Google recently updated its property from Universal analytics, to Google Analytics 4 by adding extra features helpful for businesses. The new Google Analytics 4 property can scale with your business and measure across devices and platforms. According to McKinsey, data-driven organizations are 6x as likely to retain customers and 19x more likely to be profitable.
Compared to the previous Universal analytics, 5 major changes were made:
1. Simplified reporting:
- Universal Analytics: Data is grouped into predefined and customizable reports, but it can be hard to find data not available in pre-existing reports
- Google Analytics 4: Simplified reporting with overview reports that cover single insights. Possibility to select comprehensive reports and customizable ways to find data.
2. Unlimited cross-device and cross-platform reporting:
- Universal Analytics: could only process data either from websites or from apps
- Google Analytics 4: Can process data from both websites and apps by setting up a data stream for each platform with which your user interacts with your website
3. Event-based data model:
- Universal Analytics uses a session-based data model measurement: sessions are groups of user interactions with your website in a given frame
- Google Analytics 4 uses an event-based model: User interactions are stored as events, thus providing insights into interactions across devices and platforms to gain more information. Furthermore, it uses machine learning to improve the insights obtained and their accuracy
4. Integrated Reporting
The new GA4 integrated reporting is optimized to handle various data streams, thus enabling your business to de-duplicate users that access your website from different devices. This allows to obtain a clearer view of the user journey on several devices.
5. New Overview Reports
Google Analytics 4 properties also offer new overview reports, covering single insights into your business. Examples of these reports include:
- Summary report: provides high-level snap-shots of user insights
- Real-time reporting: monitors activity as it happens by showing events taking place from 5 seconds to 30 minutes before
Source: bounteous.com
What are the advantages of Google Analytics 4?
With the new analysis techniques offered by Google Analytics 4, you can focus on the specific insights you’re interested in and export custom data sets. Examples of analysis techniques include:
- funnel analysis: shows the customer journey process. Can be useful to see at what stage of the process customers drop out or get stuck, and improve the website accordingly
- segment overlap: compares up to 3 user segments and evaluates how they overlap. This allows to isolate specific audiences based on complex conditions.
- user explorer: enables you to learn more about each anonymous user’s activities on your website (eg. downloading your app, visiting your website,..)
How to Set Up your Google Analytics 4 Property?
How to Set Up your Google Analytics 4 Property?
Instead of deleting your old UA property, we recommend utilizing it in tandem with the new GA4 property, to take advantage of the new and upcoming features. In Google Analytics 4 properties you can then set up a data stream for each platform with which your users interact and engage with your website. After setting up your property, ensure that data has started reporting by logging into your Google Analytics account and opening your Google Analytics 4 property.
Are you interested in adding a Google Analytics 4 property to your account to make better business decisions based on your digital analytics data? Contact us now! If you want to learn more about other data analytics services we offer, check out our Data Analytics service page.
