Google seeks to better return-on-investments (ROIs) and cross-device reporting with the change from Google Analytics 3 (GA3) with Universal Analytics (AU) to GA3, which fully launched in July 2022. Measuring websites’ engagement and digital traffic can now be done and viewed in a single location rather than multiple applications and web pages once users complete the Google 4 Analytics migration. GA users are highly encouraged to do the GA4 migration as soon as possible because UA historical data will start being forcibly erased beginning in 2024. Regardless, consider archiving, downloading, and saving UA data through the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-On or onto a CSV file immediately.

GA4 Features

Machine learning (ML) will now be incorporated within insights and predictive modeling to provide advanced analyses and user explorations. Extensive privacy features are included within the design. Proactive audits, creativity, strategies, user ID implementations, and updated Tag Manager, which now setups eCommerce tracking, are a part of GA4.

Instead of goals, GA4 has renamed them as conversations, and there are destination-, event-, and engagement-based conversations. There is also an option for non-event conversations since GA4 will only allow 30 conversations per property. Content groupings in GA4 do not have an independent interface, and it is based on Gtags. Custom dimensions and metrics now have their own two-set processes: one for the coding and another for the interface. Referral exclusion has been renamed Configure Your Domains and moved to under Data Streams and Additional Settings. The Property Administration Navigation now homes product link extensions. In other words, the GA4 migration will include all the previous features that may have been moved or renamed but with more capabilities than before!

Migration Benefits

Users will either undergo the Google Analytics 4 Migration or eventually be locked out and lose GA3 access and UA data. The benefits of GA4 outweigh the setup process, where in-depth property structuring may take three to four months. Such benefits include having enhanced reports and accompanying visualization, improved Customer Journey Tracking and user engagement analysis, intelligent ML privacy and tracking features, more extraordinary ad campaign reach to better targeted audiences, and parameter abundance.

For example, instead of just measuring fragmented user sessions, their virtual interactions and journeys are logged as events to provide users with more insightful data aggregation. The data can be viewed under the new Lifecycle section of GA4 that divides reports, focusing on user demographics and technology, over acquisition, engagement, monetization, and retention categories. Available centric dimensions and metrics allow ML to provide predictions on customers’ actions and values, even provide Real-Time analysis and exploration. Thus, ad spending is pre-informatively designed to optimize advertising, marketing, and personalization strategies for businesses and individuals. Then, goal tracking, now called Event Editing and Synthesis as part of the Google Analytics 4 migration, on clicks, file downloads, first visits, school behavior, and transaction, amplifies eCommerce initiatives across devices and locations.