changes to google analytics
With ever-changing business landscapes, it’s important to be able to measure and analyse data to meet our goals and requirements. Google Analytics 4 is the future of data analysis and measurement and brings a whole new perspective to the table.
This brand new kind of property is the next generation of Google Analytics and will be replacing universal analytics on July 1st, 2023. It includes substantial advantages over universal analytics. The all-new tool uses intelligent machine learning to produce insights about your customer’s journey through your website, including which platforms and devices they’re using. As a business, it is vitally important that we are able to measure data in an accurate and interesting way so that we can get the most out of our insights.
This is most important when it comes to gathering ideas on how to improve your website and your customers’ user experience. The new Google Analytics property will use coherent integrations with Google advertising platforms such as search, display, youtube and maps. This new feature will optimise campaign performance and drive a wider return on investment (ROI).
How to start using google analytics 4
When it comes to measuring your data, Google Analytics can be a brilliant tool for measuring the performance of your website. If you are someone who already takes advantage of this beneficial tool then you may be aware that the new Google Analytics 4 property will need to be implemented into your existing setup. This can be done with the Google Analytics 4 setup assistant under the property column. When you create your new Google Analytics property it will run alongside your existing universal analytics. This will remain unchanged and still continue to collect data until July 1st, 2023 when it will then no longer process data. Any new data from this date onwards will be collected and processed by Google Analytics 4.
what are the benefits?
Another key benefit of using this intelligent new property is that you can now see more of the user’s journey by capturing the events that users take through their journey on your website. With the implementation of a new core, Google Analytics now measures data with an emphasis on users and their interactions. With the addition of this new data model, you can now use a single set of metrics to analyse both website and app data, allowing for more intelligent aggregation. If a user has visited your website on a desktop, and then revisited it on a mobile device and downloaded your app to make a purchase, you will be able to track all of this information with the new features of Google Analytics 4.
new and improved measuring
Furthermore, an additional benefit of the new and improved measurement and analysis tool, is that you can now create even more powerful audiences for your ads campaigns. This means that you can keep track of any of the devices or events that users are making throughout their customer journey. If a user decides to use multiple devices to visit your website and then revisit and make purchases or sign up for newsletters, you can now make sure that you have all of the data regarding any of these events that have taken place.
From this information, you can then compose more accurate audiences due to having the data you need to be knowledgeable in who exactly is visiting your website and on what types of devices. No longer will it be difficult to optimise your ad spend for complex user journeys. You can now put your user’s journeys together and avoid wasting any ad spend.
More control over your privacy
Just as important, there are now more intelligent user privacy and tracking features, giving you and your users more control over what kind of personal information is being collected. This new feature will enable you to comply with privacy rules and regulations that are current and also adapt to any that are new and upcoming. It is now possible to enable and disable specific events and user properties through personalisation. As cookies evolve and change over time, you will be able to adapt more easily to these in order to still be receiving any data you need without breaching any privacy rules.
goal and events setup made simple
Other benefits include the simplicity of goals and event setup. It is now possible to get the most out of tracking user behavioural data with easier methods of doing so. What once was a very complex process of coding, editing and optimising is now made simple with the ability to implement Google Analytics default tracking options such as clicks, scroll behaviour and transactions. Implementing these now requires far less time and work and is much easier to set up.
Consequently, the new Google Analytics 4 will bring more accurate and clear data that will make it even easier for you to track events from your website. This will give you the ability to make more clear-cut decisions that will benefit your business as a whole.
