Google Analytics 4 – tips to make your daily work easier

Digital marketing has always gone hand in hand with web analytics and was inseparable. In 2020, the familiar world of web analytics has been shaken up a bit, and everyone accustomed to Universal Analytics has begun to wonder what their daily work will look like when only Google Analytics 4 is left to do it. If you’re still one of those people and everyone around you is trumpeting the fact that you need to quickly switch to GA4 (and they’re right ? ), but for you, it’s still black magic, here are some tips that will make your daily work with GA4 a pleasure, rather than a constant struggle with old habits, which you’ll find in vain in the new system.

UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS VS. GA4 – WHAT CHANGED?

You probably ask this question as often as „Why was this change?” There were plenty of reasons, but for the purposes of this article, I’ll briefly walk you through some of the most important arguments for switching from Universal Analytics to the Google Analytics 4 tool.

1. The way data is collected

First, you must understand the key difference between the two tools. Universal Analytics measures page views. Such a page view, for example, is an entry to a page – that is, a pageview. Clicking on an element on the page is an event (event). In contrast, Google Analytics 4 is based only on measuring events and their parameters. For example, – pageview in GA4 will not be a page view but an event with certain parameters, e.g.  page_title, page_location   

2. User behaviour on the purchase path

The approach to measuring data outlined above is driven by two factors, determined by a user’s conversion path in today’s world. 

• Cross-device means using multiple devices in the conversion path. 

While riding the streetcar to work, you often browse products of interest on your phone – such as the new collection of spring shoes. However, on the run, between home and work, you do not have time to buy your chosen model of shoes. You did it only in the evening, using your computer. However, before you made the purchase, you browsed through several competitors’ sites, looking for the best price for you, and this, in turn, is related to the second important phenomenon in web analytics.

• Multi-channel or the use of multiple traffic sources in the decision-making process. 

Begin with the fact that you remembered you needed new shoes for spring because you came across an ad a few days earlier. You’ve done your research on the Internet by reading reviews and testimonials and looking for the perfect model for you. You’re also familiar with several brands of shoes, so you’ve visited the online stores of selected manufacturers many times before buying. 

This scenario is familiar to you, right? In today’s world, before purchasing, we visit many different sites, read reviews, and compare prices. We use cell phones and computers to do this, and such user behaviour is reflected in web analytics. 

So, how do you combine web and app traffic in web analytics?

Universal Analytics cannot attribute activities on different devices to the same user. When a user uses a browser, Universal Analytics measures sessions and events. Sessions do not exist in apps, while events (happenings) can be measured. The answer to such trends and behaviours is just Google Analytics 4 because creating a tool with a reliable and measurable common part was necessary. In this case, it is events.

3. Attribution model

As you probably know, Universal Analytics uses a last, indirect click model. Of course, it is possible to measure and compare different attribution models, but it is not ideal in this tool. Google Analytics 4 uses a data-driven model by default. This model considers factors such as the time elapsed since the conversion, the type of device from which the user converted or, for example, the number of interactions with the ad. This allows us to obtain more precise information, which we can translate into optimizing our marketing efforts. 

4. Approach to Privacy

Previously, Google Analytics used cookies to „identify” a user. This method worked until the rules related to giving permission for tracking were tightened. According to the law, if a user does not consent to tracking, no tracking code, including Google Analytics codes, should run. In this case, as you can guess, we could lose vast amounts of data (depending on the industry, but it could be as much as a loss of 70% of user data!). Google Analytics 4 has come out against this by working with, among other things, the consent mode and using so-called behavioural modelling and modelled conversions. 

This way, the system will be able to assign conversions of „non-consent users” to the appropriate channel and use artificial intelligence to model the behaviour of users who have not consented to cookies based on users who have given that consent. Implementing consent mode properly on your own is a bit complicated, so it’s best to contact your developer or digital agency 

Daily-work-with-GA4

One of the biggest „cognitive pains” associated with the advent of GA4 was the absence of the previous reports we all knew so well. Many have disappeared, and others have been replaced by other nomenclature or standard reports  

This does not mean our favourite source/medium reports or rejection rate information have ended. You can still find them very easily in the new GA4!

• Report source/medium in GA4

If we want to analyze the first source from which users came to our site, we will use the „Source” section, then go to „User Source,” and set „first user source/medium” as the dimension. 

