Linking GA4 to BigQuery takes a few minutes. Some of the choices you make in those minutes are awkward to undo. So treat setup as a few decisions followed by a check that the data really arrived.
This article covers the procedure. If you are still deciding whether you need the export, start with why an e-shop would want GA4 data in BigQuery.
Get access right, then link the property
Google's setup guide asks for Editor access or higher on the Analytics property and Owner access to the BigQuery project. In Google Cloud, create or select a project and enable the BigQuery API. Then follow the guide's steps. Interface labels can change, so trust the guide over old screenshots.
- In GA4, open Admin and find BigQuery Links under Product Links.
- Click Link, then choose and confirm your project.
- Select a data location.
- Optionally choose data streams to include and events to exclude.
- For mobile app streams, decide whether to include advertising identifiers.
- Choose Daily, Streaming, or both. Analytics 360 properties can also choose Fresh Daily.
- Review and submit.
Choose the location as if it were permanent
You can change the location later, but only through a manual process. You delete the link, back up the data, delete the dataset, recreate it in the new location, restore the data and link again. Google warns this can leave a data gap. Its guide also mentions cross-region dataset replication, which avoids deleting the link.
