Google Analytics 4 Explained: A Comprehensive Guide

Google Analytics 4 is a game-changer for businesses and marketers alike, offering a more comprehensive and accurate way to track website and app data.

It was announced in May 2020 and started rolling out to users in October 2020, replacing Universal Analytics as the primary analytics platform.

Google Analytics 4 uses a new data model that combines website and app data into a single platform, allowing for more detailed and accurate insights into user behavior.

This new data model is based on a event-driven data model, which means that every interaction on a website or app is recorded as an event, providing a more granular understanding of user behavior.

Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that helps businesses understand how users interact with their website or app. It's a significant upgrade from Universal Analytics, offering more advanced features and a more comprehensive view of user behavior.

Google Analytics 4 uses machine learning to analyze user behavior and provide insights into how users move through your website or app. This includes tracking events, such as button clicks and form submissions, as well as user properties, like age and location.

With Google Analytics 4, you can also track how users move across your website or app, including how they navigate from one page to another. This can help you identify areas where users are getting stuck or dropping off.

Google introduced Universal Analytics in 2012, which quickly became a popular upgrade from the historical Google Analytics. It also introduced Firebase, a product focused on instrumenting mobile apps.

Google eventually merged Universal Analytics and Firebase to allow for website channel tagging and app tracking, now branded as Google Analytics 4.

In 2005, Google acquired a platform called Urchin, which was used to "beautify" log files.

Google redesigned the platform in 2006 and branded it as Google Analytics.

Google Analytics was discontinued in 2012 and replaced by Universal Analytics, which allowed users to track cross-platform, device-specific tracking, and create custom dimensions and metrics.

The increasing concerns around privacy and security led Google to roll out Google Analytics 4 in October 2020, which was built with privacy in mind.

Universal Analytics will stop collecting new data as of July 1, 2023, and users will have to switch to Google Analytics 4.

Explorations in GA4 are a game-changer for data analysis. They allow you to create dashboard-esque reports that are similar to custom dashboards from Universal Analytics.

Explorations are essentially a fusion of the best features from Universal and Data Studio. This means you can create reports that are tailored to your needs and provide a more user-friendly interface.

To access Explorations, you'll need to engage in some initial effort to set up and analyze your data. This might seem daunting at first, but trust me, it's worth it. You'll be able to view specific data and make it easier to visualize using external sources like Looker Studio or BigQuery.

Here's a quick rundown of the key differences between Explorations and standard reports in GA4:

Overall, Explorations are a powerful tool for anyone looking to get the most out of their data in GA4.

Google Analytics 4 is a significant departure from Universal Analytics, with a completely different architecture and functionality. Gone are the days of easily accessible views, which many users relied on.

One of the most notable differences is the shift in perspective and setup required to use Google Analytics 4 effectively. This is especially true for advertisers, who need to understand the specifics of GA4 to leverage its capabilities.

The digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, and staying updated and adaptable is crucial. Mastering the nuances of GA4 will equip users to navigate the future of conversion tracking with confidence.

Google Analytics 4 is a significant departure from Universal Analytics, with a completely different architecture and functionality.

From a visual standpoint, Google Analytics 4 looks similar to Universal Analytics at first glance, but the labels in the sidebar and UI are different.

The term "views" is gone in Google Analytics 4, which was a key way for many people to use Universal Analytics. This change makes Google Analytics 4 more difficult to navigate.

The transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 presents new insights, challenges, and opportunities for advertisers.

AMP is not supported. Google Analytics 4 doesn't work smoothly with Accelerated Mobile Pages, a web format Google created.

Many sites use AMP, especially for search traffic. This can account for a significant percentage of traffic.

Losing visibility into AMP traffic is creating a major blind spot for publishers. It can have detrimental effects.

Google Analytics 4 replaces the built-in time on site tracking offered by Universal Analytics with the "engagement_time_msec" parameter.

This change requires advertisers to adapt to a new method of analysis, but it also offers more precise data.

The "engagement_time_msec" parameter provides a more accurate way to measure time on site, but it's not a straightforward method like the one offered by Universal Analytics.

This shift in approach can be a bit of a learning curve, but it's worth it for the more detailed insights it provides.

Here's a quick summary of the changes:

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has brought a host of new features and capabilities to the table.

One of the most exciting features of GA4 is its ability to track user interactions automatically through Enhanced Measurement Tracking, which provides flexibility and automation.

This feature automatically tracks a variety of user interactions, including a limited set of commonly tracked conversions, making it easier to get started with tracking events.

With GA4, users can also create and review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions, using tools like Google Ads integration.

GA4's machine learning capabilities have been significantly improved, allowing users to "ask questions" in the search bar to quickly find information, and providing insights and highlighted trends in the data.

In addition to these features, GA4 also includes AI-powered predictive metrics, supported by machine learning, which can help users make data-driven decisions.

