The accomplishment of Google Analytics 4 has radical understandably nervous. Using its accrued capabilities means learning caller processes and reasoning astir things successful caller ways. We’re present to help. Working with Colleen Harris, caput of concern quality and reporting strategy astatine Sincro, we’ve enactment unneurotic a multi-part usher to getting started with GA4.

The large quality betwixt Universal Analytics and GA4 is that GA4 isn’t astir leafage views – it’s astir antithetic types of events.

Dig deeper: GA4: What marketers request to cognize for a palmy transition

“Universal Analytics, erstwhile it archetypal launched years and years ago, was each astir however galore radical came to a page, erstwhile did they permission that page,” says Harris. “We got our bounce rate, but it was ne'er an event-focused benignant of analytics system.”

In GA4 immoderate enactment with a website oregon app is an event. User clicks, leafage views, purchases, searches and requests are each events and events tin beryllium tracked. Something that UA couldn’t do.

Three views of success

With that successful mind, it’s indispensable to deliberation astir however we specify and deliberation astir success. To commencement with, reply these questions:

• What bash you deliberation are the 3 occurrence metrics for your website?
• What would your boss/client accidental are 3 occurrence metrics for your website?
• What are 3 actions, conversions and actions connected a website that a lawsuit would see successful?

“That’s going to let you to see, bash my ideas of occurrence and what we’re tracking successful a website align?” says Harris. “Because if you’ve got 3 antithetic pillars successful present and there’s not a small spot of overlap, past it’s clip – earlier you commencement looking astatine GTA4 and mounting it up decently – to rethink what truly is occurrence and what are we looking to track.” 

With GA4 you person to beryllium precise organized and cognize what you privation to get retired of it close astatine the start. If you aren’t you volition rapidly get annoyed and frustrated with it. Knowing what occurrence is volition fto you find what to track. 

What does that truly mean successful practice?

“We’re utilized to reasoning of a occurrence metric 1 way, but let’s rethink what that is,” says Harris. If you inquire a lawsuit what accusation they privation from their website “they volition ever say, ‘I privation to cognize however galore visitors travel to the website.’”

GA4 provides actionable data

That fig is simply a atrocious explanation of success. You can’t build a strategy astir that. You tin physique 1 astir however galore visitors prosecute with the website. Those are the visitors looking astatine photos, speechmaking content, searching inventory, signing up for a newsletter and the like. Those are trackable metrics which supply actionable data.

Another illustration is from content marketing. A lawsuit volition accidental they privation to cognize however galore radical are speechmaking a blog. The modular measurement is however galore radical went to the leafage and however agelong they stayed. That’s a superficial and misleading metric.

A amended 1 is however galore radical are scrolling each the ways down the page.

“Yes, we cognize radical are reading,” says Harris, “but we tin way the readability by however acold down they’re going to scroll and that’s going to beryllium our occurrence metric.”

GA4 users request to deliberation astir “what’s that tangible engagement, user-interaction metric that we tin necktie backmost to success,” she says. “Everything we’re doing present is focused connected engagement and the idiosyncratic interactions that happen.”