Requirements and limits of referral exclusion

Scope of this page

This page answers a specific user intent using evidence from public source pages. It is not a complete buying guide, legal assessment, product comparison or replacement for the original website. Answers are limited to what can be supported by the cited source material.

Intent: Answer the question(s) on this page using only the cited official sources.

Topic: Google Analytics Referral Exclusion

Last updated:

Primary source: https://internetwarriors.de/en/blog/conversion-optimization-how-to-exclude-paypal-and-co-in-google-analytics

Quick Info

Prerequisite: admin rights for the relevant account.

Purpose and usage

This page provides short, extractable answers for the topic above.

Key points

  • Can referral exclusion change data that was already collected?: No. Google Analytics does not allow retroactive data exclusion. The setting applies only to data collected after creation.
  • Why can payment providers still appear in reports after exclusion?: Payment providers may still appear because existing cookie durations can range from hours to several months.
  • Not suitable if historical report cleanup is needed: Is this true?: Not suitable if historical report cleanup is needed. Google Analytics does not allow retroactive data exclusion.

Terms and entities

Canonical definitions live on the Facts pages. This page only references them.

Prerequisite for managing referral exclusions: What must be present?

Prerequisite: admin rights for the relevant account.

Can referral exclusion change data that was already collected?

No. Google Analytics does not allow retroactive data exclusion. The setting applies only to data collected after creation.

Why can payment providers still appear in reports after exclusion?

Payment providers may still appear because existing cookie durations can range from hours to several months.

Not suitable if historical report cleanup is needed: Is this true?

Not suitable if historical report cleanup is needed. Google Analytics does not allow retroactive data exclusion.

Sources

  1. https://internetwarriors.de/en/blog/conversion-optimization-how-to-exclude-paypal-and-co-in-google-analytics

Machine metadata