Here are some of the key features of GA4:

Google Analytics has undergone significant changes with the introduction of GA4, offering a range of new features that enhance its capabilities. Google Analytics can track website activity such as session duration, pages per session, and engagement rate, as well as the source of traffic.

With Google Analytics, users can create and review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions. This includes sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file.

Google Analytics provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation, funnel visualization, and e-commerce reporting. The e-commerce reports show a site's transactions, revenue, and many other commerce-related metrics.

One notable feature of Google Analytics is its Real-Time analytics, which enables users to have insights about visitors currently on the site. This feature was launched on September 29, 2011.

Google Analytics also includes Google Website Optimizer, re-branded as Google Analytics Content Experiments, which helps in understanding the behavior of component groups of users apart from your user population.

Some of the key features of GA4 include:

Google Analytics 4 introduces engagement time as a key metric, shifting away from traditional session-based data. This change is a result of the event-based data model.

The old way of measuring user engagement focused on Users, Sessions, and Session Duration. Now, Google Analytics 4 focuses on Users, Events, and Engagement Time. This new approach provides a more nuanced understanding of user behavior.

To give you a better idea of what this means, let's look at how engagement time is calculated. In Google Analytics 4, the engagement time is measured in milliseconds using the "engagement_time_msec" parameter. This offers more precise data than the old way of tracking time on site.

Here's a brief comparison of the old and new metrics:

The engagement rate is a more nuanced metric that considers various forms of user interaction, including time spent on the site, conversion events, and number of pages viewed. This offers advertisers a more comprehensive understanding of user behavior.

By focusing on engagement time and engagement rate, you'll get a better understanding of how users interact with your website. This will help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to increase user engagement.

Mobile tracking is supported in Google Analytics 4, thanks to a new feature called Data Streams. This feature leverages Google's dedicated mobile development platform, Firebase, which they have rebranded as Google Analytics for Firebase.

Google Analytics for Firebase is a powerful tool that allows you to track user behavior on your mobile app. With Data Streams, you can now track mobile app data in Google Analytics 4.

Data Streams supports both iOS and Android tracking, making it a versatile feature for mobile app developers. This means you can use Google Analytics 4 to track user behavior on both iOS and Android devices.

Event-based tracking and setup in Google Analytics 4 is a game-changer compared to Universal Analytics. Manual setup and integration with Google Tag Manager (GTM) were required for many basic conversions in UA, but GA4 offers a more structured approach to events, categorizing them into automatically collected events, enhanced measurement events, recommended events, and custom events.

GA4's structured approach makes it easier for advertisers to set up and track certain conversions without extensive manual work. This is a significant improvement over UA, which lacked this level of organization.

Here are the main types of events in GA4:

With GA4, you can also set up events using parameters, enhanced measurement, and in-platform event creation. This makes it easier to track user interactions and conversions.

The switch from a session-based data model to an event-based one is a major architectural change between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4. Google Analytics 4 focuses on the concept of a user and then any number of associated events, whereas Universal Analytics built its data tracking model around the idea of a session.

Sessions are something users have to derive after the fact in Google Analytics 4. This change is a result of pressure from the European Union, specifically GDPR, which is speculated as a major reason for the switch.

Every metric in Google Analytics 4 is an event, while Universal Analytics is hit-based. This means that in GA4, everything from a page view to a form fill is considered an event.

You'll have to tag and implement all those events manually with the new Google Analytics 4 tagging structure to center your whole tracking model around users and events. This is a significant change from Universal Analytics, which tracked and measured the number of times a page is viewed by the user.

This change gives us more information on how people use our properties, but it also means that the two datasets (UA & GA4) don’t play well together, which is why you start from zero when switching from UA to GA4.

Event types and conversion setup have undergone significant changes with the introduction of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Manual setup and integration with Google Tag Manager (GTM) were required for Universal Analytics (UA) to track specific conversions, but this process can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

GA4, on the other hand, offers a more structured approach to events, categorizing them into automatically collected events, enhanced measurement events, recommended events, and custom events. This makes it easier for advertisers to set up and track certain conversions without extensive manual work.

UA lacked GA4's event categorization, which means advertisers had to manually set up and track many basic conversions. This process often required GTM integration, adding to the complexity.

GA4's structured approach to events allows for enhanced and automatic tracking of certain conversions – even without GTM.

Here's a comparison of UA and GA4's event types:

By understanding the differences between UA and GA4's event types and conversion setup, advertisers can take advantage of the more streamlined and automated process offered by GA4.

Google Analytics 4 has its limitations, and it's essential to understand them before diving in. One significant limitation is the absence of certain reports that were available in Universal Analytics.

GA4 also lacks historical data import, which can make it difficult to transfer data from your old analytics setup. This can be a major drawback for businesses that have a large amount of historical data they want to analyze.

