Why now is the time to switch to GA4?

 

Back in 2020 Google launched GA4 and in March 2022 Google announced that as of July 1, 2023 Universal Analytics will no longer process new hits. As of October 1, 2023 Universal Analytics 360 will no longer process new hits. This will have an impact on your Google Analytics account. Unfortunately, it is not possible to import the Universal Analytics data into GA4. So whenever you start with measuring events in GA4 it will start from zero. This means, the later you migrate to GA4 the less data you have to compare your results to when working in GA4. 

 

It is recommended to have both a Universal Analytics property and a GA4 property as long as both platforms are supported by Google. In this way you make sure that all the data you have gathered and analyzed will still be available during the time Universal Analytics is still available, while all the data is collected in GA4. 

 

5 things to be aware of when switching to GA4

• GA4 starts clean, so whenever you set up your GA4 property, there is no data.
• You’ll probably be surprised when opening GA4 for the first time. The layout is totally different from Universal Analytics and will probably not feel very intuitive for the seasoned Universal Analytics user. 
• All data that is gathered is event based. So if you want to have more insights than the very few basic data points GA4 is currently offering, you need to get your GTM skills on point! 
• Custom Channel grouping disappears. This means you cannot create any custom channels. You can create UTM parameters in order to get more insights.
• Align your business goals with your GA4. This will help you to make more data-driven decisions.

 

Why did Google choose to switch to GA4?

 

The last couple of years a lot of regulations have been changed around privacy and this has had an effect on the gathering of the data with Universal Analytics. The collected data was mostly based on Cookies and with the announcement Google made in March 2021 that they would no longer support Cookies in the near future, this had to change. The difference now between Universal Analytics and GA4 is that the data which is collected in GA4 will be event-based instead of session-based.

 

How to start?

 

• Start as soon as possible! In that way you’ll be able to track both Universal Analytics and GA4. This will also help you get used to the new interface. On a first glance GA4 seems a lot more difficult than Universal Analytics, but once you get used to the interface, GA4 has a lot more to offer than Universal Analytics. 

 

• Don’t just copy and paste your events from Universal Analytics to GA4. The naming convention in GA4 is a bit different from Universal Analytics and therefore can create some misunderstandings when you just copy past events. 

 

• Before integrating all new events into GA4, set up a measurement plan. Try to align your business goals with GA4. This might consume some time, but think about this moment as a new start. This will help your organization to be able to make data driven decisions.

 

Setting events

 

If you will be creating a measurement plan before implementing GA4, which I would highly recommend, Google already has a lot of documentation about implementing the most useful events for your organization. Currently Google refers to four different types of events in GA4:

 

1. Automatically collected events (as long as you use the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK or gtag.js, you don’t need to write any additional code to collect these events)
2. Enhanced Measurements (lets you measure interactions with your content by enabling options (events) in the Google Analytics interface. No code changes are required. When you enable these options for a web stream, your Google Analytics tag starts sending events right away)
3. Recommended events (Adding these events to your website helps you measure additional features and behavior as well as generate more useful reports. Because these events require additional context to be meaningful, they’re not sent automatically)
4. Custom Events
   1. There is a limit of 500 unique events per client ID (only for app properties)
   2. You can send up to 25 custom parameters with a single event

After you set these custom events in GTM, it is important to register them in GA4, otherwise you won’t be able to see the data. 

 

Downsides

 

With every release of a new platform, you’ll have to get used to the new features and how they work. But with the release of GA4 there are certainly some things Google have done better:

 

• You can’t import data from Universal Analytics to GA4. This is the biggest disadvantage of GA4. This means, there will be no historical data and this won’t let you compare data YoY.
• GA4 is a lot less intuitive than Universal Analytics and it really needs a deep dive before understanding what all the reports mean for your organization. 
• GA4 doesn’t have a lot of predefined reports, so if you want to know more about your website / app than the standard reports, it will take some time to set up all the reports.
• You really need to understand Google Tag Manager 

 

Do you need help with implementing GA4? Let us know!