You may have only just gotten used to the changes to 3rd party cookies last year, but as a business owner in our digital world, you already know you don’t get much time to relax before another big transformation sweeps through.
This time, Google has announced it’s moving on from Universal Analytics to let Google Analytics 4 become standard in our website analyses. That means as of July 1st 2023, all standard Universal Analytics properties (websites, apps, blogs, etc.) will stop processing new hits. And by October 1st 2023, all 360 Universal Analytics properties will stop – and that’ll be the end of Universal Analytics (UA).
Does that mean it’s time to panic? Absolutely not! Because Google has something else up its sleeve – Google Analytics 4 – and the transition can be seamless, as long as you’re ready for it.
Universal Analytics, the standard of Google Analytics we all know and tolerate (“know and love” felt like a stretch) is being deprecated in 2023. That’s mostly because many marketers, and Google itself, have picked up on its poor performance in delivering cross-platform insights.
Russell Ketchum, product manager at Google, explained their primary reason for the switch as:
In other words, Universal Analytics relies on cookies and stores IP addresses (which is no longer ideal for privacy regulations). It also doesn’t operate across multiple platforms, so businesses are missing out on a comprehensive analysis of their marketing across the board.
The sunsetting of Universal Analytics is designed to benefit business owners and marketers as a whole.
Effectively, Google is making the change to keep up-to-date with how people interact online. It’s bringing improved user privacy and a better way to collect and measure insights across multiple websites and apps – because marketing doesn’t work in a silo. With paths to conversion more complex and more multi-screen than ever, the importance of connecting platforms to build a full picture of the customer journey is major.
So yes – the move to GA4 gets the thumbs-up from us.
Unsure if your Google Analytics property is affected by the change? If you created it before October 14th 2020, you’re probably using Universal Analytics and will notice a change. If you created your property after this date, you’re probably already using GA4 and you don’t need to do anything.
If you’re still unsure, see how to check your property type.
Here’s what Google had to say about its sunsetting of UA in favour of Google Analytics 4:
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits GA4 can offer.
Cross-platform reporting is the biggie here. Google is aiming to simplify the typically complex process of tracking both web and mobile behaviour, and integrating mobile app analytics to move away from fragmented reporting which just causes more headaches.
GA4 will provide a complete view of the customer lifecycle, so marketers can analyse data that isn’t broken up by platform or independent sessions.
Universal Analytics is only able to attribute sales to the last click, disregarding the multiple touchpoints and platforms that may have contributed to each sale.
Google Analytics 4 can assign attribution to provide an accurate overview of different marketing activities and the part they play in a conversion.
Automation in UA is limited. In GA4, however, machine learning is amped up to improve and simplify insight discovery. This technology will change the game, generating predictive insights about your users for a deeper understanding of behaviour and conversions.
The latest version will also be able to create new audiences to help you organise your strategy, and automatically showcase critical insights.
Google Analytics 4 is built to meet your data privacy obligations. It collects the data it needs without storing IP addresses or using cookies.
Running an enterprise? You can customise the software to meet your data needs, through the new Analytics 360 services.
First-time users often find implementing Google Analytics a challenge. GA4 is designed to take the burden away, with a setup assistant that walks new users through every step of the process.
The end of UA is fast approaching, so any marketers that want year-on-year data in Google Analytics 4 will have to make the transfer soon. Google is taking steps to make the switch-over as seamless as possible, storing data in UA for at least six months after the tool is deprecated.
After this date, we’re not sure whether the historical data of advertisers that use the platform will be available.
And while the roll-out of GA4 is a step in the right direction to make marketers’ lives easier, it’s not backwards compatible and so you will need to roll out the new implementation manually.
Luckily, you can use the Google Analytics 4 Property Setup Assistant to get moving.
The Assistant will automatically create your GA4 property, using basic settings from your UA site. You can manually configure settings as you go along (such as conversions and audiences) to start benefitting from the deep analysis on offer.
We recommend setting some time aside to get used to the updated software, to make the most of a more complete view of your data. Getting the hang of GA4 might take a bit of time, as you’ll have to navigate new metrics and different reports.
We’re performance marketers and data nerds at heart. We work with businesses to create a full-scale strategy to help you digitally grow, through smart tools and an unbeaten knowledge of the landscape.
Ask us to analyse your marketing data to make some recommendations that would see your business take off in 2022 and beyond.
