News

GA4 Migration

Posted on by Oryx+Crake
03
May

Google Analytics (GA4) migration deadline is 1 July 2023. Are you ready?

On July 1, 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will replace the current version of Google Analytics (Universal Analytics or UA). To avoid losing any historical data, you will need to ensure that your data is migrated carefully, accurately, and in time of the deadline.

Migrating as soon as possible has numerous benefits, including the fact that you can enjoy the benefits of having better data immediately but, most importantly, this migration is forward-facing only so you won’t be able to import your previous data. Starting to collect data now will also ensure that you can perform a year-on-year analysis to minimise any tracking impacts and it’s a great way to increase your website’s effectiveness based on enhanced customer reports.

Consider starting now to allow for a soft launch period where you can trial and test that everything is set up the way you want it to be, rather than being pushed or rushed into it at the end of June.

Our fool-proof GA4 migration service

Our tested service will ensure that your migration process is smooth, efficient and completed ahead of this imminent deadline, in just five easy steps:

STEP 1: We do a full audit of your current Google Analytics and web metrics

STEP 2: We engage with relevant stakeholders to fully understand all your tracking requirements

STEP 3: We configure Google Tag Manager

STEP 4:  We configure GA4

STEP 5: We build custom reports and dashboards based on your business needs

What can you expect from GA4?

While migrating to GA4 is non-negotiable, it does offer exciting, new benefits that will take analytics and the insights generated to a whole new level.

GA4 will offer:

  • a stronger analytics experience
  • the flexibility to measure different types of data
  • a bridge in your customer journey from website to app
  • Google’s machine learning AI to provide insights on user behaviour and conversions
  • web analytics for the future.

What are the differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics (UA)?

The fundamental difference between them is that GA4 has been built on a completely new architecture. Rather than the UA concept of sessions – which is essentially a series of page views – GA4 is built on the concept of events. Events can be anything from page views to clicks, form submissions, and even custom events you define yourself.

This change in architecture has three main implications:

Firstly, GA4 can collect a lot more data than Universal Analytics.

Secondly, it offers more insights into what people are doing on your site or app.

Thirdly, GA4 can be used to track just about anything— not just web traffic.

Diving a little deeper, the critical differences between UA and GA4 include:

  • Improved data Privacy: GA4 offers more robust data protection and privacy controls, which are becoming increasingly important for brands due to data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
  • Cross-device tracking: GA4 provides more advanced cross-device tracking capabilities (website and app), allowing marketers better to understand the customer journey across multiple devices and touch points.
  • Machine-Learning: GA4 includes built-in machine-learning algorithms that automatically identify trends, generate insights, and provide recommendations.
  • Bounce Rate options: The definition of a bounce in GA4 is now: if a user visits your website, reviews content on your homepage for less than 10 seconds, and then leaves without triggering any events or visiting any other pages or screens. You’ll have the option to increase the conditions from 10 seconds to 30 seconds or 60 seconds.
  • Conversion Events: Goals will be replaced by “Conversion Events” with the added ability track a wider range of actions and gain more granular insights into how people interact with your website or app. In the future, you can create custom Conversion Events to track certain actions that are important to your business. By doing so, you’ll be able to understand the customer journey better and optimise for it!
  • Behavioural Modelling: It will utilise machine learning and fill in the gaps if cookies or other identifiers aren’t available in GA4’s real-time reporting functions.
  • Custom Channel Grouping: You’ll be able to custom select specific channels and compare their aggregated performance.
  • Direct integrations: GA4 syncs directly with Google Ads, so conversion actions will be tracked in the GA4 reporting dashboard for account and performance transparency.

GA4 is already considered the standard for analytics at this point, so start reaping the benefits of the new system. We have the knowledge and expertise to help you migrate and implement GA4 successfully into your business. Email us at info@oryxcrake.co.za or call us on 011 327 6871… we’d love to help.

Oryx+Crake