GA4: What is it and what changes can we expect?

Have you heard the buzz about GA4?

It’s the newest version of Google Analytics, and it’s shaking up the digital marketing world. 

Google Analytics 4 brings in a lot of new features using AI-driven technologies that can help you better understand your audience on many levels. This includes understanding traffic patterns and behavior and specific intent, functionality, and product improvements. 

Google announced that they would discontinue processing Universal Analytics hits starting July 1, 2023, for average UA properties and October 1, 2023, for UA 360 properties. So it is high time marketers get used to GA4 and know how it differs from its predecessor.

With the launch of Google Analytics 4, businesses and marketers can gain insight into the power of data and how they can leverage that to their advantage. GA4 can also be used on both your website and mobile applications.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started, it’s important to understand what GA4 is and what changes you can expect. So buckle up and get ready to learn all about GA4 and what it means for your business.

How does GA4 track users?

Google Analytics 4 no longer needs to access cookie-based tracking.

As you know, 3rd parties cookies will soon be completely deprecated and first-party cookies are the thing we need to focus on.

If you want to understand what is a first-party cookie and what is difference between 3rd party cookies and first party cookies, check this article here:

To go back to GA4, it uses an event-based data model to offer intelligent data tracking by leveraging machine learning and AI. This technology tracks the website traffic and makes it easier to track the customer journey.

With GA4’s advent of omnichannel e-commerce, one fundamental change is that you can track multiple streams into one platform, including your mobile application. You can do so with an SDK for iOS and Android, which uses GTag to track your website. This is a huge advantage for marketers who can now see the data in one place.

However, Google Analytics still has its limitations which include:

• Lack of historical data
• Whole view of users
• Poor pipeline tracking
• Some data discrepancy
• Customer journey accuratecy

What is the difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics?

The default for establishing a new property as of October 14, 2020, is a Google Analytics 4 property (previously known as an “App + Web“). The term “Universal Analytics” means it’s one generation before Google Analytics 4, used until October 14, 2020, as the default property type.

The key differences between the two can be listed as:

Events also had categories, actions, and labels in UA; however, GA4 lacks these distinctions.

In its place, GA4 uses event parameters, which provide further details about a user’s action (or event). The page title is one of the event parameters transmitted automatically, but you can also add others (you can log up to 25 event parameters with each event).

Consequently, it’s preferable to redesign your data gathering using the Google Analytics 4 architecture instead of just importing your current event structure.

Tracking limitations

Regarding tracking, I can say that I have some experience in this field from last 5+ years of helping marketers with tracking their marketing campaigns.

And I got curious about how Google is going to handle Web + Mobile tracking.

Will there be cross-browser tracking? What data will they use to fingerprint the visit?

So, of course that I checked the Google official documentation here.

First thing that came to my attention was that you need to associate an User ID to the customer, and (this is the interesting part) this most probably is done after sign up.

Now, what I can understand from this is that the user will get an ID on your website. It should be of 256 characters max and unique.

Once that is done, that information is sent to Google Analytics.

But the question remains: what if the user doesn’t sign up and you don’t have an email address? Your UserID will be a string of other fields, like session ID, IP maybe… and others.

The question I had was how can it be identified on multiple channels?

Because in CPV Lab we are working in having a such identification done, and let me tell you that it is very hard to offer 100% accuracy for it.

Simply because there are too many things that can change:

• the user can use his mobile phone
• the user can use a different internet provider on a different device
• the user can go on an ad in Facebook on his mobile and then on his computer

So, I’ve searched further on how Google will handle multiple device tracking?

And I came up with this information from their documentation:

From this, what we can understand is that they can’t promise accuratecy either.

Example:

• the user goes to a wesbite and visits product 1 and adds it to cart – there is no Userid for these events
• The user will sign in and add another product to cart – Analytics will associate an UserId to this user for all the events: visit, add to cart, add to cart.
• The user signs out – the relation with the Userid is stopped
• The user comes back and triggers another event. In this case a new User Id is associated with it.
• So, there will be 2 users recorded even if it is the same one.

Conclusion: GA4 doesn’t have that good of a cross-device tracking and I intend to investigate more on this topic.

Is GA4 replacing Google Analytics?

GA4 is the new Google Analytics, so yes!

Google announced on March 16, 2022, that it would discontinue processing hits for Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023, for average UA properties and October 1, 2023, for UA 360 properties. The brief window caught several marketers off guard between the announcement and the sunset date, which led to a slight panic.

Google Analytics 4 was released from beta in October 2020 and adoption was still only moderately high. This undoubtedly impacted Google’s decision to introduce a sunset date for Universal Analytics as soon as possible to expedite matters.

The best recommendation for marketers is to build a GA4 property to work parallel with Universal Analytics. Even if you have no immediate plans to use it, collecting data and enhancing your machine learning (ML) models will increase the significance of your upcoming research. More intelligent marketing strategies are produced as a result of improved data collection.

What is missing from GA4?

Like any platform, Google Analytics 4 does have its own set of problems that you should be aware of and be prepared to handle. Here is our list of complaints and suggestions for resolving them.

1. No import of old data

The main issue is that it can’t move data from Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics will stop collecting new data from users in July 2023, and any information collected there won’t be usable in GA4.

