Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) ends connected July 1. In a small little than 2 months, everyone utilizing UA volition beryllium switched to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

“It tin beryllium precise overwhelming,” said Colleen Harris, caput of concern quality and reporting strategy astatine Sincro. “If we wanted to enactment our caput successful the soil that’s afloat allowed, but we bash person to fig retired what’s next. Because here’s the reality: We’re going to person to marque that transition.”

To assistance with that MarTech and Harris, a/k/a the Google Whisperer, created our bid Getting Started with GA4. Now she’s backmost with much tips and insights into GA4.  

First things first

The archetypal happening to bash is speech to your website supplier and agencies astir their plans for GA4. Do they enactment it already? If not, erstwhile volition they? For each vendor you enactment with, inquire what the enactment exemplary for GA4 volition be. Will your vendors complaint you to acceptable up GA4, oregon volition it beryllium portion of a package?

Dig deeper: 3 ways to bash segmentation successful Google Analytics 4

What’s the URL?

“The astir communal question I get astir GA4 is however bash I marque Page Title spell distant due to the fact that I can’t archer what’s going connected successful immoderate of these modular reports,” Harris said.

This refers to the reports section. When you unfastened it you spot the default identifier is leafage title, which isn’t the URL. 

“This is large if you person six oregon 7 static pages connected a website and you don’t request to cognize what’s going connected with them,” says Harris. “The leafage title, though, for a batch of us, tells america nothing. In the illustration beneath I’ve got 3 antithetic URLs, but the leafage rubric looks precisely the aforesaid and I cannot archer the quality betwixt them.”

The solution to this is adding the Page Path dimension to your report. Page way derives from the worth aft the domain. For example, if idiosyncratic visits www.example.com/Bags, past example.com is the domain and Bags is the leafage path.

Unfiltered GA4

GA4 does not person the quality to customize filters. This means you cannot filter retired postulation by IP address, postulation source, location, oregon different antecedently utilized filters.

“As you play the parity crippled betwixt Universal Analytics and GA4, Filters is going to beryllium the 1 happening that is not up to par,” said Harris. “It is, actually, truly atrocious successful GA4. What that means is that nary of the filtering we acceptable successful UA volition transportation implicit to GA4. You tin lone exclude by domain sanction successful GA4 and this is going to beryllium the biggest alteration arsenic you marque this transition.” 

Her tip: Focus connected moving implicit your domain filters.

No Views to see

When you spell to the Admin leafage successful GA4 you’ll rapidly announcement thing is missing. There are lone 2 columns whereas UA had three. The views file is gone.

“When we spot that 3rd file is gone it scares a batch of folks due to the fact that everybody is utilized to doing each of their enactment wrong a view. And the presumption was antithetic for everyone. The paid hunt vendor had their ain view, and truthful did the societal media vendor. You could person 5 oregon six antithetic views successful UA.” 

Views and filters fto you customize your information successful UA. In GA4, you lone person 1 presumption for your data. This presumption gets information from information streams. Data streams are wherever your information comes from, similar your website oregon apps. This means each vendor (advertising, website, SEO) is moving with the aforesaid acceptable of data.

This makes it easier for you to acceptable the docket astir what information and trends matter. You tin accidental this is what the information shows is going connected and this is what we request to bash astir it. That mode determination is 1 acceptable of goals for everyone.

Catch up connected the full series: