{"id":1488,"date":"2023-04-19T15:32:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2023-04-21T15:09:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:09:14","slug":"why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Need to Be Making the Switch to GA4 Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GA4 migration deadline is around the corner, and if you\u2019re currently using Google Universal Analytics (UA) to measure traffic, engagement or revenue across your website(s), then we\u2019d strongly suggest that you start looking to make the switch to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of the 1st of<\/sup> July 2023, Google Universal Analytics will be made redundant and will stop collecting your website data. After this deadline, you\u2019ll only be able to access your previously processed data for 6 months before it will be deleted, making optimisation and historical performance comparisons much more difficult.<\/p>\n

By proactively making the move ahead of this forced migration, you\u2019re able to start collecting data within the GA4 platform so that when the forced switch occurs you\u2019ve already gained historical data to allow you to make year-on-year comparisons and identify trends.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How is Google Analytics 4 different to Google Analytics Universal?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Rather than Google releasing a new \u201cversion\u201d, GA4 is a completely new platform that changes the way data is collected, processed and reported. Let\u2019s take a look into what some of these main
\nchanges are\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Data Collection<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The way that GA4 records data is far more advanced compared to Universal Analytics, with Google adopting a new measurement model. This move is seen as one of Google\u2019s biggest moves in the advertising industry to become a cookieless tracking solution.<\/p>\n

While UA collected data based on sessions and hits (which are either page views or events), the primary data point of GA4 is much more granular. GA4 data is based on events and parameters, which means that any activity tracked from users is measured as an event \u2013 which provides more detailed insights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reports<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The reporting views we know and love from UA will be replaced. Google are encouraging the use of the Looker Studio to visualise and model data, and so we urge you to become versed in this platform too, as well as getting used to GA4.<\/p>\n

UA sections such as \u2018audience\u2019, \u2018behaviour\u2019 and \u2018conversion\u2019 and replaced by \u2018engagement\u2019, \u2018monetisation\u2019 and \u2018retention\u2019, meaning you are able to look at user activity through each stage of the customer journey funnel from acquisition to retention, helping you to make more informed, data-led marketing decisions. GA4 has also replaced \u2018Bounce Rate\u2019 with \u2018Engaged Sessions\u2019 and \u2018Engagement Rate\u2019 to measure site engagement.<\/p>\n

Another favourite of ours in the new reporting is the cross-device reporting, which is much more accurate and user friendly than UA when cross-device tracking, helping you understand what devices your audience are viewing your site on, and how you can focus your efforts on optimising this effectively.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Events<\/strong><\/h5>\n

GA4 provides 4 different types of events, these are enhanced measurement, automatic, custom, and recommended. Setting these events up will likely require an understanding of coding, and so we\u2019d recommend working alongside a developer to ensure everything is tracking accurately. Let\u2019s take a look at what each one of these events mean\u2026<\/p>\n

Enhanced Measurement Events<\/strong> \u2013 these events are the standard events that come with GA4 once you\u2019ve implemented the configuration tag on your website. These sorts of events include things like page views, scroll, clicks, viewed search results etc.<\/h6>\n
Automatic Events<\/strong> – these events are collected automatically and are basic interactions with your app or website. These include things like first visit, session start, user engagement and in app purchases.<\/h6>\n
Recommended Events \u2013 <\/strong>if you need to add your own event tracking on top of the standard events, GA4 has a list of recommended events with predefined names and parameters created for common use cases.<\/h6>\n
Custom Events<\/strong> \u2013 custom events are used if you need to track something that doesn\u2019t fit into any of the other pre-set events. These are implemented the same as the other events using Google Tag Manager or gtag, but you have more freedom to select the event parameter naming conventions that you need.<\/h6>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Top 4 tips on using Google Analytics 4<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
1. <\/strong>Compare UA to GA4 to ensure that you don\u2019t have any tracking discrepancies \u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Expect a discrepancy of between 5 \u2013 10% but anything larger should be investigated. Familiarise yourself with new channel naming conventions with P-Max now tracking as Cross Network under the channel view.<\/p>\n

