What is Google Analytics 4? Comparing GA4 to Universal Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is the most recent iteration of Google Analytics, a free tool that tracks user engagement and website traffic. Released in 2020, GA4 was made available in part to comply with new privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and also to better meet the demands of contemporary digital marketing. Up until now, Universal Analytics, GA4’s predecessor, and GA4 itself have operated side by side. However, it’s now necessary to migrate to GA4 given Google’s announcement that Universal Analytics will no longer be available after 1 July 2023.

The announcement has understandably given many marketers reason for concern. Instead of expanding and overhauling the Universal Analytics framework we know, Google has completely redesigned the user interface and introduced a brand-new collection of analytical tools, and people now have six months to learn and migrate to GA4.

However, GA4 need not be intimidating. While users will have to rethink what they already know and learn a new set of tools, GA4's many new features offer many advantages. Let’s take a look at the variations between UA and GA4 and explore how this new iteration can help your company in new ways.

GA4 and Universal Analytics variations

Website and smartphone app tracking

UA has been available since 2012. However, as smartphone apps and machine learning technology have advanced, the platform is no longer as fully equipped to meet requirements as it once was. One of GA4's most distinctive characteristics is its cross-device tracking function that tracks both websites and apps, unlike UA, which can only track websites. The ability to track both on one platform is a major change given the popularity of mobile apps in today's smartphone-driven digital world.

Reports produced by GA4 are different to those produced by UA

Users of UA are aware that the platform produces a sizable number of easily accessible "standard" reports. GA4 provides far fewer generalised reports and these aren't presented by default like they are in UA. However, GA4 offers customisability, allowing for reporting on more specific topics or parameters

The introduction of new measurement metrics

In order to monitor user engagement, GA4 has introduced a number of new metrics. These consist of:

• Engaged session metric: A count of all sessions that had an engagement time of ten seconds or longer, further initiated one or more events, or had two or more page views. As a result, GA4 no longer itilises UA's bounce rate metric. Users must also be aware, however, that GA4 has included its own variation of the UA bounce rate.
• Average engagement time per session: This is a measure of the amount of time a user spends engaging with the page by performing an action such as scrolling, for example.
• Engagement rate: The ratio of engaged sessions to total sessions.

With GA4, Google has adopted a more "positive" stance towards user engagement statistics, and offers more in-depth user engagement information than what can be learned from UA's bounce rate. The user experience as a whole is much more emphasised in GA4.

The introduction of AI and automation

Universal Analytics has limited automation capabilities, whereas GA4's machine learning-centric design enables it to offer customers a variety of automatically generated insights. Additionally, because GA4 was designed to meet today's data protection requirements, machine learning helps the software produce insights while adhering to rules. This is due to the fact that GA4's machine-learning algorithm allows for anonymous data collection on user behaviour and website traffic.

Additionally, these machine learning techniques enable GA4 to:

• Create automated insights: With GA4, you don't need to manually review your data. GA4 creates both general and customised that allow for predictions, find anomalies, and spot trends.
• Detect and fill in data gaps: GA4’s machine learning also means that data gaps from privacy restrictions can be identified and filled. To do so, users are placed in groups based on their behaviours and characteristics.

Moving from a session-based data model an events-based model

The primary distinction between UA and GA4 is this shift. UA has always used a session-based approach to gather data, with "session" referring to a collection of user interactions that take place on your website over a specific period of time. During a session, UA collects page views, e-commerce purchases, and other user interactions with your website as “hits.”

In GA4, every user interaction with your website or app is recorded as an "event." This gathers and stores far more information about the details of the interaction, partly because the platform allows for such high levels of customisation. Thanks to this, companies can produce extremely focused customer insights.

Here is Google’s explanation:

“In GA4 properties, you can still see session data, but [Universal] Analytics collects and stores user interactions with your website or app as events. Events provide insight on what’s happening in your website or app, such as pageviews, button clicks, user actions, or system events.

Events can collect and send pieces of information that more fully specify the action the user took or add further context to the event or user. This information could include things like the value of purchase, the title of the page a user visited, or the geographic location of the user.”

The events-based model, despite taking a different approach, ultimately offers more value in terms of the depth of insight businesses can obtain, especially in light of the tightening up of data privacy laws.

How will GA4 help your company?

GA4 can be incredibly helpful for monitoring the effectiveness of your company's marketing initiatives. With its sophisticated metrics, reporting, and automation, GA4 can provide your business with a clearer picture of how its efforts are faring. This article also barely scratches the surface of GA4’s potential and capabilities! Here are a few more useful GA4 features:

• Enhanced attribution models give you a more precise history of user journeys and help you identify the touchpoints that brought a client to your online offering.
• Ability to build audiences from any metric, dimension, and event combination, emphasising once more how well GA4 can be customised.
• Capacity to develop predictive audiences based on predictive metrics like purchase probability.
• Re-engagement with users based on their prior behaviour on your website or app thanks to the remarketing feature.

GA4 with DXG

As mentioned, Universal Analytics will no longer be available from the first of July this year. From this date, the platform will stop gathering new results. The good news is that for those who still need to move to GA4, Universal Analytics data will still be available for a six-month window, giving you time to extract your data.