Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics: The End of an Era and What It Means for Your Business
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July 4, 2022
Google Analytics 4: Switch and Win out or Get Dropped out
For every business, tracking a website’s analytics is key to understanding how their marketing efforts are performing. For that, you need data. Lots of thorough and up-to-date data, constantly. That’s where Google Analytics 4 comes in. So if you’re not using GA4, then you’re missing out on data. And you’ll continue to miss out on it even more in one year, when Universal Analytics is not supported anymore. The thing is many people don’t take advantage of all GA4 has to offer because they are not sure why they need to do it and how to set it up correctly. The good news is that we can help you with that. In this article, we will provide you with a step-by-step guide for setting up Google Analytics 4 on your website. So, if you want to make sure that your data is being collected properly, then read on!
Why Should I Bother about GA4?
We could start and end this paragraph by simply saying that you should bother because after July 1st, 2023, Google will no longer provide updates or security patches for Universal Analytics, which basically means you lose your precious data. In our previous article “Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics: The End of an Era and What It Means for Your Business”, we’ve covered this topic in detail, so don’t hesitate to read it now. Here, though, we’ll highlight just some of the main advantages of GA4, to urge you to make a switch as soon as possible.
Google Analytics 4 is the next generation of Google’s popular analytics platform. As businesses increasingly move towards a data-driven approach, GA4 provides the tools necessary to make informed decisions about marketing, product development, and other vital areas of the business. GA4 offers several advantages over its predecessor, including improved data collection, better insights, and increased privacy protection. One of the main benefits is that GA4 uses machine learning to give you better insights into your data. This means that you can identify patterns and trends that you might not have been able to see before. Additionally, GA4 offers improved measurement capabilities, allowing you to track conversions across devices and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns more effectively. What is also important, GA4 is designed to work seamlessly with other Google products, such as Firebase and BigQuery. This allows for a more integrated approach to data analysis and decision-making. Finally, GA4 is more privacy-conscious than previous versions of Google Analytics, ensuring that your data is safe and secure. Overall, GA4 provides a more comprehensive and user-friendly experience, making it the ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.
With all this in mind, we’ve come to the point where those wanting to make the switch get stumbling. Don’t worry, we’ve got this covered too!
How Do I Set up Google Analytics 4?
Set up Parallel Tracking for GA4
You want to install GA4 tracking without the risk of losing any data in our Universal Analytics property.
For this purpose, you do not want to mess with your Universal Analytics property during GA4 set-up. Instead, you want to install GA4 independently, in parallel to Universal Analytics. Like that, you will have 2 separate properties, one with Universal Analytics and one with GA4 tracking, which runs simultaneously.
So, let’s set up GA4 separately:
- Step 1: In your current GA account, create a new Google Analytics 4 property.
- Step 2: Give your new property a name and follow the instructions of the setup assistant and fill in your business information as needed. Then choose whether you would like to create a web or app property.
- Step 3: Enter your website URL and give your property’s data stream a name. We recommend activating “Enhanced measurement” right away and clicking “Create stream”.
- Step 4: Then you have to install your new GA4 tracking code on your website.
There are two ways to do that:
- You can install the GA4 tracking code via Google Tag Manager (GTM). If you have a GTM account, Tag Manager is the simplest way to install GA4. And it’s also the recommended method.
- You can install GA4 by manually adding the tracking code to your website. But we don’t recommend that because it is not as flexible as GTM and it will become tedious to maintain.
Important! We will only cover how to install GA4 using GTM since this is the recommended way.
Let’s install the GA4 tracking code using Google Tag Manager (GTM):
Step 1: To install your tracking code using GTM, you need your new GA4 measurement ID.
Step 2: Next, create a new GA4 base tag in GTM and add your new measurement ID correspondingly.
Step 3: Create a new “all pages” pageview trigger for the new GA4 base tag. This trigger should fire on all pages.
Step 4: And as usual, you have to test your tag in the GTM preview mode and then publish it live to your website.
Now that you have GA4 installed, you have to make sure you’re tracking is working correctly. Check if your data in your new GA4 property is comparable to your Universal Analytics property. The data will never match exactly, but it should be as close as possible.
Clean your data
Now that you’re receiving data in GA4 and reviewing the reports coming in, it’s time to make some enhancements to your data collection. Let’s start with the classic: filtering internal traffic from showing up in your reports. Filtering internal traffic in GA4 feels more complicated than it was in Universal Analytics. However, once you get used to the set-up, it’s not that bad. Now that you’re receiving data in GA4 and reviewing incoming reports, it’s time to improve your data collection. Basics first, let’s filter internal traffic so it doesn’t mess up with traffic data. Filtering out internal traffic is not as straightforward in GA4 as in Universal Analytics, but you get used to it.
Improve your data
In Universal Analytics, you can track valuable call-to-action goal conversions that happen on your website. People typically use conversions to track things like newsletter applications, form submissions, ecommerce buys, PDF downloads, clicks-to-call, and more. In GA4, you can turn any of your website events (pageviews, video views, page scrolls, etc.) into goal conversions. To track a specific website activity as a conversion, you need to create a custom event.
Integrate GA4 with other tools
There are some common integrations in GA4 we recommend, like Google Ads, Search Console, Data Studio, and BigQuery. Similar to Universal Analytics, you also want to add, for instance, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Bing Ads tracking. Beware not to import conversion data into external tools like Google Ads twice.
Stay up to date with the latest GA4 developments
GA4 will continue to change. To stay in touch with the most recent changes to GA4, please refer to the “What’s New in Google Analytics 4” page. And follow us on Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/company/lean-sharp
So, now you have Google Analytics 4 ready to bring the maximum use for your business! Right, the migration process can be daunting, but our guide provides all of the steps you need to successfully move your data over to GA4. And if you run into any problems or have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to contact us for help. We’ll make your transition to GA4 as smooth and easy as possible.
