Google Analytics 4 Book
Hey! You read the whole book and found the page! Awesome!
Welcome! If you ended up here by another route (search engine, accident, etc) here’s the link to the book.
I will be adding basics, ideas, new methods I have found while porting over to Google Analytics 4 that could help you with your account.
Google will sunset Universal Analytics (UA) as of July 1, 2023. Due to this, the more historical data gathered into the GA4 property the better before that time when the reporting will be forced to switch. Beyond this, GA4’s benefits include new features, native app integration, privacy considerations, better reporting, and more.
If you are using Universal Analytics, you'll see a blue notification at the top that says "Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023." (However, if you previously dismissed this notification, it will not display.)
You can also look at your property ID to see whether you are using Universal Analytics or Google Analytics 4.
- Universal Analytics property IDs start with UA and end with a number (UA-XXXXXXXXX-1).
- Google Analytics 4 property IDs have only numbers (XXXXXXXXX).
If you’re using Google Tag Manager (GTM), installation is relatively simple. However, setting up GA4 can increase in complexity.
GA4 is designed to natively track a number of on-site actions that required coding skills to track in GA3 (Universal Analytics) such as scrolling, downloads, and, eventually, video views. Yet, on-site conversion points such as contact forms, button clicks, purchases, etc., still require manual work for GA4 to track them. If these conversion points result in a new page being loaded (i.e, a ‘Thank You’ page), then the tracking set-up is very simple. However, if the conversion points don’t generate a natively trackable event, then the tracking set-up can be complicated, requiring custom coding.
Installation with Google Tag Manager (GTM) only requires around 30 minutes (including quality assurance (QA) time).
Conversion points that generate a natively trackable event also only require around 30 minutes to set up (including QA time).
Conversion points and/or events that don’t generate a natively trackable event can require anywhere from 30 minutes to 4-5 hours to set up (including QA time).