2. No views

The ability to configure views is a crucial component of Universal Analytics. You can have a testing area and clean up your data by removing internal traffic using views. But GA4 doesn’t make use of views. This is a significant contention for many users, requiring some to get accustomed to it.

Fortunately, there are ways to compensate for the loss of some of your favorite views, such as the ability to block internal traffic.

3. Restricted IP filtering

In connection with it, GA4 also offers restricted IP filtering.

You’ll observe that you can only block a certain number of IP addresses, especially since GA4 doesn’t allow RegEx.

4. No hostname filter

Although this feature is unavailable in GA4, you can configure it in Google Tag Manager.

5. Custom dimension restrictions

GA4 enhances your reports with configurable dimensions. Nevertheless, you can only use up to 50, which may be a temporary solution for your company. 

Also, if you primarily rely on e-commerce, the absence of product-level configurable dimensions in GA4 can be frustrating. 

Yet, there are other ways to meet your demands using your dimensions.

6. New design

Some people find navigating GA4’s new look harder. It is more challenging to determine when something new has been introduced or updated because of the minimalist menu design. 

The report builder itself is also generally less flexible. For instance, the column widths cannot be changed.

7. No repeating email reports

Setting up recurrent email reports in GA4 is another thing that can be frustrating. This can save you time and guarantee that your clients receive their reports on time and with minimal effort. 

But you can set up other recurring notifications that will be delivered to your email if you miss the regular email reports.

8. Missing reports

Several reports you adored in Universal Analytics aren’t included in GA4. For instance, the new interface does not provide a behavior flow report.

Yet once more, GA4 offers a sort of replacement. In this situation, we advise using either the path exploration report or the funnel exploration report.

What metrics are going away in GA4?

Compared to Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is more focused on events and actions.

Measuring inactivity on the site doesn’t make as much sense with this new tracking method. The new “engagement rate” metric in Google Analytics 4 thus takes the role of bounce rate.

The engagement rate is a percentage of “engaged sessions.” They could be:

• Sessions that last longer than 10 seconds.
• Sessions that have a conversion event.
• Sessions having at least two page views or screen views.

You can see that you are receiving more insightful data by comparing the bounce rate to the engagement rate. For example, it is regarded as a person who has ‘bounced’ if they read a 2,000-word blog article in its entirety before leaving. However, they were clearly ‘engaged’ with the content on your website.

The engagement rate now includes readers and is a more accurate measure of a page’s performance thanks to adding a time component. Changes to your reporting procedures and customer education could take some time, but you might see a lot of gains. 

Is GA4 compliant with GDPR?

In response to new data privacy regulations like the GDPR and CCPA, GA4 now provides new data controls to help users maintain their privacy. Users have the following options for protecting their data:

• Decide how to gather, store, and share it.
• Determine whether personalized advertising can be delivered using the information gathered.
• Remove Analytics data by sending Google a request.
• GA4 does not store cookies or gather IP addresses as its predecessor did.

Despite all the privacy features mentioned above, GA4 is still not GDPR compliant. But businesses can bypass this and ensure you comply with the GDPR’s terms:

• You can use Google Tag Manager and GA4 to ensure your implementation complies with GDPR. Knowing how to comply with the requirements to keep using Google Analytics is essential. GA4 may keep releasing improvements that make it simpler to adhere to GDPR.
• You could use third-party platforms designed with privacy compliance. The “Consent Manager” feature of the platform makes it simple to maintain compliance. It gives website users the option to consent to track. Moreover, data is anonymized so privacy choices can be respected while gaining access to insightful information.

Does GA4 use UTM?

UTM (urchin tracking module) parameters are extra pieces of tracking data added to the end of a URL. They can provide Google Analytics with precise information about how a visitor came to the site. UTM parameters are employed to track various marketing “campaigns,” such as a particular email newsletter or a specific seasonal marketing initiative.

UTM parameters can be utilized to gain a deeper understanding of the traffic that is visiting your website. They are accommodating for obtaining more specific information about paid advertising campaigns and analyzing organic (unpaid) traffic sources that Google Analytics would not otherwise be aware of.

Only three parameters were usable in GA4 until July 10th, 2022. This comprised:

• utm_campaign
• utm_source
• and utm_medium. 

Google announced the addition of two more characteristics on July 11, 2022. This much-needed enhancement included utm_content and utm_term for an even more in-depth examination of traffic.

If you want to understand more about UTM parameters and why you should use them, this article may help you out:

Preparing for GA4

Google Analytics 4 is a big deal for businesses and marketers. Google’s new version of its analytics software offers opportunities to improve your data quality and prepare your website for future growth.

Businesses and marketers planning to integrate Google Analytics with their websites should know several things.

First, the new interface is not just visually different, it’s also more powerful.

Second, there are new features and enhancements available in GA4 that can help you better understand what’s happening on your site.

Third, this comes with a cost – some may already be incorporated into your current analytics solution.

Understanding what’s involved in upgrading your analytics package is key to making the right decision when choosing the right analytics solution. 

And, as any business you are probably already running campaigns on multiple channels.

To keep track of your data and to understand which traffic source is bringing you the most conversions is very important to grow your business. Data is power!

No matter if you decide to track your marketing using GA4 or any other Google Analytics 4 alternative, like CPV Lab or CPV One.

The important thing here is for you to track all your marketing channels and have the right data to optimize your campaigns.

FAQ regarding GA4