Have You Migrated to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

Google Universal Analytics Sunset Date: July 1, 2023

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Philip Mandelbaum
06/05/2023

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Google is making a big change — its biggest ever to Google Analytics (GA), the Big Tech brand’s nearly 20-year-old mega-dashboard for web traffic tracking and reporting. Beginning July 1, 2023, no new data will flow into Universal Analytics, Google’s legacy “property” that, in 2012, set a new standard for how user data would be collected and organized. Now, a little more than a decade later, Google is once again revolutionizing the world of web analytics technologies — with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), “the next generation of Analytics which collects event-based data from both websites and apps.” With GA cornering nearly three quarters of the market, this ‘big change’ could have a really big impact for at least 75% of brands. (Bonus tip: If you’re part of the 25 or so percent of businesses not currently using Google for web — and, now, app — performance measurement, it’s time for a change.)

The Future is Now with GA4

Although not everyone remembers, Google Analytics 4 was first announced as a “new way to unify app and website measurement” nearly four years ago; on July 31, 2019, Russell Ketchum, the product management director for GA, wrote an extensive Google Marketing Platform post on all the benefits of migration. Yet, as of April 2023, only 0.7% of websites were using GA4, representing a significant opportunity for brands who start their migration today.

What’s the difference between Google Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4?

As succinctly outlined in the GA Help Center, the new Google Analytics:

Collects website and app data for a more comprehensive view of the customer journey
Uses event-based data (not session based)
Features new “privacy controls,” including cookieless measurement as well as behavioral and conversion modeling
Provides predictive guidance for more complex models
Integrates directly with a variety of third-party platforms to “help drive actions” on websites and apps

According to Ketchum in the original Google announcement:

People expect to interact with businesses when and how they like, such as browsing a brand's website to research a product and then purchasing it later using the brand's app. Getting insight into these cross-platform journeys is critical for businesses to predict customer needs and provide great experiences—but it can be very challenging.

Currently, many businesses measure app engagement with Google Analytics for Firebase and website engagement with Google Analytics. While each of these products separately offer powerful insights, getting a more unified picture of engagement across your app and website can be a manual and painstaking process.

To make this simpler, we’re announcing a new way to measure apps and websites together for the first time in Google Analytics.

A closeup of a brown and a white hand connected, symbolizing the unity in GA4's new web and app measurement capabilities

Here’s how it works.

Unified app and web analytics

In Google Analytics 4, there’s “a new property type,” App + Web, for unified app and web data, allowing you to use a single set of metrics and dimensions for cross-platform marketing campaign analysis and reporting. With this enhancement, you can determine, for instance, which channels are producing the most new website visitors (users) or conversions.

Flexible event measurement

In GA4, there’s a new event-based model for apps and websites that allows you to measure all the unique interactions users have with your content, from clicks and pageviews to app downloads and opens — and even scrolls and video views. This more flexible model allows you to measure all user actions with consistency, and can even be automated with no additional coding.

Cross-platform analysis

In GA4, the new Analysis module allows you to examine data in new ways, not limited by previously predefined reports. This can include:

Exploration. Drag and drop “the different segments, dimensions, and metrics you use to measure your business” onto a digital canvas for instant data visualizations.
Funnels. Track your customer journey and identify the most important stages, steps and experiences within your open or closed funnels that trigger conversions as well as dropoffs.
Path analysis. Identify the actions users take between your funnel steps for additional detail on why users did/didn’t convert.

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What are the benefits of GA4?

“Google Analytics 4 is designed with your key objectives in mind,” says Ketchum, whether that’s “driving sales or app installs, generating leads or connecting online and offline customer engagement.”

GA4 delivers a variety of benefits, including:

A more comprehensive understanding of your customers via a complete view of the customer lifecycle, enabled by the new event-based model that doesn’t fragment by platform or session
Good data etiquette and privacy compliance, with new country-specific controls that allow you to minimize the collection of third-party user-level data, “while preserving key measurement functionality”
“Greater value from your data” via automatic, predictive user behavioral insights generated via machine learning, enabling the creation of new audiences that are more “likely to purchase or churn”
Increased ROI via data-driven attribution that calculates the actual contribution of each click interaction, highlights the full impact of your marketing efforts through the customer journey, and seamlessly exports to Google Ads and the Google Marketing Platform for campaign optimization

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How to Get Started with GA4

To get started with GA4, your web analytics team should first check if your GA property is even impacted: if you created your GA account before October 14, 2020, you’re likely using Universal Analytics; if you created your GA account after October 14, 2020, you may already be using Google Analytics 4.

Until July 1, 2023, you can continue to use and collect new data in Universal Analytics. From July 1, 2023, to January 1, 2024, you’ll be able to access your previously processed data in Universal Analytics and should use this time to export your historical reports; however, no new data will be processed.

Here are the three options for implementing GA4:

If you haven’t yet used Google Analytics and would like to start collecting web and/or app data, use this Google guide to set it up for the first time
If you already use Universal Analytics and would like to add GA4 to your site and/or app, use the GA4 Setup Assistant to add a Google Analytics 4 property alongside your existing property; both will collect data and can be accessed using the property selector in the admin section of the dashboard
If you already use Universal Analytics for a CMS-hosted website, use this Google guide to add GA4; follow these steps if you use Wordpress, Drupal, Squarespace, Hubspot, Shopify or any other content management system