2. Familiarise yourself with the most useful reports<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There are a few key reports available so ensuring you utilise these efficiently will help you create your own report for any in-depth analysis.\u00a0Some of these reports include:<\/p>\n

Demographics reporting<\/strong> \u2013 this report provides a high-level overview of the age and gender of your website users, as well as what device they are accessing your website or app on and from which country, region or city.<\/h6>\n
User reporting <\/strong>\u2013 the Users Report includes a lot of information that you may recognise from Universal Analytics such as new\/returning user metrics, however, this report now includes additional metrics such as acquisition dimensions and new retention metrics.<\/h6>\n
Behaviour reporting <\/strong>– the behaviour report is a lot more streamlined from Universal Analytics, and is simplified into events and page views. Currently this report does not include metrics such as exits, bounce rate and average time on page.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Set up Looker Studio\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Google Data Studio allows you to pull in raw data from GA4, and builds this into tables, charts, graphs and more, giving you a simplified reporting view which you can easily filter and share with necessary parties. If you\u2019re not familiar with this, Google has created a quick start guide that details in six simple steps how to set up Looker Studio.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. View event details in real-time reporting\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Real-time reporting allows you to see all the important metrics as they come in \u2013 enabling you to deep dive into event interactions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nLet us take care of it all<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Because GA4 is a whole new concept in itself, migrating to GA4 is a complex progress that requires careful consideration and expert assistance. From providing an audit of your current GA to setting up the new GA4 including set-up of current or new tracking events, we\u2019re here to take the stress away and make this transition as smooth as possible. Get in touch<\/a> with our team today to find out more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GA4 migration deadline is around the corner, and if you\u2019re currently using Google Universal Analytics (UA) to measure traffic, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaking the Switch From UA to GA4<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making the Switch From UA to GA4\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Green Ginger Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-19T14:32:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-21T14:09:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Copy-of-Blog-Covers-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophie Musgrave\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophie Musgrave\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/\",\"name\":\"Making the Switch From UA to GA4\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-19T14:32:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-21T14:09:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9e48a8f3000edb63ca501beff6342bab\"},\"description\":\"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why You Need to Be Making the Switch to GA4 Today\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/\",\"name\":\"Green Ginger Digital\",\"description\":\"Digital Marketing Agency Hull | PPC, SEO, Social\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9e48a8f3000edb63ca501beff6342bab\",\"name\":\"Sophie Musgrave\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a69be054d4cac006ddaa4677bfa31e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a69be054d4cac006ddaa4677bfa31e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sophie Musgrave\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/author\/sophie-musgrave\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Making the Switch From UA to GA4","description":"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Making the Switch From UA to GA4","og_description":"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.","og_url":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/","og_site_name":"Green Ginger Digital","article_published_time":"2023-04-19T14:32:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-21T14:09:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Copy-of-Blog-Covers-5.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sophie Musgrave","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sophie Musgrave","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/","url":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/","name":"Making the Switch From UA to GA4","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-04-19T14:32:34+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-21T14:09:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9e48a8f3000edb63ca501beff6342bab"},"description":"The clock is ticking for you to make the switch from UA to GA4...Find out what GA4 could mean for you in our latest blog. Read now.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/why-you-need-to-be-making-the-switch-to-ga4-today\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why You Need to Be Making the Switch to GA4 Today"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/","name":"Green Ginger Digital","description":"Digital Marketing Agency Hull | PPC, SEO, Social","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9e48a8f3000edb63ca501beff6342bab","name":"Sophie Musgrave","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a69be054d4cac006ddaa4677bfa31e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a69be054d4cac006ddaa4677bfa31e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sophie Musgrave"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/blog\/author\/sophie-musgrave\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1488"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1511,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions\/1511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greengingerdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}