GA4 Is Coming Soon! How To Prepare And What It Means For Your Business

Significant changes are coming to Google Analytics, and you don’t want to miss these important details. On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics (UA) will retire, and you will need to switch to the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4). If you are already using Google Analytics to track your website’s performance, it’s crucial that you prepare immediately for the conversion to GA4 so you don’t lose access to your historical data. In this blog post, we’ll learn how to prepare for the changeover and what these changes mean for your business.

One reason Google is changing to GA4 is due to privacy concerns around third-party cookies. Today’s consumers rely more on mobile browsers and apps, so the old analytics based on web behavior can’t capture the customer journey as effectively. GA4 can combine data from both websites and apps in the same analytics property, giving you a more holistic view of how users interact with your brand online. 

What You’ll Gain With GA4

GA4 changes the way data is collected and analyzed to better reflect users that use mobile apps, not just web browsers, in their customer journeys. Here are just a few things you will gain when you make the switch to GA4:

• Event-based tracking. Event-based tracking focuses on user actions, not sessions. It brings together web and app engagement for a more holistic view of the user. 
• Better reporting and analysis. GA4 provides simple-to-use templates for customer reporting.
• Automated insights. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning will highlight new insights for you.

What You’ll Lose With GA4

We recommend that you continue to rely on UA to capture key insights while monitoring performance and exploring GA4 simultaneously. Keep in mind that when UA retires and you are using GA4, you will lose these things:

• Historical data. Your historical data in UA (as well as tags) won’t migrate over to GA4. Since GA4 requires a new property, you’ll basically be starting over from scratch.
• Your conversions. Since underlying measurements have changed, you will notice a difference in your conversions, too.
• Views. Currently, GA4 doesn’t provide views or ways to filter out certain types of data. 
• Limits on filters and customer dimensions. IP and hostname filtering have been limited or deprecated. Custom dimensions are limited to 50.
• Third-party integrations. Third-party integrations for everything from your CRMs to your eCommerce to your Content Management System (CMS) that were built on UA’s measurements will no longer work until they are updated to GA4.

How To Upgrade From UA To GA4

We recommend that you activate GA4 now and run UA side-by-side to start so you can compare the data metrics and ensure no data is lost in the switch. If you don’t set up GA4 before UA retires on July 1, 2023, you will lose website data, which cannot be recovered. You can also save your historical UA data by completing a manual export or through paid data warehouses.

It’s simple to add a GA4 property to a website that already has UA. You can see the detailed walkthrough instructions in this Google support article.

How Will GA4 Affect My Business Social Media?

GA4 isn’t only helpful in tracking your website’s performance. It tells you a lot about your overall online presence, including your social media marketing campaigns. You will need to get familiar with how to access social media data in GA4. It will be a little harder to track social media data in GA4 than it was in UA for now, but that may change over time. There are a few core differences you need to be aware of when using GA4 to track on-site performance and referral traffic:

• “Events” instead of “Goals.” Instead of setting up complex goals like in UA, GA4 is all about “events.” Events are extremely detailed and include video views, page views, beginning a checkout process, completing a lead form, and more.
• You won’t see referral traffic sources the same way. In UA, referral site traffic would break down individual sites that sent referral traffic to you. These direct source traffic links, which were used to track which social media platforms traffic was coming from in the past, are no longer visible in GA4. Instead, you will see categorized information based on categories such as “direct,” “organic search,” and “social.”
• GA4 focuses more on behaviors and predictive analytics. UA gives you detailed information about where your traffic came from and their path through the site. Enhanced tracking in GA4 is mostly behavior and predictive-focused. Instead of just knowing users viewed a page, you can see if they filled out a form, began a checkout, or watched a video on that page, too. 

At Finding Business Balance, we’re experts at helping small businesses in the health and wellness industry with their social media needs. If you want to learn more about how we can help you build your brand through social media marketing, contact us today for a complimentary consultation call.