A call to all marketers: Have you migrated from Google’s Universal Analytics system to your current platform, GA4? If not, why?

There are many reasons to complete your migration now. Google plans to retire his market-leading version of Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. GA4, on the other hand, is a vastly different system and marketers will need time to learn new interfaces and data collection methods.

Additionally, according to Google, data collected by Universal Analytics will only be accessible for at least six months after the retirement date. The sooner GA4 starts tracking data, the more data will be available for historical comparison once GA4 is the only option.

Google’s switch to GA4 is the latest in a series of major news developments that continue to transform the entire web analytics and digital marketing landscape. The move to increase privacy protections for consumer data is driving a number of changes, including DAC’s recent white paper published in Ad Age, “Marketing his web analytics in a privacy-first world.” It is the subject of a User’s Guide.

Better tracking of user behavior

New features in GA4 greatly improve the ability of marketers to collect and analyze customer data. As such, GA4 will help brands fill in the void of missing third-party data, including cookie deletion from Google’s Chrome browser and unique identifiers from leading mobile advertising platforms.

While Universal Analytics’ session-based model primarily tracks website hits and pageviews, GA4’s event-based platform allows marketers to measure user behavior using up to 50 different parameters. can be tracked. This will give you more insight into her customer’s web interactions, including conversions and steps leading up to a sale.

Additionally, GA4’s new ecommerce tools, deeper integration with Google Ads, and the ability to connect web traffic to mobile app data all provide a more complete view of the end-to-end customer journey.

Buttons, Text, Colors, URLs: A GA4 Primer

Google’s previous system limited event tracking to three basic parameters: category, action, and label. GA4 allows marketers to drill deeper into the descriptive actions that occur within a particular session.

Mario Lyn, manager of web analytics for Proove Intelligence at DAC, said:

Universal Analytics defines conversions for a single action, such as a button click, while GA4 allows you to assign multiple characteristics to the same action, such as button text, color, page URL, etc. Careful analysis of this data reveals which variables within button clicks worked best.

“With Universal Analytics, everyone can see the same kind of data by just showing a screen,” says Lyn. “But with GA4, we can add a layer on top of that and add more characteristics to the individual data. So we have to think more about what and how we collect it.” .”

Strategies to future-proof your organization

GA4 brings both greater responsibility and opportunity for marketers to take ownership of their data and their overall web analytics practice. According to Dan Temby, senior vice president of technology and analytics at DAC Group, today’s marketers must “close the intelligence and fidelity gaps” lost by third parties’ reduction of his data.

“All the changes we are seeing with privacy laws are pushing people down the road to a truly integrated marketing technology stack, as opposed to a set of independent platforms designed to do independent things. We are pushing hard,” he explained.

“Traditionally, web analytics has existed separately from advertising functions such as data management platforms and demand-side platforms,” says Tenby. “Right now everyone is talking about the need for a unified set of signals for a unified customer profile. Analytics are the foundation of its function.”

Organizations have other measures to prepare for additional privacy-related changes. For example, we can build stronger data relationships with publishers who have access to site visitor demographic and behavioral information that marketers may not have. He will also be able to work more closely with his own data his scientists and engineers, not only on the implementation of GA4, but also on new statistical approaches for budgeting decisions and his ROI calculations in a changing digital media environment. increase.

Last but not least, marketers should focus on what they can control. Cookieless advertising solutions come and go (remember FLOC?). Trying to get ahead of the next big thing isn’t always a good idea. By the time you do, it may not be that big.

Ultimately, marketers always find ways to talk to people who are interested in their products. Regardless of channel, understanding who these consumers are in the first place is as promising as marketing can get.