On the other hand, if we want to see the session source/medium information, we need to go to the next report, „Traffic Acquisition”, and select „Session – source/medium” as the main metric in the table. 

• Rejection rate in GA4

Here I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that you will look in vain for such a metric in the latest Google Analytics 4. On the other hand, the good news is a metric that shows valuable information about the engagement rate, which in turn is very easy to convert to the rejection rate.

For example, if our engagement rate is 70%, the rejection rate is 30%. However, it is worth remembering what the engagement rate is in GA4. It takes into account only those visits (sessions) during which users:

– made a conversion

– they spent a minimum of 10 seconds on your website or app

– viewed at least 2 screens (or 2 pages)

• Product effectiveness and sales effectiveness reports in GA4

In Universal Analytics, these are some of the most widely used e-commerce reports. In GA4, they are available in the „Revenue Generation” section of reports. To be able to analyze data on sales of individual products/services and, by the way, approach transaction IDs, all you need to do is slightly rearrange the already available table. In the „E-commerce Purchases” section, add a column with a custom parameter „transaction_id” to the existing „name” column.  

Also note the graphs on these reports at this point. One shows the correlation between the number of cart additions and product displays. By analyzing it, you can think about why, for example, a certain product is frequently displayed but not added to the cart. It’s also a great place to catch errors on your site! 

UILITABLE NEWS IN GA4

Google Analytics 4 is a tool constantly evolving with many more changes. New standard reports and custom report templates are being added, and metrics and dimensions are still coming. In addition, from the beginning, we have the opportunity to use some interesting functionalities that can often make our daily work easier.

• Trends and recommendations

Enabling this option when you create your Google Analytics 4 account is worth it because it will take some time before the first information is collected. Watching this data continuously will provide us with interesting clues, show the anomalies that occur, and help us optimize further advertising efforts. Here, you can also set up your own alerts based on the rules you set up and receive email notifications when something like this happens. 

• Fast search or „conversation” with GA4

An option especially useful for new users of the GA4 interface. If you don’t know where to find the statistics you need or need some information quickly, type the topic of interest into the search bar. Often, you need to type a word like „users” or „conversions”, and the system will suggest various available reports. The search panel also understands more colloquial language, so you can confidently ask, „How much did I earn last week?” ?

• Customer segments in GA4

Using a number of metrics, events, and their parameters, you can create very detailed and precise audience segments that detail the actions that users have performed on your site. You can also create an audience segment based on any sequence of events, specify the amount of time that must pass between each step, or indicate whether all actions should happen within all or one, the same session or the same event. By default, two recipient segments are created: all users and buyers, and in total, we can have as many as 100 recipient lists within a single service. Best of all – you can later import these lists into Google Ads and use them in your advertising activities! 

• Automatic event measurement

In the previous Universal Analytics, events were created through goals in the administration section. For each goal, you had to add information such as category, action, label, and value. In the new Google Analytics 4, in the administration panel, in the „service” column, you will find separate tabs for events and conversions. Instead of specifying a category, action, etc., we rely on event parameters. 

Thanks to the available parameters, we can add our own events, specifying them precisely. Then, we just need to move the slider next to the selected event. From now on, it will count as a conversion. Events will appear in the „conversions” tab for up to 24 hours, but you can also add an event there to be a conversion right away.

In addition, GA4 also automatically measures events such as:

– page views

– scrolls

– outbound clicks

– site searches

– video interaction

– file download

It is important to note that if you want to automatically collect the above-mentioned events, you will need to enable the advanced measurement available in the data streams (preferably right after creating the service).

• Debug view

Debugview event monitoring is very helpful for detecting errors, especially in implementation. The report shows events and their parameters as GA4 logs them (only a few seconds delay happens). To use debug view mode, you will find it useful to have the Google Analytics Debugger plugin added to your Google Chrome.

Do you need customized training to learn about GA4 and get the most out of this tool?

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Everyone in the digital marketing industry knows that a marketer without Analytics is like a man without an arm. Of course, it is possible to conduct marketing activities and advertising campaigns and draw business conclusions without using Google Analytics, but I think all of us here will agree that it is absolutely not worth it, especially since we have a completely free, analytical tool at our disposal.