As Google prepares to sunset Universal Analytics and migrate to its new cross-platform analytic solution, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) best practices encourage early adoption. This modern measurement solution (combating new cookie-consent policies) will fine-tune impactful business insights in a more comprehensive, privacy-compliant fashion. Here’s a quick overview of what you should know.
When is this happening?
Universal Analytics (UA) tracking will stop in July 2023 for those using the free version and in October 2023 for GA360 customers.
Why is this happening?
“Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions, and more easily observable data from cookies,” Russell Ketchum, director of Product Management at Google, said in the announcement. “This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete.”
What does this mean for retailers and brands?
GA4 0perates across platforms and does not rely on cookies. It also does not store IP addresses, which can help brands stay on the right side of privacy regulations. Benefits:
- More flexible, scalable, and universal data model
- Easier custom reporting options
- In-product machine learning, including predictive audiences and data-driven attribution
- Greater allowable hit volume
- Automatic tagging through enhanced measurement
How should retailers and brands prepare?
If you haven’t set up your GA4 properties yet, now is the time!! Make the move over as soon as possible to build the necessary historical data before Universal Analytics stops processing new hits. We know your data is important to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historical reports.
Note that not all metrics will match between the old reports and the new ones. While looking into the new reports, sessions may be the most impacted.
Need help embracing GA4? Contact us!
