For many businesses Google Analytics is the holy grail of website tracking and reporting on performance. Currently, Google Analytics is operating the Universal Analytics version, which has a user friendly interface if you are used to navigating reporting software.

Google has announced that it will be transitioning to Google Analytics 4 in July 2023. So apart from continuing being able to report on your website, why else should you consider switching to GA4 now instead of waiting until you are forced to?

If you have been using Google Analytics for a while, you have probably spent a fair amount of time learning about reports, how to set up goals and integrating custom tracking into your systems. Google Analytics 4 is a completely new analytics tool with a new data model. It has very different tracking points and different metrics. It is important to start to learn the new tracking points in GA4 sooner rather than later.

We have highlighted below the main benefits of the new GA4 and why you should start using it now.

1. GA4 has a more customisable interface
   One of the limitations of the current Google Analytics is the limited customisation of the interface, with the new and improved version, users can select more specific metrics to view and gain a better understanding of the customer journey with customer-centric measurements. This means that you can start learning about your audiences in the background now, whilst having more time to migrate any settings or data you currently have.
   
   
2. More detail and control over custom reporting
   Google Analytics 4 allows users to create custom reports after previous versions limiting what reports could be viewed and exported. This will allow users more freedom to analyse what they want about their audience to gain a more in depth understanding of how they use their website. Perfect for identifying weaker sections of your site or gaining a deeper understanding of your audience actions, why would you not want to do this now?
   
   
3. New Machine Learning and integration with Google Ads
   Google Analytics 4 will automatically detect trends in your data and notify you, alongside predicting user behaviour and actions to help you plan ahead. Google will also continue to add predictive metrics, including GA4 allowing you to create audiences and analyses of which is more likely to convert etc. This is especially helpful for Google Ads as it will help you build custom audiences that are more relevant to your customers and potentially improve your conversions.
   
   
4. New Automatic tracking
   This is a game changer for businesses that like to track what users are doing on their website. Previously, you will have needed to set up custom tracking on Universal Analytics, but with GA4, this is automatically tracked for you. You will be able to see the number of actions users take on your website, including scrolling, clicking on outbound links and watching embedded videos.
   
   
5. New and improved real time data and reporting
   GA4 allows you to view better real time reporting, with the ability to drill down into reports and see what individual users are doing on your website or app. You will also be able to better export reports, with more granular data available that is relevant to your needs, as well as a lot more data per export. Plus you can send Google a BiQuery if you feel that you want even more control over your reporting ability.

It is highly recommended that you begin your switch over to the new GA4 soon to start enjoying the benefits of the new features ahead of July 2023. GA4 will be the sole version of analytics supported from this time, with the older version gradually being phased out of updates and improvements over the coming months. 

You need to consider the time it will take to get the GA4 property collecting enough of your website data to help you compare how it’s reported against Universal Analytics, and also to discover how you will set up any custom reporting and event tracking to match what you currently use. We recommend getting the property set up now, even if it’s just collecting standard data in the background so that you have a good robust set of data to review and test your new reports on - plus, you will be ahead of the curve of businesses that will wait until next year to make the move. It is for this reason that we recommend running the new GA4 alongside your current set up in GA3 for as long as possible. This will ensure that any anomalies in traffic or issues with goal set up can be identified ahead of the full switch over.

It’s important to note that GA4 features are still a work in progress which may result in updates and changes occurring throughout the transitional period. As many of the GA4 setup varies significantly from the previous version, it will be important to understand the changes in advance and allow time to educate the relevant stakeholders and users as to how to implement the new features and use them effectively for future website analytics and tracking.

Jive can help you get ahead and support  a smooth migration from Universal Analytics to GA4, contact us today to arrange a FREE 30 minute no obligation consultation, to find out how we can help you.