If you use Google Analytics to measure website performance and marketing activity for your business, a big change is coming.
From 1st July 2023, Google Analytics will no longer process and report data in the same way that you’ve become familiar with over the last 17 years. Universal Analytics (UA) is going to be discontinued, with Google moving all reporting and processing of data to GA4.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that July 2023 is months away and there’s no action to be taken right now.
But GA4 isn’t just an update or upgrade. It’s a whole new way of tracking, reporting and analysing your website data. It’s a steep learning curve.
Businesses that don’t plan in advance risk being unable to track, measure and analyse important data from the 1st July next year.
We thought it might be useful to run through the reasons for the change, the differences you can expect to see, and some steps to help your business prepare for GA4.
Why is the old Google Analytics (UA) being discontinued?
Universal Analytics was first introduced in 2005. It was a game changer at the time — businesses could track, measure and analyse their website data in an easy-to-use platform, for free.
But a lot has happened in 17 years.
The introduction of smartphones, apps and mobile browsing have resulted in significant changes in consumer behaviour. People don’t just go on your website on their desktop or laptop anymore — they have multiple touchpoints with your business across different devices.
There have also been major changes in online privacy, with GDPR resulting in online businesses implementing cookie consent on their websites. This has impacted the accuracy of some of the data that is seen within Universal Analytics.
There have also been major advancements in machine learning since UA was originally introduced.
So in a nutshell, the online world has changed so much that Google decided that continuing to build on the foundations of UA would no longer be viable. It was time for stronger foundations that were built for 2023 and beyond. And GA4 was built.
What is different in GA4?
A lot of the changes in GA4 address the evolution of consumer behaviour and privacy concerns in the modern online world and introduce the benefits of machine learning.
There are also some nice new reports and functionality that will help business owners and marketers understand their user journey better.
Cross device and cross platform by default
GA4 is able to use a variety of different identifiers to measure user behaviour on your site — even if they are accessing your site across multiple devices like their phone, tablet and laptop. You’re also able to connect any iOS or Android app as a data source to get a truly unified view of customer behaviour.
Event based tracking vs session based tracking
Perhaps the biggest change for business owners and marketers to get their head around is the switch from session-based data to event-based data.
But this actually has some major benefits.
Every interaction that a user has with your website can be tracked as an event. Combine this with the cross device and cross platform tracking and you’re able to get far more detailed insights into user behaviour on your site.
Machine learning to fill in data gaps
One of the major objectives of GA4 is to reduce the reliance on cookies for delivering valuable, actionable insight. One of the most impressive new additions to GA4 is the introduction of machine learning (based on the behaviour of other visitors) to help fill in data gaps where users have not provided cookie consent.
New customer life-cycle reports
GA4 introduces a whole new suite of customer lifecycle reports that allow you to analyse data about the acquisition, engagement, monetisation and retention stages of customer journeys.
There are also some really useful segment overlap reports and upgrades to funnel analysis that are available in GA4.
Changes to some familiar metrics and reports
One of the things that caused early adopters of GA4 to panic a little was that a lot of their commonly used reports from UA weren’t available.
But don’t worry. The majority of the same reports are still there (or can be easily built), they just based on users and event rather than sessions.
There have also been a few changes to the way certain metrics are measured in GA4. For example, in UA a ‘bounce’ was classified as any single page visit. In GA4, other engagement factors such as time on page and events triggered are taken into account, to give a more accurate view of whether it is a true ‘bounce’ or not.
How will the change to GA4 impact my business?
This really depends on how well prepared you are for the switchover!
The main thing to note is that although GA4 is new and a little bit different (and let’s face it, a bit of an inconvenience for busy business owners!) all your important website and marketing metrics are still there. And GA4 also brings some really welcomed new additions.
For businesses that take action early and make a gradual move over to GA4 before the 1st July, the business impact should be minimal. You’ll have time to get familiar with the new reports and interface in GA4 and make a seamless transition.
But if you choose to delay the decision to set up your GA4 property until June next year, and don’t take the time to get familiar with GA4 before the switchover — your business is likely to struggle with analytics and reporting for a period while you get up to speed.
What can I do to get ready?
If you haven’t already, the first thing you should do is set up a GA4 property alongside your current UA property. This will help you explore the platform, become familiar with the new interface and understand some of the differences yourself.
Once you’re all set up, it’s worth taking a look at some useful training videos. You might have seen us mention these channels before (sorry!) but they have some really valuable videos on how to get the most out of GA4.
If you’re still feeling uncomfortable with all things GA4 as we move into next year, it’s worth getting in touch with someone to support you.
Here at Bright Cat, Google Analytics is one of our areas of expertise and we’ve already worked with businesses on several successful GA4 migrations.
We’re just at the end of the phone (07828 796700) or an email if you need us.
