The GA4 Transition: An Opportunity to Reset?

We have heard a lot of mixed opinions about GA4. Although the interface has been simplified, some people are finding the platform harder to use. Many are also being forced to rebuild the reports that they have become used to. Regardless of your views on GA4, we see the transition as a great opportunity to reset.

Old habits die hard.

Learning something new is always tricky. When you get used to doing something in a certain way, you start doing it on autopilot. You don’t have to think too much and it starts coming naturally.

However, sometimes that can also lead us to get set in our ways. By learning how to do a task differently, you get to challenge your knowledge and experience, taking your practice to a whole new level.

Apprehension is normal.

When you open up GA4 for the first time, you might want to slam on the brakes. You will have a steep learning curve in front of you and you’re naturally going to want to revert back to what you already know.

However, the only way is forward. Universal Analytics stopped processing data on July 1, making way for GA4 to take over. The way that marketers gather consumer data and measure performance has to become more privacy compliant, which is one of the reasons why the new platform has been introduced.

So, if you don’t set up GA4, you simply won’t be able to measure your marketing performance using Google Analytics anymore.

How to get started:

GA4 is designed to give you more of a complete picture of who your customers are in a privacy-compliant way. Rather than being largely designed to measure ‘page views’, it’s more focused on ‘events’. That means that you can get deeper insights into how users are interacting with your content, not just what they’re interacting with. It also offers predictive capabilities and direct integrations to media platforms.

After you create your account and set up your data stream, you will see that GA4 gives you the basics, such as events and template reports.

Some of the events that you can track include pages that people load on your website, actions they perform within pages, elements they click, as well as transaction and product details.

You might also implement some of your own events, such as ‘select promotion’, ‘add to cart’, ‘generate lead’, ‘add payment info’, and ‘begin checkout’. You can also set up custom events for more unique use cases.

You can also check out pre-configured reports in the reports tab and create custom reports in the explore tab. The advertising tab also gives you insight into different channels and how they lead to website conversions.

Can’t I just use platform data?

It’s tempting to just start using the data within your marketing platforms. For example, the reports for Meta or TikTok haven’t gone through such a drastic change - so why not lean on them for a little while?

However, each individual platform has different attribution models, so you will notice disparities between different reports. The benefit of Google Analytics is that it can provide a more holistic view of the customer journey. You should always use its insights alongside your platform data to get a more comprehensive view of your marketing performance.

Turning challenges into opportunities.

It’s going to take you some time to get used to the new look, feel, and function of GA4. However, this is also a great time to reset your marketing measurement strategies. By trying to recreate and reimagine your reports in GA4, you can take the time to reflect on what you’re measuring and why. It’s important to ask yourself some questions, such as:

• Have you been tracking vanity metrics, or metrics that will have a real impact on your business?

• Are you tracking the right metrics alongside each other? Are you gathering enough information and context to understand patterns and trends?

• Has your reporting so far created unnecessary noise? Could you let go of some metrics and introduce others in order to make better business decisions?

Keep an open mind.

GA4 has a handy search bar that you can use to ask questions about the platform. You can ask questions like, “How many visitors come to my website” and “How to set up a purchase event?”.

There is also a nifty little insights button that allows you to “Ask Analytics Intelligence”. This includes common GA4 user questions that you can select from.

It’s important to keep an open mind and ask as many questions as possible in the early stages of learning the new platform. By digging into each nook and cranny with a vision of what answers you want to find, you can speed up the learning process.

Still struggling to get started?

If you want to learn more about our approach to analytics at Status Agency, then reach out to our team.