Firebase Analytics demographics

Question

The Firebase Analytics dashboard shows a card for demographics, including age and gender.

According to https://support.google.com/firebase/answer/6317486?hl=en Firebase should be automatically collecting age and gender. Can anyone explain how it collects that information, and if anything else needs to be done in order to provide it?

In my dashboard, I'm seeing no age or gender data. I also haven't found any public API in the firebase-analytics SDK that would allow for setting the age or gender of the user.

If it comes from the advertiser id, does that mean we must also integrate with AdMob in order to get that data -- and if we don't use AdMob, then age and gender are impossible to gather? And does AdMob then also have to be linked with the Firebase project before it can start populating that data?

Answer 1

In case someone else stumbles upon this, make sure that you have the google signals enabled in the admin console. This is not part of the firebase analytics onboarding process as far as I remember, and it's off by default.

You can find how to do it here:

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9445345?hl=en

Answer 2

On Android, this data is derived from the Advertising Id, which is automatically collected on devices with Google Play Services installed. On iOS, this data is derived from the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) when available (i.e. when your app links to the Ad Support Framework). AdMob is not a prerequisite for Age, Gender or Interests on either platform.

Clarifying note from comments: Firebase Analytics demographic reports is thresholded for privacy reasons. Once you have enough data -- at least 10 users per age/gender bracket -- data for that bracket will be shown.

Answer 3

Joe, if you are building iOS app and you have no access to IDFA you will not see demographics data for your users. You need to link to ad support framework. Please read the Apple developer documentation on when its okay to use ad support framework in your app.