Why you need to know about the swap to Google Analytics 4
Google has recently announced that they’ll be ditching the current version of google analytics (known as Universal Analytics) on the 1st of July 2023 when they’ll be moving over to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). So what does this actually mean?
It means that as of July 1st 2023, all standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. So, anybody who uses their website analytics to influence their business decisions, will need to take the appropriate steps to ensure they’re getting the correct and up to date data.
What is GA4?
GA4 is Google’s most recent analytics service that enables you to measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps. It was designed with eCommerce in mind, meaning that many of the features are better for retail brands than Universal Analytics. This information helps businesses to make decisions based on the data collected on their visitors and gives a better insight into the customer journey.
Why have they made the swap?
Universal Analytics (UA) turns a decade old this year. 10 years ago the web and how people/businesses used it was very different so UA was anchored in the desktop web and was built with the idea that users would only be focussed on one website from one device. But, with the rise of mobile, tablet and app usage, we all know that’s no longer the case. This was evident with Google’s rollout of mobile first indexing.
However, this does mean that it takes a lot of effort to connect cross-device/platform usage on UA. GA4 though, was built on an event-based model that ensures every user interaction gets processed as a standalone event. That’s a significant change from the session-based model (used by UA) that groups interactions according to specific time frames.
This is aided by the fact that instead of the traditional views structure, GA4 uses data streams. Data streams are sources of information that feed into your Google Analytics property. You can have a data stream for your website, Android app, and iOS app — allowing you to compare and consolidate user behaviour across different platforms. For example, if you have a traditional website as well as an app, all of your data will appear under the one property.
Working across platforms by tracking data and applications, whilst measuring insights, offers numerous benefits to marketers. It provides a much more comprehensive analysis of data, giving you a clearer insight into the customer journey. This will hopefully help more businesses understand how their marketing activities influence conversions.
One of the main reasons for the swap is without a doubt, the fact that UA relies heavily on third party cookies (which we know Google is set to remove from their platform). GA4 doesn’t require cookies and instead uses data-driven attribution to analyse the full impact of your marketing across the customer journey. Additionally, GA4 doesn’t maintain IP addresses and gives you the option to minimise the collection of user-level-data– making it the more popular option for brands who don’t want to be caught out by strict privacy laws.
According to Google’s press release, Google Analytics 4 “is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for both our customers and their users. It helps businesses meet evolving needs and user expectations, with more comprehensive and granular controls for data collection and usage.”
Why does it matter now?
Universal analytics will stop producing new data on July 1st 2023. Because of this, it’s important to make the switch before July 1st 2022 to make sure that you have a full year of comparable/historical data to look back on when Google Analytics 4 comes into effect next year.
Switching to new reporting methods can take time to settle into, which means there’s no better time than the present to make your swap and benefit from getting to know the new systems. Whether you’re using a basic config tag or a purchase event tag, if you’re not already using Google Tag Manager, you’ll want to get started. This will let you be prepared for adding tracking to other integrations on your site (third party systems such as ticketing and e-commerce) before it's too late
How can I get started?
Google has laid out the basic steps you should take to set up GA4, however, this swap is big news, so there are countless other resources to help you out:
Loves Data on Youtube provides a simple starter guide to GA4 explaining the difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics properties, how to upgrade your existing property, and more.
If you’ve got some more time on your hands, Analytics Mania released a 1 hour long tutorial explaining the ins and outs of the platform for beginners.
It’s important to note that you’re still able to run Universal tracking concurrently with GA4 until the switch over. There’s no harm in running both! So you should still continue to run universal tracking until next year alongside GA4 to maintain consistency in reporting until 1st July 2023.
If you’re concerned about your PageSpeed with the additional scripts on the site, then you can use Google Tag Manager so the container loads with all the relevant tags.
How can After Digital help?
Our Digital Marketing experts are well versed in the world of analytics and each month they help the likes of Formex Swiss Watches, Ellers Farm Distillery and Pagazzi Lighting with their analytics and web reporting.
While there's still some debate over whether GA4 will help or hinder businesses, there’s no stopping the swap now. Make sure you’re up to date with the latest news by subscribing to our newsletter and if you need help with your data and analytics, our Digital Marketing experts have got you covered. Get in touch for some advice today.