Upgrade to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

Google Analytics (GA) is a web analytics service that enables website owners to monitor and analyse user behaviour on their site. It provides useful insights into how users interact with the site, what content is most popular, and where improvements to the user experience can be made. GA is a critical tool for businesses of all sizes, assisting them in optimising their online presence and, as a result, increasing customer engagement.

Google recently released GA4, the latest version of its web analytics service. GA4 is a significant update that improves data tracking and analysis significantly. It provides a more comprehensive understanding of user behaviour, improved integration with Google Ads, and advanced machine learning capabilities, allowing website owners to gain insights into their data more quickly and accurately than ever before.

In this article, I’ll go over the advantages of Google Analytics, the significance of upgrading to GA4, and what happens if websites don’t upgrade.

The Benefits of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that offers numerous advantages to website owners. Here are a few of the key benefits:

1. Understand User Behaviour: Website owners can use Google Analytics to gain valuable insights into how users interact with their site. This includes data on how users found the site, which pages they visited, and how long they stayed on each page. Understanding user behaviour allows website owners to make data-driven decisions to improve user engagement on their site.  This is all part of the conversion funnel that I have looked at in an earlier article.
2. Determine Popular Content: Google Analytics enables website owners to determine which pages and content are the most popular with users. This data can be used to create more of the content that users enjoy, as well as to improve the performance of existing content.
3. Track the Effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns: Google Analytics allows website owners to track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. This includes information such as how many users clicked on ads, how many became customers, and how much revenue was generated by each campaign. This data can be used to make informed decisions about future marketing initiatives.
4. Make Data-Driven Decisions: Google Analytics provides valuable data to website owners that can be used to make data-driven decisions. This includes data on user behaviour, popular content, and the success of marketing campaigns. Website owners can improve user engagement and achieve business objectives by using this data to guide decisions.

Why Upgrade to GA4?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a major update to the web analytics service that improves data tracking and analysis significantly. The following are some of the main reasons why website owners should upgrade to GA4:

1. Improved User Tracking: GA4 offers enhanced user tracking, allowing website owners to gain a more complete understanding of user behaviour. It monitors user behaviour across multiple devices and platforms, giving a more comprehensive picture of user interactions.  By identifying several key events across your website you can clearly identify things like acquisition, engagement, monetization and retention and access reports for each of these areas (see dashboard below).
2. Improved Google Ads Integration: GA4 improves Google Ads integration, making it easier for website owners to track the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. It shows how many users clicked on ads, how many became customers, and how much revenue was generated by each campaign.
3. AI-Powered Insights: GA4 includes advanced machine learning capabilities that allow website owners to gain insights into their data more quickly and accurately than ever before. This includes automatic insights that highlight significant data trends and anomalies.
4. Improved Privacy Controls: GA4 includes enhanced privacy controls that assist website owners in meeting data protection regulations. It includes new data retention and deletion options, as well as improved data sharing controls.

What Happens if Websites Do Not Upgrade to GA4?

The previous version of Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) will no longer process data as of 1st July 2023, and thus customer website behaviour will no longer be analysed, cutting off a primary source of feedback about the performance of your website and customer conversion.

I understand that these changes can be confusing and time consuming for small businesses. If you need help, I am available to support you and navigate through the changes.

The Process

The process I will follow to assist you in transitioning your website to GA4:

• Discovery – I want to understand your business needs, current website structure and key areas and action to track
• Google Account support – I’ll set up a new GA4 account for you or upgrade your existing account to GA4. Then I will configure your account settings, including custom metrics, goals and conversion tracking
• Tag Set up and testing – I’ll ensure that GA4 is integrated with your website and check that all necessary tracking tags are in place. Then I’ll perform thorough testing to ensure that your data is tracking correctly and reliably
• Reports – I will establish set up custom reports and dashboards to give you a clear picture of your website performance and user behaviour

Get in touch and let’s start upgrading tomorrow!