Google announced that they will be discontinuing Universal Analytics (the current version) in July 2023, so it is crucial to upgrade to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) at the earliest opportunity.
Why? Crucially at some point in July 2023, you will stop seeing data in Universal Analytics and if you are using this data to help make business and marketing decisions (which we really hope you are), you’ll need to implement GA4 sooner rather than later.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s web and app analytics platform. It is a major update to the previous version of Google Analytics, known as Universal Analytics, and offers several new features and capabilities.
GA4 is built on a new event-based data model that enables more granular and flexible tracking of user interactions across websites and apps. It also includes advanced machine learning capabilities that allow businesses to get smarter insights into user behaviour and engagement.
GA4 offers better cross-device tracking, more accurate measurement of marketing channels and campaigns, and improved data privacy controls. Additionally, it provides a more streamlined reporting experience, with customizable dashboards and the ability to create custom audiences for targeted marketing efforts.
Overall, GA4 represents a significant upgrade to Google Analytics and provides businesses with a more powerful and privacy-centric solution for understanding their users and optimising their online presence.
Benefits of GA4 Include:
Enhanced cross-device tracking
GA4 enables better cross-device tracking, which means you can get a more complete view of how users interact with your website or app across different devices.
Improved data privacy
GA4 is designed with privacy in mind and includes several features that help protect user data, including data controls, consent mode, and user deletion capabilities.
Smarter insights
With GA4, you can get smarter insights into user behaviour and engagement, thanks to its advanced machine learning capabilities that allow you to identify trends, predict outcomes, and even create custom audiences.
Streamlined reporting
GA4 provides a more streamlined reporting experience, allowing you to easily access the data you need and customize reports to your liking.
Enhanced reporting
GA4 includes several new reporting features that can provide businesses with deeper insights into user behaviour. For example, the new Exploration report allows businesses to perform ad-hoc analysis on their data and discover new insights that may have been missed with traditional reporting.
Machine learning capabilities
GA4 incorporates machine learning technology that can automatically analyse user behaviour and provide insights into how to improve website performance and user engagement.
Benefits of Google Tag Manager include:
Quicker implementation of new tracking
Before Google Tag Manager if you wanted to track something new, you’d have to go to your web developer with details and instructions on what you would like to implement and then wait while the developer did the work, you’d test it and hopefully it would be working. With Google Tag Manager, you can set up new tracking – tags and triggers – yourself in the Google Tag Manager interface. And once you know what you are doing, it literally takes minutes to implement and check using Tag Assistant and Real Time Google Analytics.
Dependable data
As you can easily test whether a tag and trigger are working, you can be more certain that the data you are collecting is the right data and is accurate.
Easy testing
Google Tag Manager allows you to check tags and triggers are working properly before you send them live on your site (publish them). There’s a Preview and Debug option where you can check if the tag you’ve set up is firing correctly. There’s also a Chrome extension called Google Tag Assistant that gives you guidance on any issues that need resolving.
Tracking can be in one place
You find that there are so many pixels to add to your website to track each and every channel that it can easily become cluttered and messy.
Version control
A bonus when you make a change and then realise you don’t want. You can simply go back to a later version. Now that’s smart…
Overall, businesses that implement GA4 with Google Tag Manager now can benefit from a more robust and privacy-centric data tracking solution, improved reporting, and a better understanding of their customers, which can lead to better business decisions and improved ROI.
Our GA4 Setup Offer
To help you make the move to GA4, our GA4 implementation offer is simple: £500 + VAT (instead of our usual rate of £700 + VAT) or £800 + VAT for e-commerce websites (instead of £1,000 +VAT) *.
Our Implementation Includes
- Set up of Google Tag Manager if needed – future proofing your tracking.
- GA4 account setup and configuration.
- GA4 installation via Google Tag Manager.
- Tracking of all the conversions you are currently tracking in Universal Analytics.
- Update any Universal Analytics conversions in Google Ads to GA4 if needed.
- Additional tracking as needed to ensure a thorough tracking solution*.
Make sure you’re not in the dark about what’s working and what isn’t – contact us today to ensure you have Google Analytics data as you move forward.
