GA4: How To Use Google Analytics 4 For Your Website?

Some new and exciting features came along when Google announced the most significant change in Google Analytics ever i.e., GA4 in October 2020.

Basically, Google Analytics 4 has been renamed from Google App + web properties and it has officially graduated from beta.

This simply means that the default property you are going to create will now be GA4.

It is going to be a completely new platform. The old version was to track website activity such as session duration, click-through rate pages per session, bounce rate, etc but the new version like the new interface, new tag template in Google Tag Manager, new data model, etc.

But then, it also creates one more question and that is, how to use Google Analytics 4?

Don’t worry! I am here to help you!

In this blog, I am going to discuss how to use Google Analytics 4. So, stay till the end.

Before we move further, let’s first understand what Google Analytics 4 is.

What Is Google Analytics 4?

Google analytics 4 is created on the same platform as App + web that was released in 2019. The first version, App + web, was mostly focused on cross-channeled data, meaning it gave marketers an option to track the user’s activity across the website.

On the other hand, GA4 is all about “events”. These “events” are the main reasons why Google came up with this new version.

All of this means that its major purpose is to change how data is presented so that it focuses on the user– specifically, the user journey from the first visit to ultimate conversion.

New privacy protection requirements (such as the GDPR and the CCPA) and the decreased reliability of traditional analytics are driving the demand for something like Google Analytics 4.

Due to the cookie consent alternatives needed by these rules, many firms utilizing the traditional Universal Google Analytics may experience difficulties with erroneous or missing data.

But then one more question arises and that is, what’s unique about Google Analytics 4?

Here are some things that make Google Analytics 4 unique.

1. GA4 is going to allow the marketers to edit and fine-tune the events tracked in their analytics without editing the on-site code.

2. Data Import now allows you to combine data from non-website sources (such as applications) into a single property.

3. Cross-domain tracking is also possible through the UI and does not need any code changes.

These are some of the ways how Google Analytics 4 is different from Google Analytics itself.

GA4 V/S Universal Analytics

The measuring model between GA4 and universal analytics is one of the most significant differences between them. Universal Analytics employs a session and page view-based measuring approach.

A session is a collection of user engagements (hits) with a website that occur over a set period of time. Multiple page views, events, and eCommerce purchases can all be part of the same session.

Google Analytics 4, on the other hand, employs a measuring methodology based on events and parameters. Any contact may be captured as an event, according to this approach. As a result, in GA4, all Universal Analytics hit kinds are converted to events.

Along with the things I have elaborated above, universal analytics has its own category, action, label, and its own hit type.

But there is no category, action, and label in GA4. Each hit is an event that includes parameters.

The events of GA4 is categorized into 4 categories:

1. Automatically collected events- When you install the GA4 base code, these events are automatically logged. Page view, first visit, and session start are examples of these occurrences.

2. Enhanced Measurement events- You can enable or disable the automatically collected alongside the base code. Scrolls, outbound clicks, site searches, and video engagements are examples of these events.

3. Recommended Events- These are events that Google suggests you organize and have been divided into industry categories. Aside from the eCommerce suggested events, Google’s recommended events appear to be general suggestions with no need for naming standards.

4. Custom Events- These are events and parameters that you may build and use based on the needs of your website. The current maximum is 500 different named events (which may change in the future).

Benefits Of GA4

When Google has updated the universal analytics to GA4, it also has some benefits as well.
Let’s see some.

Apps: Unlike Universal Analytics (UA), GA4 allows you to measure the performance of a website, an app, or even both a website and an app at the same time. Using the same GA property to collect data from a website and an app has the potential to make statistical analysis much easier, saving time and money.

More Focus On User Engagement: Google has aligned report menu parts with the customer journey, making it easier for marketers and analysts to dive into user-centric information.

One of Google Analytics 4’s finest features is its new user-centric metrics and dimensions, which uses AI to forecast consumer behaviors and value.

Meanwhile, Google has removed Bounce Rate and replaced it with some more powerful and valuable engagement indicators. These new engagement metrics, when paired with the new pre-configured scroll, video, outbound clicks, and file download events, should help you determine if your content is engaging or whether people are engaging with it.
User-Centric: Google Analytics 4 is completely different from universal analytics which helps the marketers get more user-centric reports.

In universal analytics, we got sections like, ‘audience’, ‘acquisition’, ‘behavior’, and ‘conversions’.

Whereas in GA4, we have user features like, ‘acquisition’, ‘engagement’, ‘monetization’, and ‘retention’.

More Intelligent Tracking: With governments and regulatory agencies enacting new and stronger privacy regulations, tracking users through cookies is becoming increasingly challenging. We also know that cookies are still frequently used in current tracking tactics.

Google also assures us,

“Because the technology landscape continues to evolve, the new Analytics is designed to adapt to a future with or without cookies or identifiers. It uses a flexible approach to measurement, and in the future, will include modeling to fill in the gaps where the data may be incomplete. This means that you can rely on Google Analytics to help you measure your marketing results and meet customer needs now as you navigate the recovery and as you face uncertainty in the future.”

• Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President, Engineering, Google Ads, Google

How To Use Google Analytics 4

You should also learn how to utilize Google Analytics 4 now that Google has improved its version.

This question is quite difficult to answer as there is no one way to use Google Analytics. It has the full information about your website so the usability depends on what you want to know.

