one with a Google Analytics Hit under Hits Sent.

• The experience_impression Google Analytics Hit is what sends information to Google Analytics. Expand the information under API Call, and confirm that your exp_variant_string parameter is passing the expected test and variant IDs.

• If you see that the parameter values are returning undefined, it could be because the event parameters are being nested in eventModel.

• You can confirm if this is the case by checking the Data Layer values for the experience_impression event:

• If this is the case, then it's likely you selected the "Google and YouTube Sales Channel" as the integration type in Shoplift. Disconnect the GA4 integration in Shoplift, and reconnect it, with "Google Tag Manager (recommended)" as the integration type.

Validating in GA4 Real-Time Reports

After confirming events in Tag Assistant:

1. Open GA4 Real-Time Reports

• Go to your GA4 property

• Navigate to Reports > Real-time

• Look for your event in the "Event count by Event name" card

2. Check Event Parameters

• Click on experience_impression in the events list

• Select "Parameter" view

• Verify all expected parameters appear with correct values

3. Create Debug View For detailed debugging:

• In GA4, go to Admin > DebugView

• Your tagged session should appear if Tag Assistant is active

• Watch events stream in real-time with full parameter details

Data Discrepancies Between Shoplift and GA4

Symptom: The number of visitors or conversions in GA4 doesn't match what Shoplift reports.

Common causes and solutions

Report timing differences: Shoplift and GA4 process data at different intervals. Google Analytics will always be 24-48 hours out of date from what Shoplift reports. To see the most accurate data, add Date as a Row dimension in your GA4 exploration. Then compare the daily breakdown to the Daily Report export for your Shoplift test (exportable from the Test Report page).

Event timing difference: Shoplift events fire immediately on page load, while GA4 initializes later on. If a visitor loads the page and quickly bounces, it's possible Shoplift will register the event, but GA4 will never initialize and therefore miss the event.

Consent-blocked events: Depending on how you've configured consent on your store, it's possible that either GA4 or Shoplift will have events blocked. Ensure both Shoplift and GA4 are firing in accordance with your consent management solution.

Integration method limitations: The Google & YouTube Sales Channel integration is more prone to data discrepancies due to how Shopify processes events. If you're seeing significant differences, consider migrating to Google Tag Manager for more reliable tracking.

Sampling: GA4's free tier applies data sampling to large datasets. If you have high traffic, the numbers shown in GA4 may be estimates rather than exact counts. You can see if your report is being sampled by clicking on the small dropdown in the top right corner of your Exploration:

Ad blockers: Visitors using ad blockers may block GA4 tracking (because it's set from a third-party domain) while Shoplift's tracking remains functional (set from a first-party domain).

When discrepancies are expected

Small discrepancies (typically under 10%) are normal due to:

• Network failures preventing some events from reaching GA4

• Visitors leaving before events fully transmit

• Bot traffic filtered differently by each system

If discrepancies exceed 10%, investigate using the checks above or contact support.

If you notice significant discrepancies between GA4 and Shoplift, we recommend comparing the data capture rate of your GA4 data to your Shopify data overall. For example, if GA4 tends to capture around 70% of Shopify visitor data, then it will only capture around 70% of Shoplift event data as well.

Getting Additional Help

If you've worked through these troubleshooting steps and still experience issues:

1. Gather Diagnostic Information

• Screenshot of Tag Assistant output

• Your GA4 Measurement ID

• Test ID from Shoplift dashboard

• Browser console errors (if any)

• Time and date of test attempt

3. Contact Support

Reach out to our support team with your diagnostic information:

• Include your store URL and test details

• Provide screenshots of Tag Assistant verification

• Describe the specific issue and when it started