[GA4] About subproperties

A subproperty is a property that gets its data from one other property. The data in a subproperty is typically (but not necessarily) a subset of the data in its source property. Use subproperties to govern:

• User access to data
• Data, by filtering events from the source property

For example, you might have one property for a brand and one subproperty for each region in which you market the brand. You could then grant some users access to one region's data, while granting other users access to another region's data.

Subproperties are similar to ordinary properties

You work with a subproperty in the same way you would an ordinary property, with a few restrictions. After you create a subproperty, you control it independently from its source property. For example, you can add and remove users, mark events as key events, create audiences, delete data, and link to Google Ads, just as you would in an ordinary property.

There is no dependency between ordinary properties and subproperties for attribution modeling. You can select different attribution models for a subproperty and its source property. Event data gathered at the source property level is copied to the subproperty before attribution modeling is completed.

Subproperties and roll-ups inherit both the pre-attributed events and the post-attributed results. Independent attribution models (DDA, Last-click, and others) are created at each property level (primary property, subproperty, and roll-up property), meaning there is no dependency between a subproperty, source properties, or roll-up properties for attribution model training. Source property data is copied to its associated sub and roll-up property before modeling is completed. Modeling training for sub and roll-up properties are completed independently from its source properties.

You can import most kinds of data to a subproperty, with the exception of offline events.

Restrictions and dependencies

You can create up to 400 subproperties from each source property. The subproperties you create count toward the limit of 2000 properties per account.

Subproperties are subject to the same feature limits as other 360 properties.

A subproperty cannot have events of its own; all its events must first exist in its source property. For this reason, a subproperty does not allow you to add or delete data streams, import offline events, or modify and create events via the user interface. You can, however, use audience triggers in a subproperty because the events generated by audience triggers are processed separately from events that are collected client side.

You can import most kinds of data to a subproperty, with the exception of offline events.

Any data that you delete from a source property is also deleted from its subproperties. However, any data that you delete from a subproperty is only deleted from that subproperty.

If you move a source property to the Trash, all its subproperties are also moved to the Trash. However, you can move a subproperty to the trash without affecting its source property or other subproperties.

Product links in a subproperty

You can have a maximum of 400 unique links from a source property and its subproperties to Google Ads accounts. Unique links include links contributed by each source property and those created within the subproperty (links to the same Google Ads account will only be counted once). If the total exceeds 400, then Analytics deactivates the most recently added links until it reaches the limit of 400. (The deactivated links are listed on the Inactive tab of the Unique links table.)

A source property and its subproperties can all have independent integrations with (links to) the same product, for example to the same Google Ads account.

If a source property and one or more of its subproperties are linked to the same product, then each local link exports data independently. For example, the source property exports only its data and the subproperty exports only its data. Data exports are identifiable by property ID so that recipients of the data can tell them apart.

For reporting, each property link (source or subproperty) imports data from the linked product (where applicable) to widen existing event data so that reporting for each property is accurate.

A source property and its subproperties can all have independent integrations with (links to) the same product, for example to the same Google Ads account, however, some product integrations can be made with only a single Analytics property:

• In some cases, Analytics restricts the integration to an Analytics source property. For example when you link Firebase and Analytics, you have to link the Firebase project to one Analytics ordinary property (which can also be a source property).
• In other cases, it's possible to link to a subproperty or a source property, but Analytics recommends linking to the source property. For example, when you link Search Console and Analytics, you link a Search Console property to one Analytics web data stream. While you can link to the inherited data stream in the subproperty, we recommend linking to the local data stream in the source property.

In both cases described above, linking to the source property ensures linking and data integrity.

Create links to other products

To create a link between a subproperty and another product, see the linking instructions for that product.

All data from source-property product integrations is available in the subproperty.

Currently, you can link a subproperty to the following products:

• Google Ads
• BigQuery
• Campaign Manager 360
• Display & Video 360
• Search Ads 360

User access to a subproperty

You add users to a subproperty and configure their access just as you would for any property.

• If you remove a user from a source property, that user is also removed from its subproperties.
• If you remove a user from a subproperty, that user is removed from only the subproperty.

Google signals

To process Google signals data in a subproperty, you activate Google signals for that subproperty the same way you activate it for any other property. With that activation in place, if the source property is collecting Google signals data, then that data is also processed by the subproperty.

If you do not activate Google signals in a subproperty, then Google signals data from the source property is not processed by the subproperty.

Data discrepancies between source properties and subproperties

Why is the overall data not the same in both source and subproperties?

Reasons:

• The filters for subproperties are configured so that only a subset of data from the source property is available in the subproperty.
• The filter for subproperty has not yet gone into effect and there may be a waiting period before the initial filter configuration or a filter edit becomes effective. For realtime data, the waiting period can be 5 minutes to 4 hours. For daily data, the waiting period can be 4-36 hours.

Other expectations you may have about subproperties that may not be met

• The numbers of new users and returning users in the source property and subproperties are relative to subproperty filter configuration.
• Report metrics related to first_open and first_visit events are the same in the source property and subproperties relative to subproperty filter configuration.

Reasons why expectations aren't met:

The first_open and first_visit events indicate new users. While you can specifically include or exclude these events when you configure the filter for a subproperty, there are two circumstances when Analytics makes the choice of whether to include or exclude these events regardless of your filter configuration:

• When any event for a user is included in the subproperty filter, then Analytics also includes the associated first_open or first_visit events.
• When the first_open or first_visit events are the only events for a user that are passed to the subproperty, then Analytics drops those events from the subproperty.