Send notes to Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 brought back annotations: the little notes you pin to a date on a report so future-you remembers what happened. They are useful, but only if someone remembers to add them, and in a real team nobody goes back into GA after every deploy or campaign to type one in.

This integration fills them for you. Connect a Google Analytics property once, and CoNote writes each new note into it as a native annotation, automatically. When a number moves in GA, the deploy, the campaign, or the config change that explains it is already sitting on the chart. It works in the opposite direction from every other integration: instead of a tool filling your timeline, CoNote sends your notes out.

How this is different from the browser extension

Both put your notes next to your Google Analytics data, but they are not the same thing:

• The browser extension overlays your notes in your own browser. It is instant, needs no setup, and only you see it.
• This integration writes real annotations into the Google Analytics account. Everyone with access to the property sees them, right inside GA, with no extension installed.

Use the extension for yourself, and this integration when you want the whole team to see the context in GA.

What you need

• A Google account with the Analyst role (or higher) on the property you want to annotate. That is the access level Google requires to add annotations. Only team owners and admins can set it up.
• Like every integration, it uses one seat once it starts writing.

Setting it up

1. Connect Google Analytics

   In Integrations, choose Google Analytics and click Connect Google Analytics. You go straight to Google to sign in. CoNote only asks for permission to manage annotations, nothing else.

2. Pick a property

   Back in CoNote, choose the GA4 property you want your notes written into from the dropdown. (A property is the Google Analytics data set for one website or app.)

3. Choose what to send

   All categories are selected to start with, so every note lands on the chart. Deselect the ones you do not want, then save.

How it works

CoNote checks for new notes every few minutes and writes anything new into your property. A few things worth knowing:

• It starts from when you connect. Notes logged before that stay in CoNote and are not back-written into Google Analytics.
• Edits and deletes follow. If you change a note in CoNote, its annotation is updated in Google Analytics within a few minutes. If you delete a note, its annotation is removed.
• You choose the scope. Keep all categories selected to send everything, or narrow it to a few.
• Long notes are shortened. Google Analytics limits an annotation to 60 characters for the title and 150 for the description, so CoNote trims longer notes to fit, cutting on a word.
• Each annotation is signed. CoNote adds a short "Created by CoNote" line to the description, so it is clear where the annotation came from.
• No duplicates. Each note is written once. If the sync retries, it never adds the same note twice.

The annotation limit

Google Analytics allows up to 1000 annotations per property. As you approach that limit, CoNote stops writing new ones and shows the reason in the integration's settings rather than failing quietly. Remove some annotations in Google Analytics to make room, and the sync resumes on its own.

When something goes wrong

If Google access is revoked, or the property is at its annotation limit, CoNote records the reason in the integration's settings and on its card under Connected. Fix the cause (reconnect Google, or free up annotations) and the next sync picks up where it left off. Nothing is lost.

Compare with the browser extension