I am not going to elaborate on every single report but the main 3 compositions of Google Analytics 4 which are Acquisition, Engagement, and Conversion.

Acquisition

Acquisition reports are there to show you how users get to your site. It is divided into 2 categories, User acquisition, and Traffic acquisition.

User engagement reports are based on user engagement, whereas session engagement reports are based on session engagement. Because a single user might have several sessions, this difference is critical. As a result, we’ll go over the User Acquisition Report in detail.

To see the User Acquisition Report, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Analytics and sign in.

2. Reports on the Life Cycle can be expanded by clicking on them.

3. Expand Acquisition reports by clicking on them.4. Select User Acquisition from the drop-down menu.

Add a comparison for User demographics, Device, or Custom events, such as a specific discount code, to segment your report.

For the time being, we’ll retain this as “All Users” and stick to a high-level view:

The data you enter in the table below will automatically generate the bar graph and scatter chart.

The dimension in the first column of the table in the example above was “First user medium.” This identifies the first source of user acquisition. “Organic” traffic, for example, includes traffic from all organic sources, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others.

Engagement

Users’ actions on your site are reported in engagement reports. The average amount of time your site had the focus in the browser, the number of unique visitors that scrolled at least 90% of the page, event count, and conversion count are all used to determine engagement.

Let’s look at one of the Engagement reports in particular: Pages and monitors.

To go to this report, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Analytics and sign in.

2. Reports on the Life Cycle can be expanded by clicking on them.

3. Expand Engagement reports by clicking on them.

4. Pages and screens can be accessed by clicking them.

Add a comparison for the marketing channel you’re wanting to investigate to your report. Include the dimension “First user medium” with the value “organic,” for example.

The data you enter in the table below will automatically generate the bar graph and scatter chart.

You can update the descriptive property or characteristic of data in column 1 by editing the dimension. Choosing “Page title and screen class” for example will display the page title, whereas “Page path + query string and screen class” will display the URL.

The table’s remaining columns are labeled “metrics.” A metric is a particular dimension element. For example, a statistic like new users, unique user scrolls, event counts, and other engagement metrics might be related to the dimension “Page title.”

Read more: What is SEO Friendly Website Structure & Why is it Important?

Conversions

The conversions report shows you which user behaviors contribute to your company’s success. This may be placing purchase at an internet store. It may be filling out a contact form on a lead generation website.

“Goals” in GA4 are defined as conversion events. Users interact with your website, which triggers the events data you see in your GA4 reports.

To get the Conversions report, go to:

1. Go to Google Analytics and sign in.

2. Reports on the Life Cycle can be expanded by clicking on them.

3. Expand Engagement reports by clicking on them.

4. Then choose Conversions.

The data you enter in the table below will automatically generate the bar graph and scatter chart.

Events are listed by name, the number of linked conversions, total users, and event income in the table. To view a report about a specific event, click on the name of the event.

You may wish to see extra information on customers who begin the checkout process if you run an eCommerce store. To do so, go to the ‘begin checkout’ event and click on it.

This will open a new report with only the specified event’s traffic source, number of conversions, and value.

To change the report’s metrics and dimensions, use the dropdown options in the top left corner of the line chart.

You may opt to see the number of conversions or the event value, for example. You may also sort the events by Event source, Event medium, Event campaign, overtime, or Google Ads analytics to discover where they came from.

By clicking the blue + symbol next to Column 1, you may add a supplementary dimension to the explorer table, such as a city.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have discussed how you can use Google Analytics 4 for your website. There are mainly three compositions of Google Analytics 4 which is going to help you in tracking the performance of your page.

GA4 is an upgraded version of Google Analytics which will help you track the events mainly.

I hope this blog will be helpful. If you have any doubts or queries, feel free to comment down below in the comment section. I will reply for sure!

For more marketing tips and services, you can schedule a free-of-cost 30-Minute Strategy session with our experts. In this call, our experts would discuss your business and provide you with the free strategies that you can use to boost your sales and revenue.

FAQs

1. Do I need to switch to Google Analytics 4?

You should upgrade to Google Analytics 4, also called GA4. To be clear, upgrading to Google Analytics 4 does not mean that your existing data from Universal Analytics (that many are calling GA3) will be transferred over to Google Analytics 4.

2. What is the difference between GA4 and UA?

The biggest difference between Universal Analytics and GA4 is the measurement model that they use. Universal Analytics uses a measurement model based on sessions and pageviews. whereas, Google Analytics 4 uses a measurement model based on events and parameters.

3. How do events work in GA4?

Automatically collected events are collected automatically when you set up data collection. Enhanced measurement events are collected automatically when you enable enhanced measurement. You can enable or disable the collection of individual enhanced measurement events in Admin.

4. Is GA4 still beta?

While GA4 no longer carries a beta product label, it is not ready to become your primary analysis tool. But it wouldn’t be surprising if the platform were completely viable, by the end of 2021. Rest assured, Universal Analytics will not be discontinued anytime soon, so you don’t have to worry about your current data.

5. How do I install Google Analytics 4?

1. Create a new GA4 property

2. Create a data stream

3. Copy the Measurement ID

4. Create a Google Analytics 4 Configuration tag

5. Paste the Measurement ID and set the tag to fire on All Pages

6. Preview/test the new tag