How to Set Up a Google Analytics View in the New York time zone
If you are not on the American East Coast, your analytics may not be either.
For accurate dashboard reporting - everything from RPM to Site Health and Page Level Reports - your analytics time zone should match up with Mediavine's ad server reporting.
Mediavine's revenue data in our dashboard is -04:00 / New York time, so if your timezone is set differently in Google Analytics, there can be discrepancies that happen with calculations.
Why is this important?
We use your Google Analytics to pull in the number of sessions, pageviews, and other important data in your dashboard. Our ad server, Google Multi-Customer Management system (MCM), only allows reporting in one timezone. For Mediavine that is -04:00 New York. The large majority of the partners and exchanges that spend on your website are also located in New York City, so this makes lining up with that reporting more streamlined as well.
If your Google Analytics is set to anything other than the New York timezone, the traffic in your dashboard will not be in sync with the ad server. Depending on the difference between your timezone and -04:00 New York Time, the discrepancy can be anywhere from 5-10% to as much as 50%.
***NOTE: This does not affect your actual revenue, only the performance calculations.***
Fixing this problem will help you and our team get the most accurate data, giving us the ability to help you optimize your performance.
Instead of changing your timezone on your existing view, we recommend setting up a secondary property in your Google analytics. That gives the the Mediavine Dashboard the data it needs to work correctly, and also allows you to maintain the historical data and the view that you are used to, in your home time zone.
Please follow the instructions below to do this.
How to check your timezone in GA4
Go to analytics.google.com and log into your account.
Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to select the GA4 property that is connected to your Mediavine account.
Click the ADMIN link on the bottom left corner of the page.
Choose Property Settings
If this is set to an EST timezone, then you are all set.
If it is set to anything other than New York time, please proceed with the steps below.
How to setup a secondary GA4 property in the New York time zone
1. Locate the "Property" column and click "Create Property".
2. Name your property something that will tell you what time zone it is reporting in. Then select United States and (GMT-04:00) New York time under Reporting time zone and click "Next".
3. Fill out your Business details with the appropriate details, then click “Next”.
4. Fill out your Business objectives with the appropriate details, then click "Create".
5. Select Web, then enter your website's url, site name, and click "Create stream":
6. This step is critical. You need to add the new GA4 code to your site, otherwise our dashboard won't be able to pull in any data. Click "View tag instructions" to see how you can add this GA4 property to your site:
7. Google will look for recommended ways to add this new GA4 property to your site and you can follow its instructions or you can click "Install manually" and copy the script tag and add it to the head of your site(in the same area where any current Google Analytics have been inserted):
You'll now have two different GA4 properties in your analytics account. The new property will not have past data, it will only collect data after you've applied the new GA4 script on your site.
*** Google Analytics 4 filters are applied at the property level, and affect data from all data streams in that property. All reports for a property use the same filtered data. SOURCE. ***