{"id":418,"date":"2022-12-10T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T16:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terrymyers.blog\/?p=418"},"modified":"2023-08-06T22:53:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T02:53:45","slug":"10-things-to-know-about-google-analytics-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terrymyers.blog\/10-things-to-know-about-google-analytics-4\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Things to Know About Google Analytics 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>6<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s analytics platform. The current version of Google Analytics, Universal Analytics, will no longer process traffic as of July 1st, 2023. At that point any visitor tracking, or conversion tracking — as well as any report in Google Universal Analytics — will no longer contain new data. As a result, to continue collecting web traffic information, you will need to migrate to Google Analytics 4. Here’s my top 10 things you should know prior to converting your analytics to GA4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.) Google Analytics 4 Data Migration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, it’s not possible as of this writing to migrate your historical Google Universal Analytics data into Google Analytics 4. Data will not be backfilled, and data will only be collected in GA4 once the account is created. Google suggests running GA4 and Universal Analytics side by side to begin to build data in GA4 while you move away from UA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note, that you can migrate annotations to GA4 from Universal Analytics, using the CSV bulk upload tool. You can see a full tutorial on how to do that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it’s known that Universal Analytics will stop processing data on July 1st, 2023, it’s not known when Universal Analytics will no longer be accessible. My suggestion is to add the GA4 tag as soon as possible to begin collecting data. Then once the data is close enough for comfort, make an annotation of that date and you’ll know what system holds what data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

2.) Events, not Goals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Google Analytics 4, Google has blended the tracking previously known as Events and Goals. In Universal Analytics, you might have setup specific button clicks, or or page duration as an event. Meanwhile, your eCommerce tracking might have been setup as goals. With GA4, both will be setup as events. Using events, rather than goals, allows Google to appropriately track actions users track within your application, which leads me to change in Google Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.) Web & Application Tracking Now Available<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In one of the largest improvements in Google Analytics, GA4 is now able to track both web & app information, making GA4 a full mobile measurement partner<\/a>. If you’ve used Google’s Firebase<\/a> — their initial tool to track app analytics — you’ll actually notice that the GA4 design is very similar to Firebase. GA4 combines the power of Firebase and the previous web analytics platform. This means you can track your web events, as well as in-app events in a single interface. Events such as account creations, login, and even things such as how users use your application or online portal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re already familiar with Firebase, you can even sync events from Firebase to GA4<\/a> – or from GA4 to Firebase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.) Your Traffic will be Lower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There’s two changes that Google has made which impact traffic reporting — and almost certain will decrease the amount of traffic reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google now automatically excludes known bot traffic<\/a>. Secondly, Google has also changed a default metric from reporting all sessions to reporting just engaged sessions. There are 3 ways a user could be counted as an engaged session:<\/p>\n\n\n\n