The Next Frontier for Website Analytics: How to Setup GA4
VineSpring clients and other website owners have been universally relying on Google Analytics, or “UA” for the past few decades. It’s the ole standby analytics software that helps you track and report traffic and engagement on your website. Frankly, if you don’t have UA for your website, what the heck are you doing?
The time has come, UA is going away. Yes, you heard me right, in just a few months, Google is sunsetting UA and replacing it with GA4.
No need to panic, this isn’t a bad thing. The way we used the internet has changed and GA4 was designed to keep up with the modern way that people are using the internet today and there are lots of great improvements to be excited about.
What’s the Difference between UA and GA4?
Session-based vs Event-based
UA is session-based and has limited cross-device and platform reporting. For example, if Chris visits your website on his desktop and then on his phone, UA counts Chris as two users.
GA4 is event-based, not session-based. GA4 allows you to measure, unify, and de-dupe interactions across platforms. It’s more about what actions people are taking on your website. GA4 would recognize Chris on his different devices and count him as one user.
Because of the event-based model on GA4, basic interactions with the site are now automatically included as events. You can collect more events without needing to update the site code (thank goodness!)
Even better, one thing that we are really excited about is the ability to easily split out signed-in users from other users. Being able to filter out the current users will give businesses a much clearer picture of the differences seen in site behavior between new visitors and existing customers/users. In GA4 you’ll have a clear picture of what new visitors are interested in, how they interact with the site, and what leads them to purchase.
Multiple Tracking Tools and Data Controls
GDPR changed the way companies had to think about privacy. UA didn’t give users the tools to manage the new privacy rules. Now, with GA4, you can manage how your data is collected and maintained to comply with GDPR.
GA4 addresses privacy concerns and tries to stay ahead of the curve by using User IDs, Google signals, and Device IDs to track users, with or without cookies. So, even if someone has disabled cookies or cookies become a thing of the past, GA4 can still track their movements. GA4 also uses modeling and advanced predictive metrics to track users.
Rest assured, if the privacy concerns eventually stop the use of cookies, GA4 users will still be able to collect data from their website visitors.
More Advanced Predictive Metrics
Are you currently doing mathematical gymnastics to take your UA data and figure out things like churn probability and potential revenue earnings? Time to take a break—GA4 includes more advanced predictive metrics that help you easily view this data and put it to use. Predictive analytics takes the guesswork out of identifying messaging and design that isn’t converting so you can optimize your site to reduce churn and crank up the earning potential.
Bounce Rates Are a Thing of the Past
One piece of data you won’t find in GA4 is bounce rate. Bounce rates in UA are calculated specifically as a session where a user comes to your site, views a single page, and takes no other action. For years websites have strived for a low bounce rate. But it’s a tough metric to make decisions based on. It attempts to measure some form of engagement, but it’s flawed.
Now, instead of bounce rate, GA4 is calculating engagement. Think of it as the opposite of a bounce. An engagement session is when someone is actively engaged with your website or app in the foreground for at least 10 seconds, they fire a conversion event, or fire two or more screen page views. GA4 measures engagement in a few different ways:
Engagement Rate* = (engaged sessions / sessions)
Engaged Sessions Per User = (engaged sessions / users)
Engagement Time = sum (engagement time)
*Engagement rate is always equal to or greater than the inverse of your bounce rate because there is some overlap with the new definitions.
Ready? Let’s Get Setup on GA4
Now that you know the advanced capabilities of GA4, I bet you are ready to get started. The first step is setting up dual tracking in both UA and GA4.
Note that transitioning to GA4 is not like updating an existing property, it’s a wholly new and separate data schema. By starting with dual tracking, you can continue to monitor traffic on UA while you collect foundational data on GA4. When you initially set up your GA4 account, it will have no data, you’ll need to build that up over time.
This initial setup is actually quite simple. Just follow the steps below:
Make sure you are in the proper UA analytics account. You can see what account you are in by looking at the top left hand corner of the screen.
Navigate to the Admin page by clicking on the gear symbol at the bottom of your toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen.
Once on the Admin screen, you’ll see a new option in the Property column called GA4 Setup Assistant. Click on GA4 Setup Assistant and you will be take through a few prompts.
Wasn’t that easy? You’re almost done.
Depending on how your website and UA account is set up, you may need to inject code for tracking purposes. If your site uses the gtag.js, tag, you can enable data collection using your existing tags. However, if you use a website builder/CMS (e.g. WordPress or Squarespace), Google Tag Manager or your website is tagged with analytics.js, the wizard can't reuse your existing tagging and you'll need to add the tag yourself. Click here for instructions.
Getting a Lay of the Land
Once GA4 is set up you’ll notice that when you sign in you have a different list of reporting tools on the left-hand side of your screen. I won’t go into detail on every single category in this article, but I will call out a few highlights. I think it’s a good thing when I say that a lot of the reports that you are used to from UA have been simplified.
For example, if you go to Acquisition, then Traffic Acquisition, you’ll see a streamlined view of your traffic and lots of ways you can change the view and see the information that you want, but not an overwhelming amount of information that’s difficult to pull insights from.
On the home screen, you have a modular view that shares a variety of insights. You’ll see an overview of users and new users, users in the last 30 minutes, data on where your users come from, most popular campaigns, user activity trends, and much more. You also have the option of adding custom reports here or using the comparison tool to get more specific.
If you click on Analysis, then Analysis Hub, you’ll find a ton of templates that you can use to show data. You might recognize a few but there are lots of new ones as well. Segment overlap, for example, shows intersections of your segments of users so you can learn more about their behavior. Click on “Template Gallery” to see even more ways to look at your data. These templates offer an automated way to make results more visual.
Ask Google and You Shall Receive Data Insights
Google has added a search tool to help you navigate around GA4—check out the toolbar at the top of the page, or, for more guidance, click the “Insights” area on the right-hand side of the screen.
Simply type in what you are looking for and get an answer or use the Insights bar’s suggested topics. Make sure to be specific about the metric, dimension, and time frame you are looking for to get an instant and specific response. For example, you can search for “how many conversions did we get last week in Colorado” and GA4 will spit out an answer.
Getting Data Out of GA4
You’re in GA4, everything is great, but how do you get data out of GA4 or share GA4 data? Easy-peasy. At the top right-hand corner of GA4, look the “share this report” icon that looks like three data points with lines connecting them. Click on this icon. Then you’re given two options: share link or download file.
Get Ahead of the Game and Start Now
The sooner you start collecting data on GA4 and learning the new tools, the better you’ll be set up when UA sunsets later this year. Plus, we think you’ll find the new tools and views super beneficial for your business.
