If you use Google Analytics, you probably have noticed the scary countdown on the platform for July 1st, but does how this affect you?
But rest assured, it’s not all doom and gloom – below, Tora, our Digital Performance Director, breaks down some of our key questions about the next generation of Google Analytics that is soon to be launched.
Why are we seeing this?
Google is phasing out the Google Analytics we know and love (Universal Analytics or GA3), replacing it with the newer GA4. Google doesn’t always stick to their deadlines, but this time they have committed, and we’re going to see the end of Universal Analytics come July 1st – hence the countdown.
Why is universal analytics even being replaced?
How we use the internet today differs greatly now from how it was used in 2012, when Universal Analytics was created. Universal Analytics was built to measure digital journeys where only one device and touchpoint were used, but we are living in a time where digital journeys span multiple devices and touchpoints. Users are also more privacy-conscious than ever before, and with 3rd party cookies being phased out, Google needed a new platform that addressed these changes.
What’s the difference between Universal Analytics + GA4?
Other than the change in its user interface, there are differences in how digital journeys are being measured.
How does this impact our clients using Universal Analytics?
The changes in measurement will result in variations of the same metric when comparing Universal Analytics and GA4 over the same date range.
For example, the metric ‘users’ in Universal Analytics will likely appear higher than the metric ‘users’ in GA4 since GA4 will be deduplicating this number across touchpoints and devices.
Are we ready to move to GA4?
While GA4 has been around since its beta in 2019, it’s only been widely adopted in the last 12 months, and we too have started setting up GA4 for our clients over the last year. The team have been busy in the background preparing for this transition, setting up and adding the new GA4 to websites and configuring all tracking necessary. We’ve also replicated the reporting dashboards we use regularly in Universal Analytics into GA4 so we can continue to look at the same metrics and dimensions. The final step to ensure a seamless transition will be to update our client reports to ingest the new GA4 data (from July 1st onwards) while maintaining all previous Universal Analytics data.
In short, we’ll have everything ready to go by the time the countdown hits 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds!
Feel free to chat with us if you have any more questions about GA4.
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