In this ever-changing digital landscape, we come to know about new changes in technology every day or once in a while. These changes come up with more benefits to make our life easier. Same like, many traditional tools are being updated these days to present new features.
Surely, you will be well familiar with different tools to gain valuable information about the performance of a website. Universal Google Analytics (UA) is also one of them to play this role. Soon, this tool will be updated to the latest version; Google analytics 4.
Universal Analytics is also known as GA3. Google announced that in July 2023, UA will stop processing and Google Analytics 4 will take place of it to perform the actions. If marketers or advertisers won’t switch to the latest version, Google will configure it automatically.
You can feel overwhelmed but changes can emerge with benefits as well, think out of the box. So, let’s discuss these changes and how can you switch to the updated version.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is also known as GA 4; a replacement for Universal Analytics. It was introduced in October 2020.
It helps you to gain information about users’ behaviors on your sites and mobile apps. As UA will get expired in July 2023; it will start working to measure the website traffic and other important insights to make informed data-driven decisions.
If you want to keep gaining the information after July 01, 2023, then you should set up GA 4.
How to configure GA4?
It is an easy process and will take a couple of minutes to configure it. Here are a few steps you have to take while configuring it.
Step 1: Visit the Google Analytics website and log in to your account.
Step 2: Click on the “Admin” button.
Step 3: Make sure that you have chosen your “desired account”
Step 4: Make sure that you have chosen the “desired property”
Step 5: Click the first option in the property column “GA4 Setup Assistant”
Step 6: Then Click “Get Started” (a blue button)
Step 7: Last but not least click “Create Property” (a blue button)
As you take all of these steps, there will be a “You have successfully connected your properties” to show the completion of your process.
How to collect data from Universal Google Analytics before July 2023?
Amazingly, Google has provided leverage to the users to collect data. Users can’t import their data from UA to GA4 so they are given at least 6 months to collect data from UA because, after this period, the data will be erased. If you wait until the time limit ends, your all data will be gone. So, it is important to export your UA data.
You can collect and save your data with the help of different tools like Looker and Tableau. It will be easy for you to analyze the old performance of your website by saving it.
If you are not deciding which tool could be helpful for you to save old UA data, then Data warehouse can be beneficial in this way.
What are the new features in GA 4?
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Customize the segments
In GA 4, you can adjust the purposes to analyze the things that you want to see or are important for your campaign. Google conversion tracking is different in GA 4.
You are allowed to set up the section to see the users’ behavior about your events. For instance, to see those users who visit your site after viewing your Ad, you can adjust a segment for this specific purpose.
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Default reports
The default reports in GA 4 are different than in UA. You can have all the information about your website in GA 4 but UA doesn’t offer so. Here are some reports you can know while using this latest version:
- Acquisition: It tells you about the source which users used to reach your website such as search engines or social media.
- Engagement: it tells about the users’ behavior on your site or app such as what they do.
- Number of Users: It tells about how many users are visiting your site or app currently as well as the pages that users are visiting at that time.
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Event tracking
Google event tracking in GA4 also provides you with more valuable insights into your website or app such as video engagement, form submission, number of button clicks, and many others. By tracking such information, you will have a holistic understanding of your site to make decisions wisely.
For example, if there is a button “Let’s Get started” on your website or app, Google Analytics 4 will provide you with information about how many users clicked this button to perform an action or at which page the button is getting clicked.
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E-commerce tracking
In universal Google Analytics, it uses the e-commerce tracking code to gain the data of transactions but GA 4 is parallel to it. There is a built-in tracking capability in Google Analytics 4 to have in-depth information about each transaction.
In the context of event tracking, you can also know how many times users have viewed a page, which means that you can let yourself know which products’ pages are attracting the customers mostly.
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Privacy-focused
Google Analytics 4 focuses on first-party cookies rather than tracking third-party cookies.
Third-party cookies have become controversial in privacy matters so they are being removed from Chrome and Google Analytics.
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Cross-platform tracking
Cross-platform tracking can help you to understand the customers’ behaviors easily. There is a technology “Cross-device tracking” in this latest version to connect users’ Google accounts with other devices. As they log in to their account on different other devices GA 4 will track them over those devices.
This means that you can track users’ interactions with your brand across various platforms and devices. GA 4 allows you to fetch data from the website and app in a Single report.
What if you don’t switch to Google Analytics 4?
If Google is updating the UA, it could be a gesture to know that there could be some benefits. But in case, if you don’t switch to Google Analytics 4, Google will configure it with some basic settings. But that basic setting may not provide those valuable insights that are important for you.
Hence, if you want to know valuable information like which pages people mostly visit on your website or which sources they are using to reach your site. By getting these insights, you will confidently make decisions to outrank your competitors.
FAQs:
What is Google Analytics 4?
GA 4 is the latest version of Universal Google Analytics to get those valuable insights into your website or app that UA doesn’t provide.
What are the benefits of Google Analytics 4?
It allows the marketers or advertisers to gain insights into the website and app in “One” report as well as event setup is easy to gain the data. Also, this latest version considers privacy concerns and that’s why it focuses on first-party cookies.
When should I switch to GA 4?
Google stated that until July 01, 2023, your UA will process properly to provide you the data but after this time it will stop working and GA 4 will replace it.