How To Remove Cost Data From Google Analytics

Google Analytics cost data imports are a great way to get campaign cost, impression and click data from non-Google advertising platforms into Google Analytics. However, to get the most out of this feature, importing cost data has to be formatted properly to align with session data.

If a cost data set is not configured properly or if the UTM Profile fields are not defined matching historical URL Parameters then either the cost values are inaccurate or your data does not align in cost analysis and custom reports.

Mistakes can happen. Fortunately, there is a way to remove imported cost data so that you can start with a clean slate.

Before you get started we recommend that you archive any active Data Connectors. Once you have cleaned your cost data imports you can recreate your Data Connector. When you create your new Data Connector just make sure to:

-Select Import Historical Data so that our system picks up past campaign data.

-Use the same UTM Profile as you did for the archived connector.

You can leave tagging enabled. EasyAutoTagging will ignore any ads that are already tagged. However, keep in mind that if you change or use a different UTM Profile, ads will get retagged since the existing tags will not match the new UTM Profile.

Note: Remember that Google Analytics does not always refresh cost data instantaneously. Learn more here.

Let’s get started.

Warning: The process below will remove cost, impression and click data from Google Analytics. We are not responsible for any data changes in your system as a result of following these instructions.

Step 1

Go to Google Analytics > Acquisitions > Campaigns > Cost Analysis then filter down to the campaigns you want to remove and select the desired data range.

Step 2

Head over to Facebook and filter down to the same campaigns and date range as you did for Google Analytics.

Step 3

Select the campaigns for which you want to clean cost, impression and click data and navigate to the ads tab.

The only columns you are going to need are:

Campaign Name

Ad Set Name

Ad Name

Cost

Impressions

Link Clicks

Step 4

Next, go to Breakdown > By Time > Day

Step 5

Then go to Reports > Export Table Data and in the pop up select Export as .csv

Step 6

Create a new spreadsheet and head over to Google Analytics > Admin

At the bottom of the Properties column select Data Import

Step 7

Find the same Cost Data Set that you used for your Data Connector and select Manage Uploads

Step 8

Click get Schema

Step 9

Copy the import schema for your Cost Data Set then paste it into your spreadsheet. These will be your column headers for cost data imports.

Step 10

Now go back to the CSV you exported from Facebook and paste the following columns under their respective headers.

Reporting Starts = ga:date

Ad Name = ga:adContent <= This should equal the value you set for Content in your UTM Profile

Campaign Name= ga:campaign <= This should equal the value you set for Campaign in your UTM Profile

Ad Set Name = ga:keyword <= This should equal the value you set for Keyword in your UTM Profile. If you skipped this field you can leave the rows blank.

Important: Make sure to set the values for cost, impression and click data to 0.

Step 11

Find and replace the dash for the ga:date column. Google Analytics only accepts a date format that is YYYYMMDD (for example: 20201217)

Step 12

For ga:medium and ga:source paste in the static values you used for your UTM Profile.

Step 13

With the cost data import sheet formatted, export it as a CSV file then upload it to your cost data set.

That’s it, you should be all set. Once you have verified that the cost data has been removed you can go ahead and recreate the Data Connectors.

Remember that there can be a delay before the values update in Google Analytics.

Going back to the same Google Analytics report that we started with under Acquisitions > Campaigns > Cost Analysis we can see that user and session data is preserved but cost, impression and click data has been removed.