From Scary to Great: Key Benefits of Migrating to GA4

Here are some popular questions about Google Analytics 4 a lot of professionals have been asking:

• Google Analytics 4, what is it?
• What is Google Analytics 4 all about?
• Should we be using it?
• We already have Universal Analytics. Why should we go with Google Analytics 4?

These are popular questions pertaining to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) as Universal Analytics will no longer be in use on July 1, 2023. Even those who have it on their sites, they ought to know it will stop tracking website analytics starting from that day.

Though a lot of professionals were using Google Analytics to collect data from website visitors, Google announced the news of companies requiring transition to Google Analytics 4 because time has come to update analytics. It is  the latest version which will certainly help digital marketers up their game for sure.

So not only can the migration to the new analytics platform help keep the reports and analytics on the website, but also a whole new stream of features can be accessed too. Let us now learn a bit about Google Analytics 4.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – what is it?

GA4 is Google’s newest version of their well known Analytics platform. It not only helps in tracking a website and an app in the same account, but also brings in various new reporting features. Plus, it even offers detailed insights in the way people interact with a website.

The way the data is stored and processed (that is the data architecture) is different from the previous versions of Analytics. GA 4 provides marketers wholesome new ways of measuring and analyzing traffic usage for quite some time to come.

Why does Google Analytics 4 look different from its predecessor?

The reason GA4 looks different from Universal Analytics (UA) is that it is an upgrade over its predecessor. UA users who created a new property in GA4 by manual means may have a bit of trouble looking at some of the reports they easily found and viewed in UA.

Yet Google is helping everyone get used to the new platform. In fact, the tech giant touts it as the future of analytics because it has unleashed new features and a whole new interface in it too.

Though it is new, why should companies migrate to Google Analytics 4? Key reasons to do so

Though a lot of people found it complicated at first, marketers from a sizable and well known web design company Dubai have decided to share with all of us the key benefits and reasons why companies should move to GA4 (and reasons why marketing teams need to persuade their companies to do the same):

The interface is more than just customizable

An exciting aspect of GA4 is users’ ability to customize the platform’s interface. Google has recognized an issue persistent for years and hence decided to fix it with zeal.

So, this means that marketers can now have an improved experience  using GA4 because they can customize the time range of their data reports, and easily access the needed data in an instant instead of going through the interface’s myriad of options and even consulting YouTube videos for analytics’ access. Google also provides support for operating the platform.

Users have more control over the custom reporting feature

Another worthwhile feature of GA4 is that it gives users a lot more control over their custom reporting. This indicates that they can control the data and especially that they desire to analyze. The limits which Universal Analytics had are now gone. GA4 can help users create the following:

• Custom tables.
• Funnel visualizations. 
• Layering multiple segments for understanding users.

It offers new metrics for tracking

With UA getting phased out, old metrics of measuring user behavior are also on the way out. New Metrics like bounce rate and average session duration won’t be available in GA4. They are replaced by metrics like engagement rates, engaged sessions and their variants. According to Google, these indicators are more impactful in comparison to the old ones.

Creation of more powerful audiences for the ad campaigns

GA4 helps in optimizing ad spends and audience creation for user journeys across multiple devices. Any user visiting an ad using both a desktop,m phone and laptop is counted as one user, even if they used the phone for filling out a contact form and doing the rest of the tasks using a laptop and a different browser.

GA4 makes it easy to optimize ad spend for such journeys because its predecessor would not be able to join the journey due to different devices and browsers used. This is why GA4 helps configure the web and apps correctly and stitches the journeys together to ensure ad spend is not wasted. The company has been releasing new metrics to help optimize those audiences quickly and much more intelligently. 

In fact, it continues to add more predictive metrics which not only allow for creation of newer audiences to reach customers of higher value but also to conduct analyses to improve understanding of why some customers spend more than others. This helps them take action to improve their results.

Provision of unified scopes of dimension and metric

GA4 provides a unified view between both the web and mobile apps. Collection methodology is unified to events having traditional pageviews in a much more even view with behavioral events. Its predecessor often required individual tagging and separate properties with inconsistent dimensions and metrics.

Reporting is simple and organized

Quite importantly to both web analysts and marketers alike, re-scoping of methodology is something Google did right. GA4 brought in numerous new reporting tools and reorganized the existing app and web reports with a more streamlined User Interface (UI).

Also, the  biggest benefit of such is that it gives a unified view for both apps and websites and Google even revamped the custom reporting tool into an analysis hub. This provides more flexibility with customized and ad hoc reporting mechanisms.

Newer privacy conscious data controls

Across multiple platforms, unified user journey and reporting has been difficult. Even since the inception of web and app development, it was never easy. It is time Google has come up with a solution that understands these requirements increasing and data collection also having newer challenges.

As third party data collection will be ousted by web 3.0 (certain platforms are implementing tracking restrictions), Google will be ready to provide anonymous first-party data along with consolidated tracking systems. Unification of properties, collection scopes and improving server side capabilities is helping the tech giant move away from client side dependencies and the like.

Conclusion

The transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was initially met with hesitation, as marketers and businesses perceived it to be a complex and disruptive shift from Universal Analytics. However, with time, GA4 has proven itself to be a powerful upgrade, offering advanced features that simplify and enhance digital marketing analytics. One of its most significant advantages is the ability to unify data from both websites and apps, providing a holistic view of user interactions across platforms. This eliminates the need for fragmented analytics tools and delivers a seamless understanding of the customer journey.

Additionally, GA4’s event-based tracking, enhanced machine learning capabilities, and improved cross-device reporting provide deeper insights into user behavior, enabling more precise targeting and optimization. The platform’s predictive analytics and privacy-centric design also future-proof businesses against evolving data regulations. What once seemed like a daunting migration has now become a rewarding transformation, empowering marketers with real-time, actionable data.