As of July 1, 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will be the only way to collect data on your site using Google Analytics. Even if you’ve already started to dabble in GA4 (or you’re trying to avoid it), there are some things you should know to avoid tearing your hair out.

Google’s migration from Universal Analytics to GA4 is a huge change that greatly impacts your ability to measure the success of your communications and digital marketing efforts. Just like your computer operating system, there are different versions. The current one is Universal Analytics, which will stop collecting data June 30, 2023. 

Universal Analytics debuted Nov. 14, 2005. We loved it (and still do). However, UA has outlived its usefulness in a multi-device, privacy-conscious world.

GA4 is designed for the future of measurement by:

  • Collecting both website and app data to better understand the customer journey
  • Using event-based data instead of session-based tracking
  • Including privacy controls like cookie-less measurement and conversion modeling
  • Offering predictive capabilities without complex models

Sounds great, right? Yes, but it’s really different:

  1. The information that exists in UA *WILL NOT* be available in GA4, unless GA4 has been running concurrently (in its own account). If you have custom audiences in UA, you will be able to export those to a Google document and import them into GA4. You can also map UA goals to GA4 conversions, but this doesn’t happen automatically.
  2. Your UA data will be deleted eventually. (It’s safe until six months after the transition, but after that?) If you have not been pulling regular reports from UA, now might be a good time to start.
  3. Data named the same thing that is collected in both UA and GA4 will have two different numbers due to the way it is measured.
  4. Bounce rate and some other important UA metrics are hard to find in GA4 and may not work the way they used to. The best way to work around this is to try to use events to measure if folks are scrolling through content, engaging with the content or clicking off your site. (Learn more about the “engaged session” event.)
  5. Gender and age data will not be immediately available in GA4. The caveat here is that you CAN get more granular data if you turn on Google Signals. When you do, you enter an agreement with Google that states you have any necessary privacy disclosures in place so that users are aware of and have consented to their data being collected, stored and advertised to.
  6. The same data in the same account in GA4 can vary. Data pulled in the Report section will be different than it is in the Explore section due to sampling differences and processing time differences.
  7. GA4 relies on trackable events for measurement, but it doesn’t automatically collect ALL of them. Events capture what someone DOES on the site, not just what they look like, how they got there and what pages they clicked on. Enhanced measurements have to be turned on!
  8. Once you customize the setup of your data, you will have to wait 24 hours to use those features. The two most common places where this will “get you” are when you set an event as a conversion and create custom audiences.
  9. GA4’s default will only collect two months of data when you turn it on unless you tell it to do otherwise. This must be manually changed in the account.
  10. GA4 will only allow you to collect 14 months of data for free. Longer periods of data retention are only available to Google Analytics 360 subscribers (formerly Google Analytics Premium) who pay (a lot) for this service. 

So what can you do to prepare for this transition? Here are my six tips:

  1. If you have not been documenting your regular reporting in UA, start pulling the data you think you need – summer intern job, anyone?
  2. If you have not been documenting your regular reporting, start doing so.
  3. If you don’t have a GA4 account, make one ASAP!
  4. Get in GA4 and get used to it. Try to replicate your current UA reporting in small chunks. If you don’t have access to a GA4 account, sign up for a demo one.
  5. Don’t focus on what GA4 can’t do, focus on what it can. Shift your thinking from pageviews, sessions and users, to audiences, events and engagement.
  6. Email me! Kcomm is ready to help you.