Google Analytics 4, otherwise known as GA4, is a special analytics tool made for the recognition of potential improvements in a marketing campaign. In simpler terms, it is a powerful marketing tool that will help you make better decisions when it comes to marketing. It is a free-to-use analytics platform that has allowed its users to measure both website and application-related metrics through the utilization of a single tool, which is one of the major differences when both GA4 and Univeral analytics are compared to one another.
Google Analytics 4 was first introduced to us by Google in October, and it was announced as a change made in the previous marketing tool, Google Analytics. A lot of uncovered ground has been discovered, and many people are wondering why Google Analytics was changed into GA4 while also wondering about how this update will affect their jobs. People are also wondering how this tool can improve their marketing strategies and what’s new to utilize in marketing campaigns to get better and more optimized results. Without any further ado, let’s get into everything you need to know when learning about the newly introduced marketing tool.
Google Analytics 4: What’s New?
A lot has changed with the new introduction of GA4. Let’s get started,
- For starters it utilizes a significantly changed and somewhat renewed data collection and data structuring logic.
- The update has made the tool more user and event centric, as it’s no longer built around sessions like it used to be before.
- It processes each user interaction as a separate, self-dependent event, which is a huge difference when compared with the previous model that was session-based, unlike the present event-based one.
- That said, transferring the focus towards an event-based model also comes with numerous benefits such as cross platform analysis and better and improved capability of pathing analysis.
- It is now more capable of extravagantly predicting human behavior than ever before. Not only that, but it is also now more flexible as an analysis tool as well.
How To Switch To Google Analytics 4?
This is the big question you should be finding the answer to, should you switch to GA4? The short and simple answer to this question is Yes! You should.
That said, this doesn’t mean you should absolutely minimize the utilization of universal Google Analytics. Rather, choose to set up GA4 in such a way that enables you to utilize the prowess of universal analytics. Let’s suppose you don’t recognize the requirement of using universal analytics any time soon, even then, collecting data and strengthening your machine learning model will provide more skilled fostering of future analysis and research. The concept behind this strategy is quite straight forward and simple, the better your collect required data, the better and more optimized your marketing strategies will perform.
How To Set Up GA-4?
The analytics property you’re already familiar with using will not be touched and will be left as it is, which will enable it to continue to collect further data. That said, your UA view will allow you to collect more data once you’ve accessed it through the admin screen.
Follow the given steps to connect your, currently in use, universal analytics account to a new GA4 data stream.
Steps For Configuration:
- Firstly, login to your Google Analytics account.
- Click Admin, The Gear icon, navigation on bottom left.
- Confirm that the required account has been selected.
- Confirm that the required property is selected.
- Click on the first option in the property column, GA4 setup assistant.
- Click on the large blue button in the setup wizard that says, “Get Started”, to start.
- As for the last step, Click the blue button to create property.
Event Tracking:
After you’re done with the completion of the configuration process, you will now have your property, the setup assistant will automate enhanced measurement in your Google Analytics 4 property. That said, Custom Code is still required to track third party elements including form submissions but the most fundamentally basic forms of event tracking based model are automated and always ready to start up when the time arrives.
How Does GA-4 Help With Reporting?
The implantation of your formulated strategy will more likely be less dependent on the output than the actual present information available to be extracted from the implementation of the strategy in hand. With that settled, the question now arises, how will GA-4 help with reporting and what will it do to make reporting easier than before?
To understand the concept of the answer, we must first contemplate that there is a sudden push for user privacy, the difficulty regarding tracking users as they travel across multiple platforms is constantly inclining. Their constant switching between multiple devices is also not assisting with the case. That said, GA-4 is a forward-thinking solution that uses enhanced ML (Machine Learning) to implement certain suitable strategies and techniques to help in filling the massive data gap.
The implementation of these techniques enables the tool to formulate a single user journey for all the data and information linked to that same identity, which immensely helps in reporting and filling the lost data that ultimately forms a gap in the output of total accumulated data.
GA4 has simplified the previously complex reporting system by making it immensely easier for marketers to presently spot trends and spot potential surface for further improving data. Instead of generating a long list of accumulated reports that try to cover every use case, GA-4 uses overview reports in summary cards. If you wish to dig deeper and focus more towards reading the report and accumulating potential requests, simply left click on the scorecard.
Best Ways To Use Google Analytics 4 Report:
The final compartment to cover, when understanding the newly arrived tool, GA-4, will include the best ways to use its general output reports. When you first login to your account, you’ll see that the homepage generally and unbiasedly summarizes the required information such as overall traffic, conversions, and accumulated revenue for the specified property. Its power is best utilized when quickly rechecking to make sure everything is going according to the implemented strategy and going as expected.
Your home page report will quickly answer:
- Where do newer users come from?
