Don’t be Scared of GA4!

Unless you have been traveling for the last few months…in space…you have almost certainly heard the 3-character acronym GA4 come up somewhere. So what is GA4, how do you need to handle it and when do you need to do?

Let’s have a brief history lesson.

Back in 2005, Google introduced Classic Analytics, which was the second version of Analytics. It lasted for 7 years, and then Google introduced Universal Analytics, affectionately known as UA. We have spent a decade buried in UA, looking for new and exciting ways to break data down from various platforms to our websites. It has been a wild ride…and it is ending.

GA4 is the upcoming new world of Analytics from Google.

On July 1, 2023, the transition begins. UA will stop tracking data, leaving GA4 to take over.
That covers the what and the when. The how is a bit more complicated.

What’s the difference?

The concern up to this point has been the number of changes from UA to GA4. For example, do you like your Pageview data? Get used to dealing with Events, because ALL hits will now be measured as Events. Some events will (at least currently) have to get connected through GTM to get the proper data. Many items are still missing, although Google did just recently add Bounce Rate and UTM measurement into GA4. Another piece of good news – Google Search Console Insights functionality has also just been added to GA4. Tracking will be very different, for the foreseeable future at minimum. The Good News? Two things:

1.

First, GA4 will provide a new level of flexibility of tracking for businesses with multiple things to track (like a website and an app).

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Second – and even better – you don’t need to worry about all of this! All you need to do is call the experts at TurnKey Marketing and we will make sure your GA4 is set up now, so you will have historical data next year when the transition takes place.