Introduction
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest Analytics version, introduced by Google about 2 months ago. The "next generation of Google Analytics" – as Google prefers to call it – is for all Analytics users: those with only a website, only an app, and those with both!
The name of Google Analytics 4, is nothing else but the version number. First, we had Urchin, which is known as the first version of Google Analytics, then we had Classic Analytics, as version 2, now we are running Universal Analytics, or version 3 and finally, the hot and fresh Google Analytics 4.
So, let’s see the top 5 things you need to know about this new version…
1. New Data Model
Historically, Google Analytics has used a hit-based data model. This means that each time a user performed a specific action within the website (for example loaded a page), Analytics recorded that activity. There have been different types of hits, such as page, event, ecommerce, or social.
GA4 is moving away from that hit-based data model and moving towards the event-driven data model. Basically, the new version of Analytics is adapting the Firebase model, where everything you track is an event. A page view is an event, a purchase is an event, an event is an event and so on.
2. New UI
The first thing you will notice when you visit the new Analytics property is the fully renewed UI. The organization around the reporting sections is completely different and they are meant to describe the user life-cycle: Acquisition > Engagement > Monetization > Retention
The actual reporting UI is moved away from the classic, graph-and-table view and now, we have a new concept: the reporting cards. Each card provides a high-level view of your data and you are able to drill down to details, by clicking the available link in the bottom-right corner of each card.
3. New Backend
In Universal Analytics, when we talked about basic analytics tracking, we actually meant the pageviews’ tracking. And we all know that pageviews by themselves, are not that helpful. So, if we wanted to collect any additional user behavior data, we had to proceed with custom implementation, using Google Tag Manager or custom JavaScript.
Now, when you create a new GA4 property, you will have enabled, by default, the Automatic Measurement. This new feature of Analytics will try to collect basic events such as scrolls, clicks, downloads, even video engagement, without the need of additional implementation. All that is available, by just installing the basic Analytics tag to your website.
4. User Identity
Maybe, one of the most important improvements of GA4 tracking is about the user identity. Universal Analytics measured users by default using the Client ID. Until the release of the new Analytics version, if you wanted to track users across different devices or browsers, you had to implement your own User IDs, and monitor their behavior to a separate view from your anonymous audience. Of course, this was not ideal because you were forced to look at two different places in order to extract your audience insights.
So, GA4 re-imagined how the default user identity should work. More specifically, if you are capturing Client IDs and User IDs, GA4 will use both in order to specify the identity of your customer. First, it will use your User ID and if it’s not available, it will return back to your Client ID.
In addition, if you enable Google Signals in your Data Collection, GA4 will add this to the game, as well. So, if a user visits your site, GA4 will use User ID to recognize him, then it will search using Google Signals and if anything of this will work, it will capture the Client ID.
Fun, isn’t it? 🤓
5. DebugView
Google has brought over another useful component into the Analytics platform, called DebugView. Until now, DebugView was only available in Firebase.
With DebugView, you can easily watch the chronological order of each event that happened, test whether your tracking is working as expected, and if it’s not, find exactly what went wrong. You can use DebugView by simply using the Chrome extension (GA Debugger), or entering the preview mode of Google Tag Manager.
Conclusion
Google Analytics 4 has a new data model, a new UI, a new backend and a lot of new features. In short, Google promises a wholly new experience for the Analytics user. It is certain that we are expecting a lot of releases in the future, but the already available features are more than enough to explore the new capabilities.
One last advice: Do not upgrade your existing Universal Analytics property just yet. Create a GA4 property from scratch, collect data and play around without compromising your actual data.
My name is Alexandra Poulopoulou and I work as a Data & Analytics Lead at Reprise Digital. During my professional years, I have been involved in several analytics projects in order to drive successful business decisions.
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