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Are you ready to make your transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?Or are you confused about how and where to prep for the transition and how much to expect? Just think of how Google Analytics is evolving, what GA4 is, how to adapt, and how to ensure with your company or customers for the development or migration of their GA4 data.


Why the need for GA4?

With the evolution of the digital landscape, the technique in which individuals are using web analytics and the data that organizations really have to track has changed significantly. This means Google Universal Analytics cannot continue to support it wholly.

Consumers nowadays use various gadgets to browse the internet on a daily basis. They're using their smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, and work PCs to log in and use numerous applications, all of which are entirely distinct methods to connect to the internet.

Further, the developing privacy and data collections regulations also come into play and define what data can be collected and how data must be processed. Consumers are opting to cease being monitored by blocking data capture pixels and programs, either by directing applications not to track them directly or by utilizing a third-party blocker.

Because of all these developments, Universal Analytics has gotten to the point where it can no longer live up to all that companies want from it. That is why Google announced its GA4 version


When will GA4 become available?

GA4 is up and operating, available for companies to migrate to.

Unfortunately, unlike the first Universal Analytics upgrade, this is not a straightforward transfer. It is not as simple as simply altering the code and going about your business as normal. There are significant improvements in functionality as well as how you obtain reports and examine the data that GA4 collects. Because of this, many firms have been slow to embrace GA4 benefits.

However, it is about to alter, as Google has stated that Universal Analytics will be phased out on July 1, 2023. Marketers and company directors with existing accounts will still be able to browse their Universal Analytics accounts and examine past data for 6 more months. However, any additional data will be gathered completely on GA4. Universal Analytics will be effectively shut down for the rest of 2023, and the records it was holding will be lost.

You always have time to establish your GA4 profile, but you would not want to leave at the very last minute. As previously said, migration entails more than merely changing a few pieces of code. To make GA4 work for your organizations, marketers and corporate executives will have to set up a lot.


How does GA4 works?

Consider how surveys assist you in making the right decisions. If you carry out polls in your community on a constant schedule, you recognize that you will never receive responses from everyone in your community. There will be consumers who do not return the survey for several reasons. Nevertheless, you will obtain sufficient data to forecast the possibility of an event and make wise choices regarding your company's future.

Similarly, Google Analytics uses modeling to assist you in making better business decisions depending on the statistics it gathers.GA4 is mostly about statistical trends. It is capable of measuring adequate data to have a representative sample of your audience large enough to forecast the specific behaviors you're attempting to analyze with a high chance of succeeding

The significant element of GA4 is improved measuring. Although Universal Analytics property mostly measures page views or visits, GA4 recognizes that there seems to be much more going on your site than webpages being fetched in a specific sequence. People are browsing, tapping on icons and links, viewing movies, and interacting with pop-ups.


Top 4 things you need to know about Google Analytics 4 (GA) Migration

The great news is there is currently nothing Universal Analytics performs that GA4 will not be able to accomplish. The challenge will be with the transfer, which will entail learning how to use the new platform. This will take time, so don't rely on the last moment to make the jump.

1. Making the Switch from Universal Analytics to GA4

The actions you must undertake to migrate to this software platform will be determined by how you configured Universal Analytics.

If you established your Universal Analytics five to ten years ago and were using the old code (the analytics.js code), you need to set up GA4 as a different platform.Do not even bother about combining the two; always use the updated gtag.js script that GA4 provides. You'll make some headway once you get a little deeper. When, on the other hand, you deployed Universal Analytics using some of the most newly revised tags, you may link the two networks and request that the Universal Analytics configuration be sent off to GA4.

Top Tip: If you haven't already started utilizing Google Tag Manager, this is a fantastic moment to do so. It's all a lot easier using Google Tag Manager. This will assist you in appropriately configuring everything in GA4 so that you may be up - and - running considerably quicker.


2. Choosing Which Behaviors to Monitor and Track in GA4

GA4 has a wholly new information storage format or schema than Universal Analytics.

The activities and events in Universal Analytics are organized in a top-down structure. In Universal Analytics, an incident is a focal area, and there are event categories, event actions, event labels, etc. In plenty of other terms, there are several degrees of data in Universal Analytics. Which doesn't exist in GA4.
In GA4, there is only one event information, which is the primary activity name. Additional information such as where visitors were heading, the previous page they browsed, what goods they acquired, the purchase event, and so on might be included. All of this data should be gathered throughout the GA4 planning process so that you can monitor and assess some of the distinct behaviors that your customers will exhibit.

So, in preparing for the GA4 shift, create a list of all the behaviors that you are presently analyzing or wish you were tracking. Then, within GA4, hang them right a few at a time, beginning with page hits because they are the quickest to put in place.

3. Getting Used to a New Reporting Method

 

Although GA4 is simple to use, convenient to set up, and easily accessible for the reports you want, the fact is that is not how it will seem when you first onboard. In the initial days, it will seem clumsy and difficult to use. Hopefully, this will not always be the case forever, since major modifications to the UI are being implemented. So, perhaps, it won't be much longer until it becomes more obvious. In an ideal scenario, you'd establish and begin utilizing Tag Manager to gather the data, GA4 to save all of the data you gather, and Google Data Studio to produce your insights.


4. Execution and Progress: The Final Months of Migration

As you prepare to perform and complete your migration, keep the following points in mind.

Set filters, objectives (UA)/conversion events (GA4), content sets, network groups, E-commerce, and Firebase events depending on your modeling and planning work.
Indeed, it's extra effort, so you'll be glad to have the familiarity of a Universal Analytics property while understanding the GA4 database schema, GA4 properties and monitoring interface.


GA4 is an excellent platform for data storage and doing tasks such as assessing the attitude around activities on your sites. However, it was never intended to be used to determine Brand awareness or ROI. It's designed to measure behaviors on your website, and it does an excellent job at it. Google Data Studio can then connect to the data and generate those high-quality reports. The most recent Google Analytics also handles the most pressing issue in online marketing and business intelligence: changes in privacy regulations, browser upgrades, and cookies. Companies are able to analyze audiences and ideas even when no identities are available. Google Analytics 4 Attributes offer a built-in link to Google BigQuery, expanding your Martech stack's cloud data mining possibilities. Planning ahead with Google Analytics 4 domain is simple, but strategic coaching is beneficial. That’s exactly what we offer and help with! .