Universal Analytics to GA4 – migrate for a seamless transition

As we mentioned a couple of months back, Google has announced that from July 1 2023, Google's Universal Analytics (UA) will be discontinued and GA4 will become the only version of Google Analytics. 

This is just one of the important considerations around data and how businesses can use it to drive change. We've added in the video below to reinforce that message and are reaching out to businesses who need help to get the most from their analytics. Sounds interesting? Read on...

So, why does this all matter, I hear you ask? Well, there are currently millions of businesses using UA to monitor their marketing channels and measure their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Those that fail to act and adopt the change risk losing data and therefore ground on their competitors. 

With the deadline fast approaching businesses are under pressure to make sure that they have everything in place to ensure that they have a full year of data once the switch is made. The benefits of ensuring that you are tracking and managing your data in GA4 are that you will be in the best position for YoY reporting and that you can analyse trends to build out your future strategies.

It is also worth noting that 360 Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on October 1, 2023.

What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4) 

Google Analytics 4 is an analytics service that enables you to measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps. 

In their official announcement Google said: “Millions of businesses, large and small, rely on Google Analytics to understand customer preferences and create better experiences for them. With more commerce moving online and businesses under increased pressure to make every marketing dollar count, insights from digital analytics tools are even more critical. 

“To help you get better ROI from your marketing for the long term, we're creating a new, more intelligent Google Analytics that builds on the foundation of the App + Web property we introduced in beta last year.  

“It has machine learning at its core to automatically surface helpful insights and gives you a complete understanding of your customers across devices and platforms. It’s privacy-centric by design, so you can rely on Analytics even as industry changes like restrictions on cookies and identifiers create gaps in your data.  

“The new Google Analytics will give you the essential insights you need to be ready for what’s next.” 

Main differences between UA and GA4 

Application and website owners who are migrating from UA to GA4 need to consider these specific differences: 

Events 

Event handling is fundamentally different between UA and GA4. UA events have a category, action, and label, while GA4 doesn’t. 

GA4 events include:  

• automatically collected events 
• recommended events 
• enhanced measurement events 
• custom events. 

GA4’s property measurements are event-based, meaning it can capture any interaction as an event. As a result, GA4 translates UA hit types into events within a GA4 property. Those migrating to GA4 therefore need to implement a new event structure for collecting data. The information that is automatically collected however, doesn’t require the user to add code to an application or web page. 

Sessions 

As you may know, a session is a set of interactions between a visitor and a website within a given timeframe. UA sessions comprise multiple pageviews, events, interactions, and transactions. However, a GA4 session is explicitly defined by the session start event, which is an automatically collected event.  

The time span between events determines the end of a session in GA4, this is important as many working in GA4 will see a higher number of users. 

Main advantages over Universal Analytics 

There are several new features and advantages, as you would expect, when a new technology or property comes to market. GA4 is no different. 

• Privacy-focused and durable for the future  
• Intelligent, using machine learning to unearth insights about the customer journey across platforms and devices 
• Enhanced, seamless integrations with Google's advertising platforms to optimise campaign performance and drive greater marketing ROI 
• A new data modelling capability will use artificial intelligence (AI) to fill in gaps left by GA 

How Mando Group can help

Here at Mando Group we can help take you through a step-by-step approach to ensure that you are best setup for success. We can guide you through the following areas:

• Basic account structure
• Creating a Google Analytics 4 property
• Creating data stream
• Enabling data collection
• Activating Google Signals
• Linking to Google Ads
• Mapping Universal Analytics custom events to Google Analytics 4
• Migrating Universal Analytics goals and conversions to Google Analytics 4
• Validating and bid to conversions in Google Ads
• Migrating audiences
• Migrating ecommerce measurement
• Adding users

Discussing the switch to GA4, Ian Cockayne, Digital Analytics Implementation Engineer at Mando Group said: "GA4 offers a number of benefits to businesses over Universal Analytics. It's a scalable measurement platform that allows you to collect data consistently across your websites and applications. 

"This in turn helps you to gain more holistic customer insights, accurately understand your digital marketing return on investment, and drive business improvement through data, whilst respecting visitor privacy."

Final thoughts 

To ensure your year-on-year data is retained, GA4 needs to be set up as soon as possible to achieve a full 12-month year-on-year data history. The interface will also need to be customised to ensure you are getting the same reporting capabilities best suited to your business. After July 1 2023, Universal Analytics will no longer record data. 

To find out more about GA4, Google Analytics, taking control of your data or harnessing the power of data and insight to boost your business performance, why not get in touch? Contact our team today...