As of July 2023, the new Google Analytics 4 properties will replace Universal Analytics. The data won’t be able to be transferred, so it will be necessary to generate a new historical record of your website in advance.

Used by millions of people around the world, Google Analytics is the most popular website and mobile application analysis and monitoring tool on the planet. Originally intended as a complement to other tools, it is integrated with other Google services such as Ads and Search Console.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

This new data model offers a renewed omnichannel perspective, presenting a total view of the customer journey across different websites and apps. Based on events and conversions, GA4 puts an end to several issues, some older, such as sampling, and others more current, such as the disappearance of Third Party Cookies.

This new version of Analytics was designed for the future of measurement:

• It collects data from websites and apps to better understand the customer journey.
• Uses events rather than session-based data.
• Includes privacy controls, such as cookie-free measurement, and behavioral and conversion modeling.
• Predictive features provide guidance without complex models.
• Direct integrations into media platforms help generate actions.

What’s New?

Some of the advantages of GA4 include:

1- Changes in the attribution model

As any good marketing specialist knows, attribution is the process of assigning a conversion value to the various ads, clicks and factors that influence a user’s journey to complete a conversion. An attribution model can be a rule, a set of rules, or a data-driven algorithm that determines how the value of a conversion is attributed to the various touch points along the conversion path.

Three types of models will be available in the Google Analytics 4 property attribution reports:

• Rules-based multichannel models,
• A rules-based model that gives preference to Google Ads, and
• Data-based attribution.

2- Data-Based Attribution

This attribution model distributes the conversion value based on the data corresponding to each conversion event. It differs from the other models because it uses your account’s conversion data to calculate the actual contribution of each click made. For example, the Last Click attribution model attributes the conversion to the last channel that participated in the conversion path, even though the user may have entered our site for the first time through a paid ad.

Data-driven attribution uses machine learning algorithms to evaluate conversion and non-conversion paths, constantly incorporating information about how different touch points influence whether or not conversions occur.

3- Conversion Funnels

In GA4, the conversion funnels are much more complete and flexible than the previous version.

Some of the new benefits of Google Analytics 4 in these reports is that the final conversion and funnel steps can be determined based on an event, a page or a combination of both. You can also use and compare up to 4 segments at a time, historical data can be viewed and you can define up to 10 steps per conversion funnel. Awesome!

This is the main difference. While Universal Analytics is based on page views and sessions, Google Analytics 4 is based on events. This differentiation occurs because, nowadays, not all traffic comes from websites, it also arrives through mobile applications.

4- Predictive Metrics

As mentioned above, Google Analytics automatically enriches data by applying Google’s intelligent learning technology to your data set to predict user behavior. With predictive metrics, you will be able to get more information about your customers just by collecting structured event data.

Some of these predictive metrics are:

• Probability of Purchase: probability that a user who has been active in the last 28 days will register a specific conversion event in the next 7 days.
• Probability of Abandonment: probability that a user who has been active on your application or site in the last 7 days will not be active in the next 7 days.
• Expected Revenue: expected revenue from all purchase conversions made within 28 days by a user who has been active in the last 28 days.

5- DebugView

The DebugView report displays event data, event parameters and user properties as Analytics records them. This report can help you configure data collection, troubleshoot problems as they arise, and learn about user behavior as they navigate your website or app.

Migrate to GA4 with Adtomic

As we mentioned at the beginning, as of July 1, 2023, the standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing data. What does this mean? → It means that all users who use Analytics to measure their site’s performance will have to migrate to the new property. Adtomic recommends that you make the transfer as soon as possible, so that you can start collecting data from your site in your GA4 property.

The benefits of migrating with our plan are:

✔ Configuration in 48 hs.
✔ Specialized support during migration.
✔ Migration insurance for one year.
✔ You can continue to use the Analytics universal property while collecting data in the GA4 property.
✔ We perform the migration at your convenience.

At Adtomic we research best practices to keep developing our functionality and to keep our customers at the forefront of technology in the fast changing digital marketing environment.

That’s why we can help you! Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. For more information, send us a message to salesteam@adtomiclabs.com.