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GA4BigQuery is back in action!

Balazs Vajna

Hi there,

To put the headline and the rest of this message into context, I will cut to the chase right away: I have teamed up with the original founding father of the GA4BigQuery platform, Johan van de Werken, to breathe new life into the platform and the newsletter!

Introduction

Let me introduce myself: I am Balazs Vajna, a big fan of BigQuery since around the latter end of 2018, back when its "central offering" (for digital / marketing analysts at least) was the good old Universal Analytics 360 export. I have since joined forces with a friend of mine who, after leaving Google, created a technical minded digital marketing agency called MarketingLens, and have been leading their data analytics efforts ever since.

My passion for BigQuery and digital marketing data has never faded, and you might occasionally run into my posts on LinkedIn, usually around BigQuery or closely related topics.

Our update

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we all loved the GA4BigQuery newsletter and the website: it was an excellent way to stay up to date on the topic. Knowledge gained on GA4 data is very transferable across companies and clients—therefore, it is absolutely sensible to share information when one comes across anything useful, and it is also very sensible to keep an eye out for others' experiences, as having seen ideas and solutions by others can save a lot of time when we come across new challenges in our own work.

In this spirit, the platform has always been operated with the goal of abundant knowledge sharing in mind; unfortunately, of course, it takes a lot of work, making it difficult to balance with other commitments, especially for a single person. This resulted in longer and longer gaps between newsletters and how-to articles.

This did not feel right. Johan and I seem to share this passion, so we have teamed up to bring GA4BigQuery back to life. My own goal here is to maintain it as a central go-to place for everything on GA4 data, and to be the first port of call when challenges arise. The space is rapidly evolving though, so it is not about "simply" GA4 data anymore—there are other digital marketing data sources, processing tools like Dataform, Google Ads, and changes / new features in BigQuery that are worth exploring together.

Here is a message from the founder of the GA4BigQuery platform:

💡
When I first started GA4BigQuery, the aim was simple: to share practical knowledge around working with GA4 data in BigQuery, based on what I was learning myself. Over time, it became a steady resource for others navigating the same topics. I’m grateful for the support and interest it received. Thank you to everyone who followed along and found value in it.

That’s why I’m pleased to welcome Balazs Vajna, who brings a strong background not only in GA4 but in BigQuery more broadly. With Balazs taking the lead, we’ll be able to expand the scope beyond GA4, covering a wider range of BigQuery-related topics that matter to digital analysts today.

While Balazs will drive the day-to-day direction, I’ll remain involved behind the scenes to support the platform’s continued development. I’m confident this next chapter will be a valuable one for the community.

-Johan

The goal of this collaboration is to revive everything that was good about GA4BigQuery, and take it further. We do not intend to change anything that worked well; e.g. the layout of the site and the manner in which information is shared with subscribers (free and premium alike). Everything will stay the same, and we'll of course be eager to hear your thoughts and continuously improve based on your feedback.

We hope you will enjoy getting regular updates again on GA4 and BigQuery! Thank you for reading and happy querying!

Best regards,
Balazs & Johan