GA4 Average Engagement Time Showing 0 - Potential Sandbox Limitations?

Technical Q&A
,
1

Hello Shopify community,

I’m encountering an issue where the average engagement time per active user is consistently showing as 0 across all GA4 dashboards. Here’s a brief overview of my setup and the potential challenges I’m facing:

Setup details:

  • I’m using GTM based on GA4 data layers.
  • The GTM code snippet and data layers are added via Custom Pixels, following Shopify’s documentation.
  • My tracking flow involves using server-side tagging: data is first collected through browser GTM, then processed by server GTM hosted on Google Cloud Platform, and finally sent to GA4 and other tools like FB Conversions API and Google Ads.
  • Consent mode is implemented, and when users deny cookies, analytics_storage and ad_storage are denied (gcs: G100) in compliance with GDPR.

Potential issues:

  • I understand that Shopify’s pixel sandbox environment has limitations, such as restrictions on DOM scraping and automatic event detection.
  • In markets requiring consent (e.g., EEA), pixels only run with the necessary permissions, which might affect data collection.

Questions:

  1. Could the sandbox limitations or consent mode settings be causing the average engagement time to show as 0 in GA4?
  2. Are there specific configurations or workarounds to ensure accurate engagement tracking within this setup?

I’m worried that the 0s average engagement time metric might be affecting the performance of my ad campaigns, as accurate engagement data is crucial for optimizing ad targeting and effectiveness.

Any insights or advice on resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1 Like
2

Hey Matei86,

Heddy from Gameball: Loyalty Program & VIP here!

The issue with GA4 showing 0 average engagement time could indeed be linked to your consent mode settings or Shopify’s sandbox environment limitations. If users deny cookies, certain tracking functionalities (like engagement time) might be blocked, which can result in the metric showing as 0. To ensure accurate tracking, consider checking your consent mode settings and verifying whether all required tags and triggers are firing correctly in your GTM setup. Also, reviewing server-side tagging configurations may help resolve the issue.

Let me know if you need further help!

3

Hi Heddy,

Thanks for your insightful response. I just came across this thread: https://community.shopify.com/c/technical-q-a/google-tag-manager-and-the-shopify-sandbox/m-p/2215483/thread-id/137508

It seems that the issue is indeed caused by Shopify’s sandbox environment limitations.

Could Shopify provide additional support or guidance on how to navigate these sandbox constraints to ensure accurate engagement tracking?

Thanks,

Matei