Google Analytics 4

New Google Analytics 4 – or GA4, as it is commonly known – was released in October 2020 and is set to become Google's new standard tool for tracking web services and mobile applications. GA4 will replace the Universal Analytics (UA) product on 1 July 2023.

You can therefore continue using Universal Analytics for the time being without concern, but I strongly recommend installing the new GA4 alongside it, because it is so easy.

It has been a long time since Google Analytics 4 was released, but there is still no great rush to adopt it, as the rather familiar Google-style ”beta” feel is still evident. There has been – and will continue to be – quite a lot of development in GA4's interface and features. Take, for example, the definition of custom dimensions, where product- and session-level scope is still missing at present. That said, they are on the way.

If you want to keep up with the arrival of new features, bookmark this link.

It took a long time – and the summer holidays came and went too – but eventually this humble nerd pulled himself together and wrote this blog. As the topic is fairly multi-faceted, I felt it best to put most of the commentary into video.

If you have not yet had the chance to familiarise yourself with GA4 at all, I recommend starting with the first video, where installation and testing functionality are covered. If Google Analytics 4 is already installed, but you have not yet had time to tailor it to your own needs, you can safely skip the first part. 

Google Analytics 4 - Installation and implementation

Implementing the GA4 property takes place, in practice, during a coffee break, and it installs neatly alongside the old Universal Analytics property without any fear of losing existing data or breaking current data collection.

Among my own network, the popular approach has been the ”switch it on and start wondering what comes out” model, where a basic setup is carried out and new tracking is built gradually over time. This is an excellent opportunity to renew the data collection model and implement all the new ideas that have been circulating lately.

In the video below, the new Google Analytics 4 property is installed and its functionality is verified.

Google Analytics 4 - Interface

Thanks to Palmia for ”lending the data” for this example video, in which we take a look at Google Analytics 4's new interface. In terms of data collection and the new look, GA4 is no philosopher's stone. What matters most is shaping data collection and reporting to suit your own needs – not which Google Analytics version you use!

The video below therefore introduces Palmia's GA4 setup, where the aforementioned ”install it and see what happens” model is applied :) Many thanks again to Palmia's top team! 

Google Analytics 4 - Settings

Analytics is not reliable if the settings are off. The most essential fine-tuning for web service analytics is always: 

• identifying and filtering internal traffic

• filtering unwanted referral traffic

• cross-domain tracking, that is, counting movement between multiple domains ”in one place”.

The video below goes through the most important settings that should be put in order immediately after installing Google Analytics 4. 

Google Analytics 4 - Events

As noted in the earlier videos, GA4's data collection model has undergone a complete overhaul. The structure familiar from Universal Analytics:

• Event Category

• Event Action

• Event Label

• Event Value

has been consigned to the scrap heap and replaced with a simple model in which every ”event / interaction” on a website is its own unique ”event”. For example:

• session_start (session begins)

• page_view (page view)

• click (click), and so on.

An event is also accompanied by a range of additional parameters (event parameters), which add further dimensions to that event. For example, the ”click” event carries information about which page the click occurred on, what was clicked, and where the click leads.
The video below looks at event tracking in practice. 

 Google Analytics 4 – Custom event parameters

The event identifiers collected by GA4 are easy to tailor to your own needs. The somewhat complex Custom Dimensions ”slots”, familiar to more experienced Universal Analytics users, have been removed (thank you, Google). In their place is a very simple model where an analyst can easily define any additional parameters that travel with the event. Google Tag Manager is, naturally, an excellent tool for this work.

The video below walks through creating and implementing custom event parameters. 

Using Google Analytics 4 with Google Data Studio?

Because of the very different underlying database structure brought about by the renewal, reports based on Universal Analytics are not, as such, compatible with GA4.