Earlier this year, Google announced they’re sunsetting their Universal Analytics platform and are replacing it with their new robust measurement framework - Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Google introduced GA4 nearly two years ago to unify web and app analytics. Marketers were reluctant to make the switch. Within 15 months, they won’t have a choice. So here is everything you need to know about GA4 before making the switch.
Universal Analytics vs. Google Analytics 4: What’s the Difference
The main difference between the two models is Universal Analytics (UA) uses measurement based on sessions and pageviews, whereas GA4 uses a measurement model based on events and parameters.
Think of UA tracking your website's user interaction in different categories - pageviews, pages per session, session duration, etc. In GA4, those interactions are categorized into four events. This language can be confusing for marketers and business owners alike. Later, we will discuss what this means for ROI and reporting, but for now, let’s go through the four different GA4 event categories.
Google Analytics 4: Event Categories
- Automatically Collected Events: This category collects fundamental interactions across your website and app when setting up your GA4 data collection. Examples includes page_title, page_referrer, page_location, language, and screen_resolution.
- Enhanced Measurement Events: These are automatically collected when you enable enhanced measurement events in the google analytics admin panel. Enhanced measurements allow you to track your content interactions, including video views, file downloads, etc. Before turning this feature on, make sure you understand what each trigger does and what data you will collect.
- Recommended Events: For more advanced data collection, recommended events are events that you implement but have predefined names and parameters. Google has grouped these parameters into different industries to make it easier. There are currently recommended events for retail, e-commerce, education, real estate, gaming, and travel.
- Custom Events: These are events that you name. Google warns users only to create a custom event if no event in the other three categories will work for your use case.
Google Analytics 4: Event Parameters
Parameters are additional metadata about your events. The best way to understand parameters is in UA there are three levels - category, action, and the label. In GA4, the events can have up to 25 parameters allowing you to track a user's interaction more dynamically.
Google Analytics 4: Cookie Policies & Data
Following Google’s announcement to eliminate third-party cookies and Apple announcing changes that make Identifiers for Advertisers (IDFAs) significantly less valuable than before, marketers have been concerned.
Users demand more privacy, including transparency, choices, and control over how their data is used. With this in mind, Google has designed GA4 to fill the gaps where information is incomplete— they call this “blended data” which leverages machine learning and gives marketers a more comprehensive scope of their digital marketing efforts and helps them understand the profiles and needs of their users.
GA 4 relies on first-party cookies which keeps them compliant with new privacy laws like GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
Google Analytics 4: Reporting
The GA4 reporting interface will look different from UA as most of the reports and metrics you’re familiar with have been removed or replaced. For example, the “bounce rate” metric will not be carried over to GA4 and is replaced by “engagement sessions” - a similar but different metric for understanding user engagement. Instead of tracking a visitor who has not moved onto another page of your website before exiting, the engagement rate in GA4 also tracks the total time a user is on a landing page.
What’s Next?
The big question you may be asking yourself is it time to switch to GA4 from UA? Eventually, everyone will need to make the switch, but the important thing is to understand GA4 before making the switch. Get familiar with the terminology differences, tracking reporting, event categories, etc. Now is the best time to create GA4 properties for your websites to familiarize yourself with the interface while UA is still available. All in all, GA4 will keep evolving, so stay up-to-date with Google’s documentation.
