Just heard the word about Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and haven’t set up your GA4 property yet? Wondering where to start?
I got you covered in this quick and easy-to-follow guide!
What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was released in October 2020, as an update to Google’s Universal Analytics (essentially GA3). Google wanted to give us a deeper integration with Google Ads and more insightful data based on user behaviour and device usage.
Why? Well, Universal Analytics (UA) launched in October 2012 and as you’ll agree since then internet use has changed dramatically. Every household and individual user is likely to have access to more than one device for the internet and our content demands in our searches have changed too. UA simply isn’t capable of capturing today’s data in the right way, hence an almighty upgrade to GA4.
(Technically speaking this is a ground-up build and not an update, but bear with me)
Google Analytics 4 (GA4): What’s changed then?
Well, quite a lot!
Google has understood that in its quest to develop better search engine result pages (SERPs) they need to focus on user intent and user events. In other words, they have gone to great pains to understand how users want to use their search engine and how they travel through these searches not only website to website but including platforms like social media, or media format (images, video, written word).
The idea is that this GA4 not only provides historical data on these interactions but predictive analytics too (powerful for marketing, SEO, sales and customer service teams).
If you remember back in 2012 social media wasn’t anywhere near as powerful in terms of search and discovery as it is now. Much of it wasn’t open to advertising as it is now either.
To help Google understand and create a better-performing ad strategy for its Google ad buyers it had to provide better tracking for them too.
One of the key changes is that tracked ‘sessions’ have now been replaced by ‘events’.
Sessions were based on user interactions over a period of time. The problem with this was that sessions taking place over two timelines could be counted as two separate sessions, giving inaccurate data. There was also very little help in establishing device usage, which as we know is key to content design these days.
Events, however, track user interaction as a single event regardless of time. Enhanced data tracking allows you to drill down to individual events and see where the user came from, as well as what they did on-site and where they exited to. This gives you much more insight into a user’s intent and decision-making. You even get a look at content formats that each user interacted with.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4): What’s changed then?
Now!
Currently, GA4 is running parallel to UA, but the cut-off date for recording UA data was 31st July 2023. What this means is that if you set up GA4 after that date you will have a gap in historical data.
Ok so you have some time, but don’t wait!
As I mention GA4 is quite different to UA, so you’ll need to give yourself some time to understand the new system, how to track key data and realign your business KPIs accordingly.
How to set up your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property
Credit where credit is due, I learnt how to do this from Mary Owusu founder of Sprint Marketer, through a session she did with Marketing Meetup. Here’s the video below.
Mary made the basics very simple to understand and I was set up in minutes. Thank you, Mary!
Steps for configuring GA4
Login to your Google Analytics Account.
Click “admin” (gear icon, bottom left navigation)
Select your desired account
Select your existing UA property (three columns will appear)
Click “GA4 Setup Assistant”, the first option in the property column
This takes you to your GA4 setup wizard. Press the large blue button that says “get started”.
Press the blue button “create property” (remember to name it so you can differentiate the feed from your existing UA data)
Go to “Setup Assistant” and toggle on data signals
Go back to the GA4 admin column and select “Property Settings” and update your industry, reporting time zone and currency.
Go back to the GA4 admin column and select “Data Streams”, press the right-facing arrow by your feed details and toggle on the enhancement toggle. Press the gear icon that appears in order to update the factors you wish to measure.
Under the data streams you opened above you will find your “measurement ID” which you can use on your website for tracking
Under data streams, you will also find your website “Header tag” injection code
Website hosts will vary with where you need to add both the measurement ID and header codes, so make sure to look that up. For Squarespace, I added my measurement ID and header codes alongside the original UA codes, so that I am still tracking both for as long as I can. This helps me while I’m learning how to use the new system.
Will I need to set up new Google Manger Tags for my new GA4 property?
Yes.
I may have a new tutorial coming out over the coming months to help with this.
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