Google Analytics Importer

Because Google is stopping Universal Analytics in 2023 and then removing your historical data, we’ve built an importer so you can save your UA data (and GA4 data), then access it easily from your Fathom dashboard forever in a few steps:

1. Go to Imports from your settings.
2. Click Create a new import.
3. Connect your Google account to Fathom so we can grab your GA data and follow the authorization steps from Google.
4. Map your GA account (UA or GA4), property, and view to a Fathom dashboard.
5. If you’re importing several sites at once, keep adding more sites by clicking Add another property.
6. Click Import the data.

That’s it! Your import will now queue up and start importing. You can watch a video on how the importer works here.

Because of limitations on Google’s end for how quickly data can be requested, your import can take up to 48 hours to complete. We’ll email you once the import is finished or if something goes wrong.

Failed imports

If your import fails, you can try adjusting a setting within your Google Analytics account:

1. Go to Admin, then Property Settings, then the User Analysis section.
2. Turn Enable user metric reporting to off, then try the import again.
3. If the import still doesn't work, get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for the data to import?

It depends how much data there is. We'll email you when the import is finished. We are limited by Google's API limits as to how much data we can import every hour, and we've done our best to be fair and allow as many customers to import as much data as possible each hour.

What are the limitations of GA data within Fathom?

Due to the limitations that Google has with their API and how they collect data, the following limitations are true when viewing GA data in our software:

• You can’t filter data from GA as not all of their data contains our data points.
• You can’t view GA data hourly, as we can only import daily data (to avoid hitting their API limits).
• We can only import data that matches how we show data on our dashboards, so not all data can always be imported from GA.
• We can’t import events (sorry).
• If you create the same import from the same site twice, for the same time period, it'll import that data twice.
• How GA and Fathom determine device types are slightly different, so those numbers will be different.
• GA doesn't group UTM values that are the same words but different cases (i.e. "Buffer" and "buffer"), but Fathom does.

How much data is imported from Google Analytics?

We import all of the data we’re able to. Unfortunately data mismatches between GA and Fathom are out of our control, but we've done our best to minimize this.

What if some data didn't import completely?

If you're missing some individual data, like specific: device types, referrers, etc., that's because Google's API didn't give us that data. We're at the mercy of their API and it's extreme limitations.

What timeframe am I allowed to import?

You can import all the way back to the start of your Google Analytics account if you’d like!

Just be careful not to import data from GA that overlaps when you had Fathom installed (otherwise, you’ll get approximately double the data for those dates). That’s why we built a date picker for the import, so you have granular control over what dates are imported and which aren’t.

If you mess up, you can always delete the import, which doesn't delete your Fathom data and try it again with a different date range.

Will the data differ from GA to Fathom?

Indeed it will. GA has different rules for what they consider a visitor (we reset this every 24 hours. They also sample data (i.e. they guess/extrapolate data sometimes). Most browsers and all ad-blockers also block Google Analytics. They also don’t filter out bots, DDoS attacks, crawlers and non-humans as well as Fathom does. So the metrics won’t ever be “apples to apples.”

Sometimes the data varies because we strip away personal data from URL parameters. For example, if your GA account has the following pages with pageviews:

• / 10 pageviews
• /?email=luna@cat.com 5 pageviews
• /?userid=523 with 3 pageviews

Then GA will show those 18 pageviews broken down by those parameters. But in Fathom Analytics, it'll just show as / having 18 pageviews. That's because we strip away all parameters except for UTMs and refs for privacy purposes.

There's also the issue of timezones: we may import all the data from GA, but due to timezones, that data may show up across different days. For example, say you had 10 pageviews on Oct 30 and 5 on Oct 31 in GA and your timezone is set to UTC. If you're viewing your dashboard in Fathom in Pacific (-8 UTC) then if any of those pageviews happened between 12 and 8 in GA they'll show up on the next day in Fathom.

Can I delete my imported GA data in Fathom?

You can! And you can do so without losing your Fathom Analytics data (so just the GA data). You can also just hide the GA data in your Fathom dashboard by toggling the "Show/Hide GA data" button in the footer.

Can I import GA4 data?

Yes :) Use the same Fathom GA Importer and select the GA4 property once you've authorized your account.

Where do I find time on page in GA?

In GA, go to, Audience, Overview, "Avg. Session Duration". This is where we get the data to show "Avg time on page" in Fathom, when that data is available in GA's API for us to see.

When should I delete my Google Analytics account?

We love your eagerness here, especially to get rid of Google Analytics! But first, be sure you’ve got all the data you need in Fathom Analytics before proceeding. Here’s how to delete your Google Analytics account when you’re ready.

What if I transfer a site with GA data?

If you import Google Analytics data, and then move your site to another customer, that other customer would need to contact us to delete the GA data if they no longer want it. The GA data transfers automatically to their account, but since they didn't import it, they can't delete that import.

Have more questions about our Google Analytics importer?

Unlike Google Analytics, we have customer support and are always happy to help. Get in touch today.