Setting up custom dimensions and metrics in GA4 can be complex and time-consuming. This is a significant consideration for businesses that rely heavily on custom data.

GA4 places limits on the number of conversions you can set up in each Data Stream, capping it at 30 unique conversion events. This is a far cry from Universal Analytics, which allowed for multiple views with up to 20 goals each.

GA4 is also not fully GDPR compliant, which can make implementation in certain countries a challenge. Businesses operating in these regions will need to have a solid understanding of consent-based tracking to ensure compliance.

The interface of Google Analytics 4 is a game-changer, with more data in the home section generated by automated insights. This is a result of Google's new machine-learning capabilities.

You'll notice the navigation features are different too, with new options like "Exploration" and "Advertising". This is a departure from Universal Analytics, where all navigation options were under "Reports".

The Reports function in Google Analytics 4 is where you'll find all the data you need, including where your users came from and what actions they took on your site. Customization is also a key feature, allowing you to create custom reports and add them to your navigation. You can even change the name of collections and topics in the secondary navigation using the Library.

The interface in Google Analytics 4 is a game-changer. The new interface looks very different from Universal Analytics, with more data in the home section generated by Google's automated insights feature.

You'll notice a significant change in the navigation features. The left-hand side of the property now includes "Home, Reports, Advertising, Exploration, and Configure" options.

Reports are now a central hub for all navigation options, consolidating the previous "Home, Customization, Realtime, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions" options into one place.

The new "Exploration" and "Advertising" options are brand new to Google Analytics 4, offering users a more streamlined and intuitive experience.

One of the most exciting features of Google Analytics 4 is the ability to customize the platform to meet your needs.

You can create custom reports in GA4, just like you could in UA, and even add them directly to your navigation for easy access.

Custom reports can be placed anywhere in the Reports navigation, so you can organize them in a way that makes sense for your workflow.

The Library feature in GA4 allows you to change the name of collections and topics in the secondary navigation, giving you more control over the organization of your data.

This means you can rename collections and topics to better reflect your business or project, making it easier to find what you need.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) takes a more customized approach to data reporting compared to Universal Analytics (UA). GA4 offers fewer standard reports and requires users to engage in "explorations" to view specific data.

This means you'll need to put in a bit more effort to set up and analyze your data, but the payoff can be significant. You can use external sources like Looker Studio or BigQuery to make your data easier to visualize.

Here are the key differences between UA and GA4 reporting:

Google Analytics is the most widely used website statistics service, with a significant presence among top websites globally. In 2008, a survey by Pingdom found that 32% of the 500 biggest sites were using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics' market share has continued to grow, reaching 49.95% of the top 1,000,000 websites in 2010, according to Alexa Internet.

As of 2022, Google Analytics was used by 73.7% of the 10,000 most popular websites, as reported by BuiltWith. This staggering number highlights the service's widespread adoption.

The newer version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), is used by approximately 13.5 million websites as of August 2023.

The Google Analytics 4 advertising report provides insights into your paid media efforts with a focus on attribution modeling.

You can track key metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions, and analyze the data by dimensions like ad creative, campaign, or audience.

The GA4 advertising report allows you to monitor the cost and return on investment (ROI) of your advertising campaigns.

Conversion paths in the report show your performance across all inbound advertising campaigns, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Google Ads, and more.

Using these reports properly will help you optimize your advertising spend, refine your targeting, and improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.

You can create multiple views within each property to segment and filter out data that isn’t valuable to your business, as was the industry standard in Universal Analytics.

Behavior metrics have undergone a significant change in Google Analytics 4. Gone are the days of bounce rate, pages/session, and average session duration in almost every report.

In their place, Google Analytics 4 has introduced new "engagement" metrics. These metrics are based on "engaged sessions", which are defined as sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, or had a conversion event, or had two or more screen or pageviews.

The new engagement metrics include engaged sessions, engagement rate, engaged sessions per user, and average engagement time. This shift in focus from behavior to engagement is a significant change for users of Google Analytics 4.

You can find the new engagement metrics in your reports, replacing the old behavior metrics.

Bounce rate is no longer a metric in Google Analytics 4, instead, it's been replaced with a more nuanced metric called engagement rate.

Engagement rate in GA4 is the percentage of engaged sessions, which is a significant improvement over bounce rate. Engaged sessions are defined as sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, or had a conversion event, or had two or more screen or pageviews.

Engagement rate offers a more comprehensive understanding of user behavior, considering various forms of user interaction, including time spent on the site, conversion events, and number of pages viewed.

To calculate engagement rate, you can use the following metrics:

These metrics provide a more detailed view of user interaction and can help you identify areas for improvement on your website.

In GA4, the bounce rate definition has changed to the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. This highlights the shift in focus from session duration to user engagement.

Overall, engagement rate is a more valuable metric than bounce rate, offering insights into user behavior and helping you create a more engaging experience for your audience.