Google Analytics 4 Is Here: Four Things You Need To Know

Bernard May is the CEO of National Position , 5x Inc. 500 company, award-winning marketing agency and Google Premier Partner.

Let me tell you about a time my team ran advanced marketing campaigns without using data, key performance indicators (KPIs), or success metrics.

I would love to, but that story doesn't exist.

In fact, this story will never happen. As marketers, we thrive on data; it guides our strategy, tells us where to go and shows us where we are succeeding and where we are failing. And Google Analytics data has served as the foundation for measuring success since it became available to the world nearly 20 years ago. ( Disclosure: My business is a Google Premier Partner.)

Digital marketing geeks like me can (and do) tell more tangible stories with Google Analytics data, not to mention higher levels of trust and better relationships with our customers.

But what happens when the game changes?

With the closure of Google's Universal Analytics on July 1 this year and the end of the rollout of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), brands and marketers will need to adjust the way they view data, including the KPIs we we all love to rock. . .

Before officially saying goodbye to Universal Analytics and welcoming GA4, I'm going to show you four updates you need to know about.

1. Say goodbye to bounce rates.

The proven "bounce rate" follows the path of the dinosaurs. We relied on this metric to tell us how many people would come to our site and then leave without taking any action or clicking to another page. A high rate of return was considered bad and a low (or low) rate of return was considered good.

But what conversion rates would never give us was context. Why are people bouncing off your website? It seemed like the Magic 8 Ball could provide more information than this standard.

Instead of bounce rates, Google Analytics introduced 4 engagement rates, which are almost the opposite of bounce rates. Google now tells us what percentage of visitors are "engaged" with your content, for how long, and where. This is an exciting change as website owners can now better understand what drives engagement for new and returning users.

2. Learn to love events.

Google is leaning heavily on a new section called Google Analytics 4 events. So what is the event? Do with it what you want (or need).

Traditionally, we track more specific website activity with tags through Google Tag Manager. Now, events don't replace the tag manager per se, but many discoveries, tracks, and workloads (video views, links to a promotion, or even scroll depth) can now happen.

You can find tons of events tailored to specific geographies, genres, devices, and more. depending on what you want to create. This is a huge change that will positively affect website owners, and the best part is that these events are automated, which can save a lot of time trying to figure out the correlation and cause of their traffic. website.

3. Accept that the "donut" is broken.

The alarm bells have been ringing for almost two years, and the time has come. The days of third-party data tracking are over. Data from the former will be the only way forward with Google Analytics 4.

Now, although third-party data cookies are gone, a first-party cookie is used in GA4. According to Google itself, "Google Analytics stores the customer ID in a first-party cookie called _ga to distinguish unique users of your website and their sessions."

Basically, the only data that will go into your analytics is direct (proprietary) first-hand data about your website visitors. Any additional third-party data outside of Google's walls will be deleted on arrival. That said, you'll need to tweak your settings to make sure you're tracking as efficiently as possible.

4. (almost) everything is customizable.

Google is really committed to allowing every user to use GA4 the way it works best, which means views, reports, events (everything) can be customized.

For one thing, it's great for those who want to see specific data points. On the other hand, it can be a bit of a headache for those of us who are used to a bunch of data points (inventory) that haven't changed in a long time.

Now, from a reporting perspective, we have a series of "maps" from user acquisition channels to product acquisition, which is exciting and a bit overwhelming. Once you've dived in and decided what you want to see, you can customize the layout and information displayed on these charts.

When Google changes, we all adapt .

This is just a small preview of the changes you'll see in Google Analytics 4. In many ways, it's like stepping into a new car, full of weird controls and settings. It will just take some getting used to.

There are new buttons, turn signals and automatic sensors that may surprise us, but in a few months these bells and whistles will be our new norm.

At my agency, not only do we upgrade all of our clients to GA4, but we also provide our clients with previews to make them feel comfortable.

Growing pains aside, GA4 is essential progression. And after years of cookie-breaking news and user privacy issues, this update may be long overdue.

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