Heraclitus the Obscure is often credited for noting that the only thing constant in life is change, and while ancient aphorisms may help us make sense of our own lives, they are unlikely to ever help your business in the face of significant and constant change. One recent change that is giving everyone in the world of digital analytics the fits is the changeover from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Analytics are the heartbeat of any successful business. Your product and your plan may be ironclad but if you don’t have the tools to track and analyze customer behaviors, measure success, and optimize your organization for conversions, you’ll struggle to keep up. Effectively utilizing data and analytics can ensure you’re not left in the dust of competitors who better understand their audiences and the decisions they make.
Whether you’re a digital marketer, a provider of web management services, or a business owner who has relied on Universal Analytics for vital data, UA going away means that you need to adapt fast if you want to keep up with evolving business needs — the big question is “how?”
In this article, we’ll talk about the fall of UA, the rise of GA4, the differences between the two platforms, and how you can make sure that your business’s analytics game remains strong.
What is Universal Analytics?
Universal Analytics was Google’s last-generation analytics tracking platform. It was introduced in 2012 as the new iteration of the classic Google Analytics platform. Since its introduction to the market, UA has been the standard for businesses looking to track user interactions and website performance and has allowed marketers to deepen their insights and expand their reach.
What is Universal Analytics vs Google Analytics?
Although the two names are often used interchangeably, Universal Analytics is just the specific name for the previous iteration of the Google Analytics platform, which has since been replaced by Google Analytics 4.
Although UA and GA4 ran simultaneously for a while during the migration period, Google Analytics 4 is now the only Google Analytics service that Google Offers, which means that business owners and marketers have no choice but to get aboard.
Is Google shutting down Universal Analytics?
When will Universal Analytics sunset? The official date on which Google will retire UA and make all UA data unavailable is July 1, 2024. You may have seen the following screen in your Universal Analytics property:
While UA shutting down and all data becoming unavailable may seem abrupt, Google has been encouraging account holders to migrate their data to the new program and transition to GA4 for several years now.
Does GA4 replace Universal Analytics?
The two have existed together for the last handful of years, but GA4 will officially replace UA on July 1, 2024. Because GA4 is no longer just a newer version of the Google Analytics product and is now the only Google Analytics product, users should familiarize themselves with some of the major differences between the two.
| Key Difference | Google Analytics 4 (GA4) | Universal Analytics (UA) |
| Measurement system | Flexible events | Sessions |
| Cross-platform and cross-device reporting | Fully supported, data streams integrated | Limited, separate data streams |
| Tracking system | Cookieless tracking | Tracking only with cookies |
| Privacy gaps | Uses predictive metrics and machine learning to fill in gaps | Potential gaps in data due to privacy measures and cookie scarcity |
| Reporting and visualization | Advanced analysis tools and customized reports | Classic charts and graphs for reporting |
| Learning curve | Steep | Easier to learn |
GA4 not only gives your business the tools to see where your most valuable customers are coming from and why, but it can also help you find out if your website is guilty of bad SEO, or if those blogs you’ve been writing are actually driving results.
Continue reading: Are blogs still relevant?
Benefits of using Google Analytics 4
Changing the way that you track data on an organizational level is frustrating no matter the size of your enterprise, but the good news is that GA4’s functionality is light years ahead of UA’s. Once you make the switch and spend some time getting familiar with GA4, you’ll be glad you did.
Although there are countless ways in which GA4 allows businesses to better track and visualize essential data, the biggest differences between the two platforms include:
- Event-based tracking. While UA used a user session as its basic unit or measurement, and based all other events to be tracked on the basic unit of a session, GA4 captures every user action as an “event.” This may seem small, but it is a massive shift in methodology that allows businesses to capture data without limitations.
- Cross-platform capabilities. Whereas UA would create separate data streams for the separate platforms and devices for each customer, GA4 allows you to track user interactions across websites, mobile apps, and other digital platforms, providing a more comprehensive view of the customer journey.
- Machine learning advancements. While many products and companies are still figuring out how machine learning and AI can add value for their customers, GA4 is already leveraging machine learning to provide actionable insights and predictions to help you better understand your audience and optimize your marketing efforts.
- Privacy without compromise. With growing concerns around data privacy and compliance, GA4 is designed to prioritize user privacy while still delivering valuable analytics insights. One of the meaningful ways that GA4 uses machine learning is by filling in gaps in metrics produced by the need for user privacy.
That last point is one of the major reasons why the Universal Analytics sunset was necessary. Did you know that by the end of 2024, Google is ending Chrome support for third-party cookies?
This means that after 2024 there would be massive holes in the data gathered by UA anyway, and a solution that valued user privacy and still allowed businesses to gather essential data became an absolute necessity.
How to make the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4
While the process of setting up a GA4 property can seem daunting, Google has some of the most thorough documentation on the market. You can likely get your GA4 property set up pretty quickly — especially if you were familiar with how Universal Analytics functioned — but fine-tuning your property and using it to its full potential is another story.
- Create your GA4 property. Log in to your Google Analytics account and navigate to the Admin section. From there, select “Create Property” and choose the option for Google Analytics 4. Follow the prompts to set up your new property and generate a tracking ID.
- Install GA4 tags. Once you’ve created your GA4 property, you’ll need to install the GA4 tag on your website or app. Google offers several implementation options, including Google Tag Manager, gtag.js, and Firebase.
- Configure your data streams. In GA4, data is organized into “streams” based on the platform or device type. For each website or app you want to track, you’ll need to configure a separate data stream within your GA4 property. Getting your data streams set up correctly is essential to capturing the right data.
- Set up your event tracking. Unlike Universal Analytics, which primarily tracked pageviews, GA4 focuses on event-based tracking. Take some time to identify the key user interactions you want to track (like button clicks, form submissions, or calls) and set up custom events accordingly.
- Test and validate your reports. Once you’ve configured your GA4 property and implemented the tracking code, it’s essential to test and validate your setup to ensure everything is working correctly. Use Google’s built-in debugging tools, such as the Real-Time report and DebugView, to verify that data is being collected accurately.
- Improve and adjust your insights. An essential part of using GA4 that many users outright ignore is continuous improvement. Because GA4 is such a powerful tool, chances are there will always be ways in which you can make better use of it by adjusting or adding functionality.
While the learning curve for GA4 is quite a bit higher than it was for UA, setting up a GA4 property to track the essentials is relatively easy. The problem is this: most businesses don’t have the time to set up and track their vital data on their own.
If this sounds familiar, you may want to consider partnering with someone for your content marketing that offers deep data reporting and visualization. Industry standards for privacy, best practices for content, and essential metrics are changing constantly. As many businesses have learned from the Universal Analytics sunset, your analytics aren’t set it and forget it. You’ve got to keep up with the times if you want to keep your business lean, agile, and appraised of what your customers need.
Need a digital marketing partner to get your business back to tracking data that matters? Baal & Spots does that.
Now that Universal Analytics has gone, setting up your Google Analytics 4 property the right way is essential to gathering the data that matters most to your business. While UA’s retirement feels like the end of an era, GA4 presents an opportunity for businesses to embrace a more thorough and holistic approach to their analytics, and to dive deeper than ever before.
Baal & Spots has spent the last couple of years mastering GA4 and its dizzying number of features so that our clients didn’t have to — and we can do the same for you. Let us get to know what matters most to your business and we will create custom reporting that gives your organization the insights that it needs to thrive.
If you’re ready to take the analytical leap and develop a forward-looking growth strategy, let’s talk.
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