At the end of March, Google made it official that it’s moving on from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 and the plug will be officially pulled on July 1, 2023.
GA4 was created for app-based tracking and privacy concerns (GA4 doesn’t use cookies or store IP addresses, among other things). It is pretty different than Universal Analytics (AKA Google Analytics since the dawn of time).
So what does this mean to you?
– No more new data to UA after July 2023 (but you’ll be able to export/access data there for 6ish more months).
– If you want to use UA AND GA4 at the same time during this limbo period, you will have to make two separate tracking codes.
– The interface of the reports will now be much more events-based versus page-based in terms of the data it offers, ultimately better for businesses I think.
– Machine learning shows insights from data anomalies and spikes (you might see a ‘preview’ of this if you are using Universal Analytics to get you to come on over).
– GA4 can be used with apps and be configured specifically for the data you want, from following users between website properties to track to being able to track link clicks on a specific button.
– GA4 only stores a maximum of 14 months of data (but the default is 2 months when you set it up so make sure to toggle that option!)
GA4 can be added directly to website or using Google Tag Manager where a ‘container’ is made that holds the tags. It’s not as easy as Universal Analytics but the power behind it seems to make up for it.
If you need help adding GA4 to your site, feel free to reach out but here’s hoping the video we recorded as well as the resources below help!
Resources:
A very detailed how-to (tons of great tutorials on this channel!) here.
A written how-to (and why GA4) if you’re not as much a video person as we are here.
A very detailed how-to (tons of great tutorials on this channel!) here.
A written how-to (and why GA4) if you’re not as much a video person as we are here.
Google Tag Assistant Google Chrome App to help you see if you did it right: https://get.google.com/
Google Analytics 4 Demo Accounts:
John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight broadcast about data brokers (AKA why people should care about privacy)
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