18 Jul Get To Know Google Analytics 4
If you’re one of the 28 million websites relying on Google Analytics to understand customer behaviours, you would have received a notification that the current version of analytics will fall away on 1 July 2023.
Universal Analytics (the standard version of Google Analytics) will get a considerable upgrade in the form of Google Analytics 4, which will be the only available Google tool you can use to track your website’s activity. The upgraded version is said to deliver a strong analytics experience designed for the future.
But why the change?
Preparing For The Future
The digital landscape is evolving, and more commerce is moving online. Google is attempting to keep up with the demand for a more comprehensive digital analytics tool to ensure businesses better understand their customers in order to succeed.
The introduction of Google Analytics 4 aims to address the shift in customer behaviour and significant changes in online privacy policies, all while providing businesses with more data when it comes to the user journey.
Machine learning is at the heart of the latest version of this analytics tool, which will automatically provide helpful insights and give you a more comprehensive look at your customers across various devices and platforms.
According to Google, “the new Google Analytics will give you the essential insights you need to be ready for what’s next.”
Here are a few examples of what you can expect when using Google Analytics 4:
- You’ll be able to create and track up to 30 conversions
- Predictive metrics such as revenue estimates from audience groups will be available
- Anticipating customer actions through calculating churn probability
- Anomaly detection
- It automatically alerts you to significant trends in your data such as product demands due to new customer needs.
These are just a few features that Google Analytics 4 will be rolling out, but what benefits will this have for your business?
Track Across Both Your App and Website
Google’s upgrade provides you with relevant information for both your app and website, which is now available all in one place. Previously, this needed to be done using Google Analytics for your website and Firebase for your app tracking. This feature ensures that the process of collecting data and understanding your customer is more streamlined.
Improve Your Customer’s Experience
One of the most significant benefits of this upgrade is a more customer-centric approach to tracking the user journey. Universal Google Analytics allowed you to automatically track basic events, while everything else needed to be manually set up using Google Tag Manager. While you’ll still need to set up certain events manually when utilising GA4, there is a range of measurements that are readily available such as outbound link clicks, website searches and more. This upgraded experience also allows you to have a better understanding of the flow users take while on your website.
Reporting Made Easier
GA4 aims to make things a little easier when it comes to choosing segments to work with, providing a more flexible way to analyse the data. This latest version has a more customer-centric approach and offers a chance to analyse the later stages of the customer lifecycle.
In Summary
As technology continues to evolve, Google Analytics 4 aims to step into the future by providing a more customer-centric approach to pouring over data while keeping online privacy policies at the forefront. This update has been designed with your key objectives in mind, whether that’s driving sales or generating leads, providing a more holistic approach. While Universal Google Analytics isn’t going anywhere until July 2023, Google does recommend that you create a new GA4 property and start gathering data alongside your existing properties.
Need a little help? The team at SOMS Digital Agency is ready to help you every step of the way.