On July 1, 2023, Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) platform will no longer collect data from your website, effectively leaving you blind to your site’s performance and audience makeup. From that date, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will become the default analytics platform on Google – no worries, right? Not quite.
In fact, there are several reasons why you need to be making the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4 now instead of waiting for July. But before we dive into those, let’s explore what GA4 means for your business.
In fact, there are several reasons why you need to be making the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4 now instead of waiting for July. But before we dive into those, let’s explore what GA4 means for your business.
A Different Level of Insight
As residents of an ever-updating world, we should all know by now that a new version of anything (whether a phone, laptop or piece of software) means new features, and the same is true of GA4.
GA4 relies on an entirely new framework to measure user engagement. This structure incorporates event-based data instead of session-based data to provide a greater level of insight into how users are interacting with your website. The graphic below shows how session-based analysis can obscure the true actions that a user goes through – something that GA4 will provide in detail, ultimately giving you greater insight into user behaviour.
There’s No Going Back
As we mentioned earlier, a side-effect of switching to event-based analysis is that GA4 will not be backwardly compatible with Universal Analytics. Data is everything when it comes to analytics, and what gets measured gets improved: without your UA data, GA4 will essentially be learning about your website and user cohorts from scratch.
In order to avoid this, you need to give GA4 time to get acquainted with your site and its traffic, which means making the switch now. By switching to GA4 now, you will be giving it (almost) 6 months of data to learn from by the time Universal Analytics sails into the sunset, leading to better insight for your business.
In order to avoid this, you need to give GA4 time to get acquainted with your site and its traffic, which means making the switch now. By switching to GA4 now, you will be giving it (almost) 6 months of data to learn from by the time Universal Analytics sails into the sunset, leading to better insight for your business.
So, What Else Is New?
In addition to its new framework, there are several other reasons that you should switch to GA4 today instead of waiting until July.
Improved Reporting – Compared with UA, GA4 offers much-improved reporting with a greater degree of customization, so you can find the information you need without wading through a bunch of stuff you don’t want.
Better Machine Learning – Machine learning has hit the headlines in a massive way over the past 2 years, and GA4 looks to incorporate it more than ever before. Using Google’s machine learning algorithms, GA4 will fill in gaps in your data to help build more complete customer profiles and personas that will help you understand your audience, even as their data becomes less available.
Unlimited Data Collection – With Universal Analytics, data collection was limited to 10m site visits per month, with anything above this number not able to be analysed. While 10m site visits are more than enough for SMEs, large businesses were seriously limited in their ability to analyse their audience and make the strategic decisions they needed to in order to continue finding success online.
With GA4, unlimited data collection is available to all users, providing endless insight into your audience that will allow you to make the right decisions for your business.
Improved Reporting – Compared with UA, GA4 offers much-improved reporting with a greater degree of customization, so you can find the information you need without wading through a bunch of stuff you don’t want.
Better Machine Learning – Machine learning has hit the headlines in a massive way over the past 2 years, and GA4 looks to incorporate it more than ever before. Using Google’s machine learning algorithms, GA4 will fill in gaps in your data to help build more complete customer profiles and personas that will help you understand your audience, even as their data becomes less available.
Unlimited Data Collection – With Universal Analytics, data collection was limited to 10m site visits per month, with anything above this number not able to be analysed. While 10m site visits are more than enough for SMEs, large businesses were seriously limited in their ability to analyse their audience and make the strategic decisions they needed to in order to continue finding success online.
With GA4, unlimited data collection is available to all users, providing endless insight into your audience that will allow you to make the right decisions for your business.
Stop Waiting & Keep Growing – Make The Switch to GA4 Today
These are just some of the benefits GA4 offers over Universal Analytics, but there are many more reasons to stop waiting and make the switch now. Insight is everything in digital marketing, and by lagging in your adoption of new tools and technologies, you are only hurting yourself in the long run.
At Retain Media, we take care of the technology so you can focus on building and growing your business. If you’ve been feeling like your digital marketing could use an upgrade, or want to learn more about GA4 and how it can help your business, get in touch with one of our team today to find out what we can do for you.
At Retain Media, we take care of the technology so you can focus on building and growing your business. If you’ve been feeling like your digital marketing could use an upgrade, or want to learn more about GA4 and how it can help your business, get in touch with one of our team today to find out what we can do for you.
