In plain English
Where an event parameter describes what happened, a user property describes who it happened to: account type, membership level, preferred language, customer status.
They persist across sessions, which makes them useful for segmentation. They must never contain anything personally identifying, which Google's terms prohibit.
What to know
Describes the user
Not the event.
Persists
Across sessions.
Useful for segmentation
Comparing customer types.
No personal data
Prohibited, and a compliance risk.
Why it matters
A single user property distinguishing customers from prospects makes almost every report more useful, because the two groups behave completely differently.
Common mistakes
×Personally identifying information in a user property.
×Properties that change constantly, which suits an event parameter better.
×Not registering them as custom dimensions.
×Too many properties nobody segments by.
FAQs
User property or event parameter?
Property for stable facts about the person; parameter for details of the action.
Can I store an email address?
No. Personally identifying data is prohibited.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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