Google Analytics

Startica reads Google Analytics 4 (GA4) so it can show visits by source, key events, and visits from each reply you posted. It reads GA4 with a service account: a key from a Google Cloud project you own that can only view the GA4 properties you add it to. Setting it up takes about ten minutes, once per property.

A GA4 connection belongs to one product. Each product links one property.

What you need

Item	Value
Google Cloud project	Any project you own. A new one is fine.
API to enable	Google Analytics Data API
Service account	One with no Cloud roles, and a JSON key
Access in GA4	The service account’s email added to the property as a Viewer
Property ID	The number under Admin → Property details in GA4

The Viewer role is read-only. Startica can’t change your Analytics settings.

1. Enable the Data API

1. Open the Google Cloud Console and sign in.
2. In the project picker at the top, create a new project (for example startica) or pick an existing one.
3. Go to APIs & Services → Library. Search for Google Analytics Data API and click Enable.

2. Create the service account and its key

1. Go to IAM & Admin → Service accounts and click Create service account.
2. Give it a name such as startica-reader. It needs no roles: skip the optional permission steps and click Done.
3. Open the new service account. Go to Keys → Add key → Create new key, choose JSON, and click Create. A .json file downloads.
4. Copy the service account’s email. It looks like startica-reader@your-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com.

3. Give it access to the property

1. In Google Analytics, open Admin → Property access management for the property.
2. Click + → Add users, paste the service account’s email and choose the Viewer role. Untick “Notify new users by email” and click Add.
3. Open Admin → Property details and copy the Property ID. It’s a number, such as 123456789.

4. Connect in Startica

1. Make sure the right product is active in the header.
2. In Settings → Products → Connections for …, find Google Analytics 4 and click Connect. The dialog repeats the setup steps, with links to the Google Cloud pages.
3. In “Connect Google Analytics 4”, enter the Property ID.
4. Under Service account key, click Choose file… and pick the downloaded .json file. (Or open it in a text editor and paste everything in it.)
5. Click Save and test.

Startica stores the key encrypted with your OS keychain and runs a sync right away. The card then shows Connected and “Property id”, or Error with the reason. Once it’s connected, delete the downloaded .json file.

To use another property or a new key, click Replace key. Leave Service account key empty to keep the saved key and change only the property ID.

What Startica pulls

Each sync requests the last 30 days from the GA4 Data API and stores daily values in the local database.

Stored metric	GA4 source	Split by
sessions, users, key_events	sessions, totalUsers, keyEvents	Day only
sessions	sessions	source:<source> / <medium>
sessions, key_events	sessions, keyEvents	utm_content:<value>, which carries the draft ID Startica puts in its links (per-reply attribution)
key_events	keyEvents	event:<event name> (non-zero only)

Syncs run every day at 08:15 local time while Startica is open, when you save the connection, and when you click Sync now. GA4 itself can take 24 to 48 hours to finalize a day’s numbers, so the last day or two may still change. Re-syncing overwrites earlier values for the same day.

To count signups or purchases as key events, mark those events as key events in GA4 (Admin → Data display → Events).

Disconnect or revoke

• The trash button on the Google Analytics 4 card removes the connection and deletes the saved key from Startica.
• To cut off access on Google’s side as well, remove the service account from Property access management in GA4, or delete its key under IAM & Admin → Service accounts → Keys in Google Cloud.

Connected before with Connect with Google?

Older versions of Startica had a Connect with Google sign-in under Workspace sign-ins and a GA4 property picker. Both are gone. A GA4 connection made that way has no key of its own, so its syncs fail. Click Replace key on the Google Analytics 4 card and follow the steps above to connect it with a service account key. You can also delete the old OAuth client in Google Cloud.

Troubleshooting

Message or symptom	Cause and fix
“The GA4 property ID is a number (Admin → Property details)”	Enter the numeric property ID, not the measurement ID (G-…) or the property name.
“Paste the whole service account key: the contents of the .json file, starting with {”	The key field has only part of the file, or a different kind of key. Paste the whole .json file of a service account key.
“The GA4 key isn’t valid JSON: paste the whole .json file”	The saved key is damaged. Click Replace key and paste the file again.
“The GA4 key isn’t a service account key: reconnect GA4 in Settings → Products → Connections”	The saved key isn’t a service account key. Click Replace key and paste a service account’s .json key.
“Paste the credentials to connect”	No key is saved for this connection yet. Paste the .json key; it can only be left blank when replacing a saved one.
“No credentials saved for this connection”	The connection was made with the old Google sign-in. Click Replace key and add a service account key.
PERMISSION_DENIED or “User does not have sufficient permissions for this property”	The service account isn’t a Viewer on this property, or the property ID is for another property. Check Property access management in GA4.
Google Analytics Data API has not been used in project …	Enable the Data API in the project that owns the service account.
Creating a key fails with “Service account key creation is disabled”	A Google Workspace organization policy blocks keys. See the note under What you need.

More in Troubleshooting.