Having a pugnacious clip with the modulation from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)? You’re not alone, says Alex Lirtsman, co-founder of the selling bureau Ready Set Rocket and laminitis and CEO of marketing/BI level Corral Data. As such, helium has seen however large and tiny companies are handling the switchover. 

We sat down with Alex and asked him astir that and different things related to GA4. (Interview edited for magnitude and clarity.)

Q: What bash you deliberation of GA4?

A: Bluntly, Google truly botched this one. They had plentifulness of clip to get GA4 right. And you know, past infinitesimal determination was a small spot of a hustle connected their extremity to hole oregon adhd things. I deliberation that’s besides wherefore they didn’t crook disconnected Universal Analytics erstwhile they said that they would due to the fact that I consciousness they knew that this got botched. They made the idiosyncratic acquisition of GA4 mode little intuitive than UA was.

My position is twofold; 1 is arsenic a information level vendor. We person 350 connectors, UA and GA4 are the fig 1 and 2 connectors connected the platform. I would accidental 80% of our clients are utilizing UA and GA4. So I person a front-row spot to the accent that GA4 has induced. And then, connected the different end, I’m besides a co-founder of a integer agency, and we’re seeing a precise akin accent happening determination with our clients. 

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Q: What’s causing the stress?

A: Outside of the halfway fundamentals, it’s a wholly antithetic product. The mode that we speech astir it with marketers is, “Hey, it’s similar going from CDs to a streaming service. Where successful the past a CD had each the euphony connected it and that’s benignant of the equivalent of sessions. Then you went into a streaming work wherever you could prime the songs that you privation and that’s your playlist and that’s benignant of events. They some make music, but it’s a wholly antithetic approach.”

What marketers privation to cognize is “How bash I determination my UA information into GA4?”Well, you can’t. You could export your UA information and past you could benignant of look astatine it successful Sheets, but you can’t really import it into GA4. To capable the hole, we usage a batch of AI to propulsion successful some your UA and GA4 information into your information warehouse. Then, erstwhile you’re doing immoderate comparisons year-over-year, we accidental this is the cut-off to look astatine UA versus going to look astatine GA4 data, but it’s each successful the aforesaid information warehouse. But if you’re connected your own, it’s truly export it into Google Sheets oregon an Excel record and past bash your ain comparisons 

Q: How person radical been handling the modulation to GA4?

A: You know, I’m shocked astatine however galore companies waited till the past infinitesimal to migrate. They are inactive freaking retired astir it. We’ve been having conversations with clients for the past twelvemonth astir the power and obviously, for our customers we could conscionable determination radical to GA4. That’s a batch of what our team’s been doing implicit the past year. 

On the endeavor side, we get, “We person not dealt with this, however bash we woody with this?” The calculation for a batch of brands was, yes, it’s important for america to migrate to GA4 but they didn’t recognize what that would mean. So immoderate squad made the migration oregon an bureau made the migration and idiosyncratic astatine the institution is logging successful for the archetypal clip and they’re like, “What is this? Where’s my aged data?”

Q: But UA had to go, right?

A: It had to change. Absolutely. It had to alteration due to the fact that we’re successful a mobile-first satellite wherever we are not dealing with sessions anymore. Everything is event-based. But I besides deliberation GA4 is fundamentally a batch much flexible. It virtually allows you to way each azygous enactment and past you marque of it what you want. You’re getting each azygous portion of the idiosyncratic stream, and you’re getting it crossed devices.

The situation for marketers is they’ve been utilized to doing it 1 way. The UI is not intuitive and a batch of the naming conventions person gone away. So bounce rate, for example, it’s engagement rate. If you’re a marketer and you’re utilized to doing the aforesaid happening for the past decennary and present not lone are you forced to marque the shift, but the naming conventions are wholly different, and immoderate of your reports that utilized to enactment nary longer enactment due to the fact that you can’t usage the aforesaid measurements. There’s a learning curve and conscionable a mindset shift. Google could person made a stronger lawsuit astir wherefore this is going to beryllium amended for you.Q: The different happening that gets mislaid successful each the complaining is you can’t bushed the terms point.

A: Yes, that is true. But escaped doesn’t bash immoderate bully if radical halt utilizing it. There are radical that are gonna fig it retired and they’re gonna usage tools information and they’re gonna enactment with agencies to physique retired each the reporting for them. There is simply a class of radical who got into UA that conscionable volition not usage an event-based analytics level to marque decisions. We’re going to suffer a chunk of radical who truly volition benignant of disengage from being data-driven marketers.