On March 16, 2022, Google announced the deprecation of Google Universal Analytics (UA). The old UA platform will stop collecting data on July 1st, 2023, and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will take the place of Universal Analytics.
This news isn't entirely surprising given that the GA4 beta was released in 2020, but marketers are racing to catch up in order to match the platform's advantages with their marketing analytics goals.
How Google Analytics 4 Is better than Universal Analytics
Compared to UA, GA4 has a completely different data model. While UA was based on sessions and page views, the GA4 measuring mechanism is focused on events. When a user interacts with a website or app in a certain way, such as: loading a page, scrolling, clicking a link, or making a purchase, that user interaction is measured by an event. As a result, additional data based on behavior is gathered.
There are six event defaults included in the GA4 version:
Pageview
Scroll
Outbound link
Downloads
On-site search
YouTube video engagement
The good news is that many users won't need to modify their reporting like UA because these occurrences have already been recorded. In some circumstances, such as downloads, this is almost the equivalent of lead scoring - prior to the lead being identified through a form fill. It’s a big improvement from the prior lens of page visits, which don’t equate with loyalty or engagement.
The most significant distinction is that Google Analytics 4 is built to measure what Google calls "Engaged Sessions." The measure is based on the number of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, had an engagement event, or had two or more page views. By doing this, you'll be able to see how visitors interact with your website content.
Some Google Analytics 4 drawbacks
Due to Google's decreased dependence on cookies, many marketers will experience short-term data shortages. Although GA4 still uses cookies, it lays the groundwork for doing so as a result of privacy concerns and expanding international government restrictions. It currently uses both first-party cookies and tracking without cookies.
The fact that GA4 does not measure bounce rate was one of its early critiques. This exemplifies the main transition from UA to GA4. Bounce Rate alerts you about your underperforming pages. GA4 only measures what works for your visitors. Those who rely on bounce rate will need to figure out alternative methods to determine which landing pages or product pages work best.
Also, another drawback of GA4 is that it misses some standard reports from UA. The existing GA4 reports are limited and sometimes bulky. However, as it collects more data, many users are building their GA4 reports in Data Studio or exporting their data to BigQuery for further analysis.
What to expect from GA4
We will see more GA4's potential as we get more at ease with it. There are many more advantages that you will discover when you examine the implementation, but these two are the main ones:
Your website and app data will be unified and synced by GA4. The ability to observe user behavior across multiple mediums should make developing a marketing strategy simpler. You may adjust, for instance, if you observe that the majority of your desktop transactions involve a mobile discount that is mostly distributed through social networking applications.
GA4 uses statistical modeling and machine learning to anticipate behavior and reduce reliance on cookies. You may set up automated alerts to notify you when trends in your data start to develop; this should make you a more nimble marketer.
In the end, GA4 will assist you in developing models that calculate the potential revenue for a group of your customers. By that, you can create a more goal-oriented campaign. Additionally, GA4 will be able to forecast the likelihood that certain user categories will churn. It will enable you to play both offensive and defense simultaneously.
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