What’s New in GA4?
GA4’s data structure and collection logic are different. Everything now revolves around users and events, not sessions. An events-based model treats each user interaction separately website designing Delhi.
Previously, we used a session-based model that grouped user interactions over time.
Moving from sessions to events gives marketers cross-platform analysis and pathing analysis.
GA4 is more flexible and can predict user behavior with an event-based model.
Should I use GA4?
- Do you need Google Analytics 4 now?
- Parallelize GA4 and Universal Analytics.
- Even if you don’t use it right away, collecting data and strengthening ML models will improve future analysis.
- Data collection improves marketing strategies.
How To Set Up GA4
Configuring GA4 is as simple as a few clicks.
The analytics property you are familiar with will be left unchanged, continuing to collect data. Your UA view will continue to be accessible via the admin screen.
Here’s how to connect a new GA4 data stream to your current Universal Analytics. (If you are setting up a brand new property, refer to Google Tag Manager: A GA4 Beginner’s Guide.)
Steps For Configuring GA4
- Login to your Google Analytics Account.
- Click Admin. Gear icon, bottom left navigation.
- Confirm that your desired account is selected.
- Confirm the desired property is selected.
- Click GA4 Setup Assistant, the first option in the Property column.
- Google Analytics Click GA4 Setup Assistant Screenshot.
- Once inside the Setup Wizard, click the large blue button, Get Started.
- Screenshot of GA4 Setup Wizard to get started.
There is only one more step, click the blue button to Create property.
It truly is this easy!
Important Note: The GA4 setup assistant works automatically with gtag.js. If you use a website builder such as WordPress, Wix, etc., you will need to add the Analytics tag yourself.
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After creating your property, the setup assistant will automatically activate enhanced measurement in your Google Analytics 4 property.
Custom code is still needed to track third-party elements and form submissions but the most basic forms of event tracking are automatic and ready to go.
How Does GA4 Help With Reporting?
A data collection strategy is only as strong as the information you can extract from it.
So how will switching to GA4 help with reporting?
- With the push for user privacy, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to track users as they travel across multiple platforms, using multiple devices.
- GA4 is a forward-thinking solution using enhanced machine learning techniques to help fill in the missing data gap. Creating a single user journey for all data linked to the same identity.
- Lastly, GA4 simplified the reporting interface making it really easy for marketers to spot key trends and irregularities in data.
- Instead of a long list of predefined reports that try to cover every use case, GA4 uses overview reports in summary cards. If you want to dig in deeper, simply click on the scorecard.
Best Ways To Use Google Analytics 4 Reports
This final section of getting to know Google Analytics 4 will cover the best ways to use GA4 reports.
When you first log in, you’ll see that the home page summarizes overall traffic, conversions, and revenue for that property. This is best used as a quick check to make sure everything is behaving as expected.
Your home page report will quickly answer:
- Where do new users come from?
- What are your top-performing campaigns?
- Which pages and screens get the most views?
Realtime Report
Realtime report is the next default report in the left navigation, and it shows events that happened within the past 30 minutes.
Use the Realtime Report to quickly:
Confirm tracking code is working.
View Effects from a YouTube Video.
- View New Product Drop, as it happens in real time.
- Cool Feature: “View User Snapshot”
- Click View user snapshot in the top right corner of the Real-time report to see a literal snapshot for a single user.
- This includes information about the user’s device, location, and real-time engagement with the site/app through events triggered.
