GA4 is a free tool provided by Google that gives you access to a wide variety of data about your website or app. It originally launched back in 2005, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the previous model, Universal Analytics (UA) launched.
After a decade, Google decided the platform needed a refresh and in July 2023, UA was shut down and replaced by the current model - GA4.
GA4 was a big change to UA, and some marketers are still in the process of learning how to use GA4 effectively.
There are a few key differences between the old and new model of Google Analytics:
A data model is how data is stored, organised, and defined within a database. UA’s data model was based on sessions and pageviews, but GA4’s is based on events and parameters.
Essentially, GA4 tracks each user interaction as an individual event, whereas UA grouped interactions together by session.
Metrics are measured differently in GA4 compared to how they were in UA.
Both GA4 and UA track new and returning visitors, but they do so differently.
In GA4, the primary metric is Active Users - the number of distinct users who have visited your website or app, and engaged with your platform within a specific timeframe.
The primary metric in UA was Total Users - anyone who visited your website or app regardless of whether or not they interacted with your platform.
In GA4, a user is only logged if they interact (scroll or click etc.) within 10 seconds before leaving the site. In UA, however, a user did not need to interact with the site before leaving for one session and one user to be counted.
In UA, a session began when a user visited your site or revisited from a new traffic source or medium. A session would end after 30 minutes of inactivity and the session count would restart at midnight. This meant that if a user was on your site at midnight, a new session would begin when the clock ticked over midnight.
In GA4, sessions don’t restart at midnight or when a user visits from a different traffic source or medium. However sessions do still expire after 30 minutes of inactivity like they did in UA.
You will most likely find your conversion numbers are higher in GA4 compared to UA. This is because UA only counted one conversion per session.
However, in GA4 more than one conversion is counted per session. For example, if someone were to shop on your website and add a t-shirt to their cart, then continue shopping and add another item to their cart, this would count as two conversions.
A bounced session refers to a user who leaves a site immediately, or a visitor who stays for an undefined period of time without interacting before leaving. The bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that included a bounce.
Bounce rate was actually eliminated from GA4, so there is no direct equal metric. Instead, GA4 uses Engagement Rate.
An engaged session includes a session that has two or more views, one or more conversion events, or lasts for more than 10 seconds. You can get the equivalent of a bounce rate, because whatever isn’t an engaged session is a bounced session. For example, if your engagement rate is 64%, then your bounce rate would be 36%.
GA4’s definition of an event varies from UA. In UA, this metric was known as Total Events and it was a unique metric which you could assign a category, action, or label to.
In GA4, however, everything is an event, from page views to form submissions.
GA4 tracks more than 200 different metrics and dimensions, but why do you need this data and why should you use GA4 to get it?
Using data to make informed decisions is essential if you’re putting together an effective digital strategy. Without the necessary data, it’s difficult to gather relevant information about your customers and target your ideal audience in a worthwhile way.
GA4 allows you to find out who your users are, where they are coming from, how they interact with your site, and what is and isn’t engaging your users. This information is crucial for developing an effective digital marketing strategy that gets results.
Data also offers the opportunity to evaluate previous campaigns and identify what is and isn’t worth investing in for future efforts.
By having a range of data available all in one place, it makes it much easier to build reports on the effectiveness of specific campaigns or assess the current state of your website.
There’s very little excuse not to use GA4, considering it’s free to use. All you need to do is set it up and you can access actionable data that can be used to enhance your marketing strategy, increase traffic and conversions, and boost revenue.
So, now you know what GA4 is and why you should use it, it’s time to get started with setting it up.
If you previously had a Universal Analytics account, you will most likely have a GA4 property already. In this case, you just need to complete your set up.
However, If you have never used analytics, here’s how to set it up from scratch.
You can easily edit any of these details later, so don’t worry about these too much for now.
Choose the primary goal of your business. You can choose one or multiple, or choose ‘Other business objectives’ if none of the options match.
Once you have selected your business objectives, you will be shown the terms of services for GA4. In order to set up your account, you will need to accept these terms.
Once your account is set up, you need to start collecting data for your website or app. This is done by establishing a data stream (a flow of data from your website or app to GA4).
To do this:
In order to collect data from your website, you need to tag your site.
This is relatively simple and there are a few ways you can do this:
If you already have Google Tag Manager set up, this is an easy way to add the GA4 tag to your website.
Some website builders, like Wix, include built-in GA4 integration features, or for builders like WordPress, you can install plug-ins for GA4 integration. This method can vary depending on the website provider.
If your CMS host accepts Google tag IDs, you can find instructions for your specific host here.
Adding a tag manually means adding the tag directly to your website via the source code. This is a simple and easy step if you’re comfortable editing your website’s code.
Once you’re set up, there are a few things we recommend doing to optimise the data on your GA4 account.
Organic traffic from users within your company or those managing your website can skew your data. It’s a good idea to exclude these IP addresses to get a more accurate view of your traffic.
You can exclude certain traffic by setting up IP filters:
In GA4, data retention is automatically set to two months. This means that after two months GA4 will automatically delete user and event data. It’s recommended that you extend this time to keep data beyond the two-month mark.
Once you’re set up, you may want to give other people within your team access or give access to an external marketing team.
To do this:
Once you’ve created an account, established a data stream, tagged your website, optimised your data, and given access to the relevant people, you’re ready to start using GA4!
If you’d like expert help managing and using data, feel free to get in touch with our experts today. We can guide you through using and managing GA4 to get the best results for your business.
