Published on 2025-06-22T01:45:32Z

What is Aggregated Data? Examples with GA4 and PlainSignal

Aggregated Data is the process of summarizing raw, event-level user interactions into high-level metrics and counts.

In the analytics industry, it refers to combining individual data points—such as pageviews, sessions, or clicks—into summarized reports that show overall trends. This approach helps protect user privacy by removing personally identifiable details, reduces data storage and processing requirements, and simplifies decision-making for stakeholders. Platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and PlainSignal use aggregated data to deliver insights while adhering to privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. By focusing on aggregates, businesses can quickly understand performance patterns without examining every individual record.

Illustration of Aggregated data
Illustration of Aggregated data

Aggregated data

Aggregated Data combines individual analytics events into summary metrics, enhancing privacy and simplifying high-level reporting.

Why Aggregated Data Matters in Analytics

Aggregated Data provides a high-level view of user behavior and performance, enabling faster insights and ensuring regulatory compliance.

  • Privacy and compliance

    By removing or anonymizing individual identifiers, aggregated data reduces the risk of exposing personally identifiable information (PII). This approach helps organizations comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

    • Gdpr compliance

      Summaries prevent storing user-level details that fall under strict privacy laws.

    • Anonymization

      Aggregating counts avoids tracking individual user journeys.

  • Performance and scalability

    Summarized metrics require less storage and computing power than raw logs, making reporting faster and more cost-effective.

  • Actionable insights

    High-level metrics like total sessions or average session duration allow stakeholders to quickly gauge site performance without diving into detailed event logs.

Aggregated Data vs Raw Data

Understanding the difference between aggregated and raw data helps analysts choose the right tool for their reporting and analysis needs.

  • Raw data

    Event- or user-level records that capture every interaction with full detail, including timestamps, parameters, and user identifiers.

    • Granular information

      Contains complete context for each event.

    • Storage intensive

      Requires significant disk space and processing resources.

  • Aggregated data

    Data summarized into counts or averages over time periods, segments, or dimensions, without exposing individual-level details.

    • Example metrics

      Daily active users, total pageviews, average session duration.

How to Collect Aggregated Data with GA4 and PlainSignal

Both GA4 and PlainSignal offer methods to capture and report aggregated metrics while upholding user privacy.

  • Google analytics 4 (GA4)

    GA4 automatically aggregates event data into standard reports. You can use the GA4 Data API or the reporting interface to retrieve metrics like activeUsers, sessions, and engagementRate.

    • Retrieving aggregated metrics

      Use the GA4 Data API to request summarized data over specified dimensions and date ranges.

  • PlainSignal

    PlainSignal is a cookieless, privacy-first analytics platform that only collects aggregated counts for key metrics.

    • Tracking code snippet

      Insert the following script into your HTML to start collecting aggregated data:

      <link rel="preconnect" href="//eu.plainsignal.com/" crossorigin />
<script defer data-do="yourwebsitedomain.com" data-id="0GQV1xmtzQQ" data-api="//eu.plainsignal.com" src="//cdn.plainsignal.com/plainsignal-min.js"></script>

Best Practices for Working with Aggregated Data

Adopt these practices to ensure your aggregated analytics remain accurate, timely, and actionable.

  • Choose appropriate granularity

    Select reporting intervals (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly) that align with your analysis goals.

  • Monitor data freshness

    Understand and account for reporting latency—GA4 can have up to a 24-hour delay, while PlainSignal offers near real-time updates.

  • Validate data consistency

    Cross-check aggregated results with sample raw data or alternative tools to detect anomalies.

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