5 Things Communicators Should Know About Google Analytics 4

By Tom Gilbert, Group Vice President, Interactive & Infrastructure
October 15, 2021

Who is coming to your website? How long are they staying, and what are they doing? This vital information is key to developing an effective content marketing and communications strategy…but there’s big news on the horizon. Because everything you knew about Google Analytics has been reshuffled with the introduction of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), in ways that could have major impact on your understanding of analytics.

So, before you make the switch to GA4, consider the following benefits it provides, so you can be fully prepared:

More “out-of-the-box” data for a fuller picture

Previous versions of Google Analytics (Google Universal, or Google UA) required a lot of manual work in Google Tag Manager to track how visitors were interacting with your site. Not anymore! With GA4, that work is done for you and metrics like page-scroll amount, file download and video plays are automatically included in the standard reporting. By default, GA4 gives you more insight into user activity. Bonus: less configuring means there’s more information at your fingertips and more time to analyze the data. Plus, GA4 works on websites and apps, giving you a more holistic view of how all your online channels are performing.

Automated insights with machine learning

Did I just say you’d have more time to analyze the data? Well, looks like you might not need it with GA4! That’s right – GA4 introduces machine-based learning to the analytics scene. One of the special machine learning features is automated insights. In a nutshell, GA4 logs any time there is a significant trend happening on your app or site, good or bad. Think: an epic spike in traffic or a mass migration of people leaving your site from the same spot. GA4 catalogues all this data, making it easier than ever for you to explore trends in user behavior.

Meaningful interactions = Meaningful data

GA4 focuses on the meaningful interactions users have with your application or website This provides a more authentic representation of how users are interacting with the app or site. To do so, it measures events and parameters instead of focusing on sessions and pageviews. In GA4’s model, any interaction is an event and every event contains parameters—information that gives context to events.

Think of it this way: in the past, if a user were to click on an article and then walk away from the computer to make a cup of coffee, Universal Analytics would still count that as a session (and a lengthy one at that, depending on their taste in coffee!). But that’s not good data. In reality, the user barely looked at your page. With GA4, data is captured as strings of events, so you’ll know if users are truly engaged and for how long.

With information on user acquisition, engagement, monetization, retention, demographics and conversions available, you can tailor what you track to match your program objectives. In turn, with more meaningful data in hand, you’ll be in a better position to assess what’s working, what’s not and adjust your communications strategy accordingly.

Keep in mind: Comparing GA4 to Universal Reports is not “apples to apples”

Due to their different approaches to data collection, the number of sessions reported in GA4 will be lower than what you are accustomed to seeing in Universal. In addition, since GA4 and Universal also handle the reporting of events differently, we recommend you rethink your data collection with the GA4 model in mind when you are ready to make the switch.

Set up GA4 now so you have historical data when you switch

You can choose to run both Universal and GA4 on your site while you prepare to make the switch. Collecting data with GA4 now will strengthen the application’s machine learning capability so that when you change over, you’ll benefit from the insights already logged.

The difference between the data collected by GA4 and by Universal is significant. Spending time getting acquainted with GA4 and setting up your sites and apps on the platform is a wise investment.

What has your experience with GA4 been like? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.