- What are the top performing campaigns you’ve run till now?
- Which pages are causing more conversions and which screens are getting more views?
Real-Time Report:
Real-time report is the upcoming default report that falls in the left navigation, it utilizes the power of this tool to enable the users with detailed information about events that happened in the last 30 minutes, its continuously displaying desired information regarding the events that were reported in the previous 30 minutes which users can then utilize to formulate further necessary changes through the implementation of further strategies.
Users can utilize this feature to:
- They can confirm that the suitable tracking code is operating.
- They can view effects from a YouTube video.
- View real time products drop as it happens in real time.
What Is “View User Snapshot?”
Click View user snapshot, located in the top right corner of the real time report to see a literal snapshot of every user to balance the implementable strategy and back it up with informational evidence. This includes information regarding the user’s device in hand, location and even Real-time engagement with the website through triggered events that were motivated by your CTA, otherwise known as the Call-to-Action aspect of your marketing campaign.
Life Cycle Reporting:
Life cycle reporting in a crux, is attaining and notifying the campaign handler about the information of acquiring, engaging, monetizing, and retaining users. It’s essentially an ideal feature to continuously analyze the movements of your campaigns’ accumulated conversions till now. Life cycle reports have the potential of answering the following questions and they’re generally utilized for attaining the answers of these two questions:
- What causes the users to enter the conversion funnel?
- How do users behave and what are they enticed by once they enter the funnel?
GA4 displays user reports based on demographics and accumulated technological data through analysis, as well as detailed information regarding events and conversions.
Explorer Reports: Analysis
This is one of the most influential changes in the newly introduced GA-4. Its known as the new Analysis Hub. While reports running closer to the previous model’s principles of extracting desired information, the GA-4 Analysis Hub enables its users to access several unorthodox, advanced techniques and a specific template gallery that is not available to be utilized anywhere else.
Creating A New Analysis:
To create a new analysis, follow the given steps:
- Login to your Google Analytics account to start.
- Click on “Analysis.”
- Select the technique you want to utilize when researching and further analyzing your data to formulate the required strategy to implement afterwards.
How To Read Analysis Hub Reports?
Start by returning to the analysis hub page.
1. Variable’S Column:
This is the column you want to select the data you want to further utilize in your analysis. Data Range, Segments, dimensions, metrics.
2. Tab Settings Column:
This column is generally utilized to form a specification of the analysis technique you want to further implement when analyzing data. You will also add dimensions, metrics and apply segments according to your liking.
3. Segments:
Segments are differently grouped users made according to the recognition of certain similarities between them. Utilize this compartment to drag and drop different groups to your report and then comparatively analyze how their behavior is affecting your marketing strategies and contemplate the possibilities you can use this information in.
4. Dimensions:
Dimensions are segments you would want to analyze as a researching body. You can also drag and drop dimensions as rows and columns in the Tab Setting area, according to your liking. Dimensions include elements like event count, transactions, active users etc.
5. Metrics:
These are the numeric elements in your analysis report. You can add metrics to the Values area in Tab settings as well.
6. Visualization:
This feature enables you to choose what you want the screen to look like. It allows users to change their report structure, and modify locational elements such as, Tables, pie chart, line graph and more.
7. Values:
Use this feature to insert the metrics you want to display as a column in your generic report. There are different cell types to choose from, which include bar charts, plain text or heat map.
8. Tabs:
Tabs are what utilize visualizations to display them. An analysis has the potential to consist of up to 10 tabs. To add a new tab, click on the plus icon.
9. Display:
This feature allows users to interact with the provided and accumulated data simply by right clicking on a data point of the users’ choice, in visualization.
Crux:
When researching and analyzing your target audience and how it behaved when you introduced your own marketing campaign to them, you require a set of tools to do so. These tools directly display what you need to know and you can choose to utilize the researching strategy of your liking. These informational tools are recognized to be the arsenal of marketers however, one must recognize the concept of each of their features to start utilizing the greatness they offer.
When it comes to running ad campaign on Google, the available tool for researching purposes here, used to be Google Analytics, and it used to fill every gap that marketers felt the need to be filled. Google has implemented a giant change and improved this tool for the better. Its recognized as GA4, also known as Google Analytics 4 and its only requirement to be utilized is to have a generic know-how of how it operates and what falls in the criteria of it’s capabilities, which we have provided for you.
FAQs:
What Is Google Analytics 4 Good For?
GA4 is known to provide comprehensive analysis involving features that further include measurement reports of both, your website and application.
What Are Four Types Of Google Analytics?
The four types are:
- Descriptive
- Diagnostic
- Predictive
- Prescriptive
Is Google Analytics 4 Free To Use?
Yes, just like Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is free to use as there are no costs required by Google when GA4 is implemented on one or more properties through your account.
