GA4 — You’ve probably heard that Google Analytics will be going away soon and GA4 will be replacing it. Google Analytics has been a standard in our industry for as long as we have been around – this shift will be a big deal. Here’s a brief Q&A with Michael, VP of Technical Services, with everything you need to know so you can be the expert at your next dealer meeting.
Why is Google making the migration?
Google has decided to switch to GA4 as a way to adapt to new privacy and online behavior concerns that have become more important over the years. GA4 has a lot more data collection options and restraints to ensure that users' privacy rights are not being violated. You now have to manually choose what data you collect and for how long it is available, 14 months being the longest and 2 months being the shortest (and the default). The other major reason for the switch, is that GA4 has a focus on cross platform data to better support apps. There is an emphasis on data coming not only from your website, but also your iOS and Android apps, and how all that data fits together.
What are the biggest differences between GA and GA4?
The current Google Analytics, which could be referred to as GA3, or Universal Analytics as it's technically known, has been in place since 2012 and has remained largely unchanged in that time. The shift to GA4 marks the largest change to Google Analytics in over a decade as it moves away from a session-based focus to an event-based focus. Many metrics remain the same or have new equivalents, while new metrics focused on user engagement have been introduced. The backend has also been modified significantly in structure and function. As mentioned, data is collected in a new way and has a time limit on how long it can be retained to protect user privacy, and data can now be gathered across websites and apps. There is also a stronger emphasis on customizations like creating your own: insights, reports, events, conversions, and new flow reports called explorations.
When is GA’s official last day?
On July 1st, 2023 Universal Analytics will no longer receive data, and all accounts will need to be switched over to GA4.
Will we have access to historical data?
We will still be able to access historic data from UA for the foreseeable future. Google has not yet announced how long they intend to keep this data available, so there is no known cut off date.
Is my store ready for the migration?
At IMOS we are fully prepared for the migration. I have taken all the available courses and received my GA4 certification to make sure that I'm knowledgeable on all the new features and changes coming our way. All our clients already have GA4 accounts up and running so we can seamlessly make the switch well ahead of the July 1st cut-off date. The goal is to shift the reporting from UA to GA4 sometime in April or May.
What is the coolest new feature available to us through GA4?
My favorite new feature is an improved search functionality that can quickly answer questions like “How many mobile users did I get from Sacramento in the month of November?” A query like this will not only produce results like links to relevant reports, but also direct answers to the question. The other features that I think will be really helpful are insights that alert you when they detect anomalies in the data (great for catching problems early), and the exploration funnel reports that have the possibility to be very useful when charting a user’s path on the website.
What is the ASC and who’s a part of it?
The GA4 Council (or ASC, Automotive Standard Council) was founded by Brian Pasch in 2022 with the goal of collaboratively develop a universal standard for analytics, the ASC Events. IMOS is proud to be a founding member and active contributor on the GA4 Council. We are making and agreeing on a set of standardized events that measure essential data from any website and onsite widget, making data more uniform and easier to compare. These events are supplied by the website providers and vendors, which should greatly cut down on the amount of custom events needed for quality reporting, and (fingers crossed) make the events more stable. ASC events include things like clicks, chats, calls, and form submissions. It is still early days for these events, some web providers are not sending them yet, and most vendors are still preparing. Hopefully it will all be fully functional within the next month or two.
Will the reports you currently receive look the same?
In short, yes and no. Much of the data that you are used to seeing will be available in the new Analytics but it will be displayed differently. There are also some really cool new metrics we will be including. We are taking the opportunity to overhaul our reporting with the objective of making it more stable and more actionable.
If you have any additional questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to Michael Balistreri, our VP of Technical Services. Michael@imosconsulting.com