I have a current Google Analytics data flow via FiveTran to Redshift I need to migrate to GA4.
The current setup relies heavily on defining Segments in UA, layering them together into one overall "Valid Visitors" segment and then telling FiveTran to import 3 built-in reports with the All Users and Valid Visitors segments broken out and then we work with that data.
In detail we are doing the following:
-Filtering using timeonPage >= 0
Defining a Segment using the editor in GA that:
-Excludes as Spam anyone with a Region that matches within a long string, via a Regular Expression
-Excludes anyone who looks like a New User but clicks the Login link in the same Session
-Excludes anyone using a Builder tool with a specific URL
Now that we have to move to GA4, I'm seeing that the data model quite different (Instead of being based on sessions and pageviews like in Universal Analytics, the GA4 measurement model is based exclusively on events) and Segments don't really appear to be a thing (at least that can be used via the API when running reports like FiveTran does with UA) and when trying to do a custom report via the API, I can't seem to get the metrics my users want alongside the items above that I need to filter by.
Someone on Fivetran mentioned this a feature request and Funnel Reports being an equivalent?
So I THINK I'll need to do the path of exporting GA4 data to Big Query, then importing that to RedShift and then working with it there to build it back up to what I have currently, but it seems like what we're currently doing isn't that complicated and there should be a way to do it with the standard reports without having to resort to such a "raw data" approach.
However I'm a SQL person not a GA person and I'm having trouble even building a report in the GA4 interface that does what I have done with Segments in UA.
Can anyone suggest how to do this in "standard" GA4 reporting or confirm that I will need to do the raw data in Big Query and build things back up myself?
