Documentation Customer Journey Analytics Customer Journey Analytics Guide

How the GA4 data model maps to Customer Journey Analytics

Last update: June 13, 2026

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GA4 and Customer Journey Analytics are both event-based platforms, which makes the data model translation between them more direct than it was from Universal Analytics. Understanding how GA4’s events and parameters correspond to Customer Journey Analytics’s XDM fields and datasets makes it easier to interpret reports and collaborate with your implementation team.

GA4’s event-based data model

Every interaction in GA4 is an event: a named action with an optional set of parameters that provide context. There are no separate object types for page views, sessions, or goals — they are all events.

GA4 event type

Examples

Auto-collected

page_view, session_start, first_visit, scroll

Enhanced measurement

file_download, video_start, form_submit

Recommended

purchase, add_to_cart, sign_up

Custom

Any event name you define

Each event can carry up to 25 parameters. For example, a purchase event typically includes transaction_id, value, currency, and items as parameters.

How Customer Journey Analytics stores data

Customer Journey Analytics gets its data from Adobe Experience Platform. Data in Platform is stored in datasets, each conforming to a schema built using the Experience Data Model (XDM). XDM is Adobe’s open standard for representing customer experience data.

There are three dataset types used in Customer Journey Analytics:

CJA dataset type

GA4 equivalent

What it holds

Event dataset

GA4 event stream

Time-series interactions (page views, clicks, purchases)

Profile dataset

GA4 user properties

Person-level attributes (CRM fields, loyalty status, demographics)

Lookup dataset

GA4 custom dimensions used as reference tables

Key-value reference data (product catalog, campaign names)

Customer Journey Analytics has no eVars, props, or success events. All dimensions and metrics are sourced directly from XDM schema fields. There are no limits on the number of unique dimension values.

Automatically collected events

GA4 automatically collects a set of events through its SDK. The following table maps those events to their XDM or Customer Journey Analytics equivalents.

GA4 auto-collected event

XDM / Customer Journey Analytics equivalent

page_view

xdm.web.webPageDetails.pageViews (standard XDM field)

session_start

Session start (automatic, per data view session definition)

first_visit

First Session segment

scroll

Custom event (requires explicit implementation mapping)

click

xdm.web.webInteraction fields (requires implementation)

video_start / video_complete

Media Collection schema fields (with Adobe streaming media services)

purchase

xdm.commerce.purchases, xdm.commerce.order (standard XDM commerce schema)

add_to_cart

xdm.commerce.productListAdds (standard XDM commerce schema)

NOTE

Several of GA4’s enhanced measurement events (like scroll, file download, or video) require explicit mapping to XDM fields when implementing using the Web SDK. They do not auto-collect in the same way that GA4’s SDK handles them.

Custom events and parameters

In GA4, custom events have a name and up to 25 parameters. In Customer Journey Analytics, custom events map to custom XDM schema fields defined during implementation:

The event name becomes a field value in an XDM field (typically xdm.eventType).
Each parameter becomes a separate XDM schema field. Any XDM field can be exposed as either a dimension or metric when configuring a data view.

NOTE

The specific XDM field paths for your organization’s custom events are determined during Web SDK implementation. Work with your implementation team to understand your specific field mapping before building reports. See Architect your schema for more information.

User properties

GA4 user properties are persistent attributes set on a user (for example, membership_tier or account_type). In Customer Journey Analytics, these map to Profile datasets in Platform.

A Profile dataset is ingested separately from event data and joined to it in Customer Journey Analytics using a shared person ID. Common person IDs used in this context include a customer ID or email hash. Once joined, those profile attributes are available as dimensions in Analysis Workspace alongside your event-level data.

This approach gives Customer Journey Analytics more flexibility than GA4’s user properties model: GA4 limits you to user properties defined in its SDK, while Customer Journey Analytics Profile datasets can include any attribute from any system (CRM, loyalty platform, support records) as long as it shares a joinable identifier.

If your organization still needs to bring GA data into Adobe Experience Platform, see Ingest Google Analytics historical data and Configure streaming Google Analytics data for the admin-facing setup guides.

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