What to know about the end of Universal Analytics and the beginning of GA4

Every once in a while, Google likes to throw a wrench in our gears by launching a new analytics technology and sunsetting another one. 

Is it such a wrench, though? In truth, there are excellent reasons for the switch.

If you don’t know, Google announced (officially) yesterday that it would be sunsetting Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. This gives marketers one year to get their new analytics in place before they stop collecting data in Universal Analytics.

If you’re feeling a little panicked, don’t. Let’s talk through what this means for marketers and business leaders alike.

What does the Google Analytics update mean?

Starting in July 2023, your current Universal Analytics profile will stop collecting data. It will still be available for six months for you to view, but then it will be gone. 

The change is a signal that you should launch a GA4 Profile soon. You’ll thank yourself for doing this when July 2023 rolls around, and you already have 1+ years of Google Analytics data as Universal Analytics is sunsetting. 

It’s not difficult to create a new GA4 profile, but I do recommend putting some effort into it. Set up goals and events that you’re using in your current GA profile. Create a dashboard of key metrics in Google Sheets to ensure you have historical data.

Will metric definitions change?

Yes.

Start looking at both reports and plan how you’ll report metrics that are expected to change in the new instance. 

For example, Bounce Rate is going bye, bye, and will be replaced with an engagement rate. Here’s why: The bounce rate would trigger when a visitor visited one page and then left. This really doesn’t make much sense, though. Let’s say someone visits a page, spends five minutes on it, and then leaves. Is that bad? How about single-page applications, like a calculator, where someone could make calculations, use a tool and not visit any other page. Is that bad? No!

The definition of a session will change, too. Overall, GA4 is looking to become more focused on users than sessions. If a user were to leave and then come back in a short time (30 minutes is the number I’ve heard), then they wouldn’t count that as two sessions, just one. 

Again, I like this change. In looking at Path Length vs. Time Lag reports, I've noticed that many users visit your site multiple times in one day before converting. Let’s say they start by coming in on Google / Organic, but then they come back several times, and it shows up as “Direct.” At that point, I’m most focused on the initial source and don’t care about the other times they came back in a short period of time.

So the focus on the user reflects the way marketers approach the data anyways.

A focus on events

It’s been said that Universal Analytics was built for the Desktop, and GA4 is built more for a mobile web. Makes sense. 

As such, GA4 will be more event-driven. Google is mentioning things like app tracking, mobile traffic, and desktop traffic at almost every chance it gets.

For a long time, when I’ve entered into GA accounts, I’ve felt people don’t do enough to track events. After all, there’s so much data to uncover. Many of the applications you use, like Drift and Hubspot, have improved tracking through events. You can see what people are engaging with on your site. 

GA4 makes it much more user-friendly to set up events and use that data.

Final thoughts about GA4

With Google’s announcement about coming changes, we have a lot to be excited about. Each new iteration of Google Analytics makes improvements that we as marketers need or metrics we’re tracking elsewhere.

But don’t get caught unprepared!

We recommend getting ready for the coming changes from Universal Analytics to GA4.

We will be providing resources as necessary to help folks make the switch. Come back for more advice on making the transition the smoothest you’ve seen yet.

You also can check our Podcast page, we tackle all of the challenges of B2B marketers looking to build systems that scale.