Overview
This check ensures that all data sent to Google—including event names, parameters, and user properties—consists exclusively of ASCII characters. ASCII is the standard character set for digital communication; using non-standard characters (such as "smart" quotes, emojis, or specialized symbols) can lead to malformed tracking requests that are difficult for analytics engines to process.
Why it is important
Non-ASCII characters are a frequent cause of "silent" data corruption within your analytics property:
Data Truncation: Google’s servers may stop reading a parameter string if it encounters an unrecognized character, resulting in incomplete data strings.
Reporting "Gibberish": These characters often render as "mojibake" (e.g.,
éinstead ofé) in Google Analytics reports and BigQuery exports, making the data impossible to filter or analyze.Request Rejection: In severe cases, malformed query strings can cause a 400 Bad Request, leading to a total loss of data for that specific event.
Broken Integrations: Downstream tools, such as data warehouses or visualization platforms, often fail when encountering non-standard character encoding.
Implementation
We have made implementing this check for Google Analytics Tags simple.
First, create an Audit that scans the pages you want to validate.
Then, check the pre-built ObservePoint report for Pages with Google Analytics capturing non-ASCII characters.
Remediation
If non-ASCII characters are detected in your Google Analytics hits, follow these technical steps:
Cleanse the Data Layer: Ensure your CMS is configured to strip "hidden" characters (like non-breaking spaces or tab characters) before they are pushed to the
dataLayer.Standardize Quotes: Audit your GTM variables to ensure all hard-coded strings use standard "straight" quotes (
') instead of "curly" or "smart" quotes copied from text editors.Use URL Encoding: If you must send special characters, ensure your implementation uses
encodeURIComponent()to properly format the string before it is appended to the tag.RegEx Filtering: In GTM, use a RegEx Table or a Custom JavaScript Variable to find and replace non-ASCII characters with standard equivalents (e.g., replacing
—with-) before the tag fires.
Conclusion
Clean data starts with standard encoding. By ensuring your Google Analytics Tags only include ASCII characters, you protect your reports from truncation and unreadable formatting. Regular monitoring with ObservePoint ensures that your data remains professional, searchable, and accurate for all stakeholders across every platform in your stack.