Undoubtedly the largest replacement in marketing technology history will happen July 1.
That’s when reporting from Google Universal Analytics will stop.
If you’re still using UA for your website analytics, you need to act fast and switch to GA4 – the new version of Google Analytics.
But why should you switch? And how can you do it without losing any data or insights?
In this blog post, we’ll answer these questions and more. We’ll explain what GA4 is, how it differs from UA, what benefits it offers, and what challenges it poses.
By the end of this post, you’ll be ready to make the switch and enjoy the new features and reports that GA4 has to offer.
What is GA4?
GA4 stands for Google Analytics 4, which is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform. It was launched in October 2020 as an upgrade from Universal Analytics (UA), which has been around since 2013.
GA4 is designed to help marketers measure and understand user behavior across different devices and platforms in a more unified and holistic way.
GA4 uses an event-based model instead of a session-based model, which means it tracks user interactions differently.
In UA, a session is defined as a group of interactions that take place within a given time frame (usually 30 minutes). A session can include page views, events (such as clicks or downloads), transactions (such as purchases or sign-ups), and other metrics.
In GA4, there are no sessions or page views. Instead, everything is tracked as an event2, which is any action that a user takes on your website or app. An event can be anything from viewing a page to clicking a button to making a purchase.
GA4 also has new features and reports that can help you understand your audience better and optimize your marketing campaigns.
Some of the features of GA4
GA4 uses machine learning to provide more intelligent marketing insights. It can automatically detect and present customer trends and user behaviors, and estimate the probability that a user will make a purchase, or churn.
GA4 uses an event-based model instead of a session-based model, which means it tracks user interactions differently. Everything is tracked as an event, which can be anything from viewing a page to clicking a button to making a purchase.
Enhanced measurement in GA4 allows to automatically track common events such as scrolls, outbound clicks, video views, file downloads, and site search without any additional code.
GA4 allows you to create custom reports and analyses using different types of techniques such as funnel analysis, path analysis, segment overlap analysis, and user lifetime analysis³.
GA4 can integrate with BigQuery, Google’s cloud-based data warehouse, to allow you to access and analyze your raw data in a more flexible and scalable way.
GA4 introduces various privacy features, including default IP anonymization, shorter data storage duration, location of servers and restricted data transfer, consent mode, users’ personal data deletion, and rules regarding personally identifiable information.
Get Help with Your GA4 Migration Today!
We can help you migrate from UA to GA4 without losing any data or insights, and set up your conversion events and tracking according to your business goals, but you need to act quickly, UA will stop collecting data on July 1st.
GA4 Conversion will include the following:
- Configuration of all tracking tags, conversions, and events
- Back-up dashboard of all your UA data (past 2 years)
- Training/Webinar sessions on how to use GA4 (if you would like one on one training for your team, we can arrange that as well)
If you already have GA4 and your conversions/events are not tracking correctly, we can help with that too!
