We’re wrapping up our bid connected getting started with Google Analytics 4, with a Q&A with Russ Ketchum, manager of Google Analytics. Here helium talks astir migrating from Universal Analytics and shares immoderate GA4 powerfulness idiosyncratic moves.
MarTech: What is the astir important happening to cognize astir migrating from UA to GA4?
Russ Ketchum: GA4 is genuinely antithetic from Universal Analytics astatine its halfway — and that’s intentional. Before Google Analytics, leafage views and sessions were unfamiliar concepts. And, adjacent so, they worked large for website analytics. But the satellite has evolved. “The internet” isn’t a synonym for a desktop website. The net is each astir america and that’s the satellite that we’ve built GA4 to measure. Streams, events, partial data, behavioral modeling, and truthful connected are the “page views and sessions” of today’s connected world.
We cognize that this is simply a large leap for galore of our customers. With migration tools, acquisition content, videos, and more, we are moving to beryllium arsenic adjuvant arsenic imaginable for our customers during this transition.
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MT: Power idiosyncratic moves for GA4?
RK: It’s a large question. I’ll item two; 1 that helps customers migrate a small easier and different which highlights a large betterment we made to GA4 based connected lawsuit feedback astir Universal Analytics.
When a lawsuit is migrating to GA4, 1 of the archetypal things they request to see is however to get the information they attraction astir the astir into the system. In Universal Analytics, the quality to measurement events is somewhat constricted with conscionable a Category, Action, and Label to bespeak a peculiar interaction. In GA4, customers tin make arsenic galore events arsenic they privation and usage parameters to beryllium precise descriptive.
We get a batch of questions astir what’s the easiest mode to spell from the aged satellite to the new. In our experience, “easiest” usually means “without penning caller codification for your site.” In GA4, there’s an casual mode to bash this acknowledgment to Google tag. If you look nether your tag settings for a fixed stream, you’ll find an enactment “Collect Universal Analytics events” successful GA4. This volition make a azygous GA4 lawsuit benignant that records Category/Action/Label arsenic parameters. You tin corroborate this is moving by looking astatine the Events conception nether Configure.
Now, the Pro determination is to click the “Create Event” button. This lets you constitute rules to break-out the bequest lawsuit into arsenic galore autochthonal GA4 events arsenic you want. For example, you tin marque “Category” the GA4 lawsuit sanction and “Action” and “Label” immoderate of the parameters. Now businesses tin analyse what their users are doing with each the powerfulness of GA4.
Now that you person the information they attraction astir successful GA4, here’s different pro extremity to assistance absorption connected what matters to them the most: customize reports.
Report customization is thing wholly caller and antithetic successful GA4 and a diagnostic that has agelong been requested successful Universal Analytics. All of the default reports tin beryllium customized and customers tin adjacent regenerate the full modular acceptable of reports with thing wholly customized to conscionable the circumstantial needs of their business.
MT: What topics are you seeing the astir questions about?
RK: Honestly, it’s a beauteous wide scope astatine this point. As you mightiness expect, we person customers who are successful the setup process truthful they’re asking tons of questions astir the champion mode to operation their properties, their events, etc.. This is wherefore we’ve made specified a large concern successful our Setup Assistant to marque it arsenic casual arsenic imaginable to determination from UA to Google Analytics 4.
We besides person customers who were experts successful Universal Analytics and are present learning however to use that expertise to GA4. We’ve already launched a batch of acquisition contented aimed precisely towards this audience, but successful 2023, we’re excited to adhd adjacent more.
MT: Will GA4 bash thing to comply with EU privateness laws?
RK: One of the reasons that Google Analytics is truthful unsocial is due to the fact that our customers ain their information — not Google. Because of this, we person an work to supply our customers with the controls and tools they request to comply with regulations wherever they operate, not conscionable successful the EU. Over the people of the past fewer months, we’ve introduced much granular privateness controls and we’ll proceed to germinate arsenic necessary.
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While these concerns are thing we’re actively addressing successful GA4, we don’t person the aforesaid flexibility with Universal Analytics. That makes it much important than ever that customers determination to GA4 arsenic rapidly arsenic possible.
MT: Will the sunset day for Universal Analytics get changed from July of adjacent year?
RK: We admit the information that the migration to GA4 is simply a heavylift for galore of our customers. That’s wherefore we precocious made 2 announcements to marque things a small easier. First, we announced an update to our Setup Assistant which volition efficaciously “Jumpstart” our customers connected the way to GA4 by creating a GA4 spot and carrying implicit the settings from their Universal Analytics properties automatically.
Additionally, owed to the standard and complexity of galore of our Analytics 360 accounts, we announced that we volition beryllium extending their sunset day to July 1, 2024. Our extremity with some updates is to assistance customers beryllium champion positioned for the migration to GA4, with arsenic overmuch humanities information and customization possible.
MT: What areas tin we expect caller features and/or updates in?
RK: Customers tin expect adjacent much retired of the customization features I mentioned earlier, particularly for SMB customers. We person immoderate beauteous large plans for the Advertiser Workspace, truthful what you spot determination present truly lone scratches the surface.
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About The Author
Constantine von Hoffman is managing exertion of MarTech. A seasoned journalist, Con has covered business, finance, selling and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been metropolis exertion of the Boston Herald, quality shaper astatine NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and galore different publications. He has besides been a nonrecreational stand-up comedian, fixed talks astatine anime and gaming conventions connected everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the past of dice and boardgames, and is writer of the magical realist caller John Henry the Revelator. He lives successful Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either excessively galore oregon excessively fewer dogs.
