Still pining for Universal Analytics? We can help.
We’ve all been there: a relationship ends and even though you know in your bones that they weren’t really all that and a bag of Tyrells – that they could be inflexible, impossible to read at times, and downright gaslighting at others – you miss them, the familiarity and ease of them. Sure, they were deeply imperfect, but you knew their foibles, could work with them and, nine (well, maybe seven) times out of ten, end the day on good terms.
This is how many of us felt when Google finally ditched Universal Analytics (UA), escorting it into a cab and dropping its replacement, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on our doorstep, eager-to-please smile on its face, clutching a bunch of Esso carnations and promising to sweep us off our feet, analytically speaking. Did it hell, though.
A whole new world
New party tricks – cross platform tracking! Flexible event-based metrics! AI assisted analysis! – were all very well, but where did deep last-page and next-page paths go? What happened to incremental scroll-depth analysis? Why can’t I find bounce rates? And, why are Unique Page Views no longer a thing?
With GA4, we may have hoped for Steve/Sophie 2.0, but what most of us experienced was an unconvincing lookalike who moved in, rearranged all the furniture and started calling forks ‘handprongs’ and towels ‘un-moisters’.
It’s no wonder a lot of us have come to use and eye GA4 with a deal-breaking blend of suspicion and aversion bordering on hopelessness. But, I’m here to say that there is hope; that GA4 doesn’t have to be a doomed rebound; that, with a little understanding and openness to change, it’s possible to let go of our – let’s face it – rose-tinted affection for UA and embrace what Google’s new analytics platform can offer. Let’s begin with the fact that makes moving on possible.
GA4 isn’t UA 2.0
I know, I know – tell us something we don’t know. But this is crucial. Google didn’t just tinker away at UA, iterating and iterating until it was ready for relaunch with a new name. GA4 is a different platform altogether. In fact, if GA4 has a family resemblance to anyone, it’s Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase.
That’s why you can’t replicate the reports you used to use in UA. That’s why certain beloved metrics (?) have either gone in GA4 or have been reframed. For example, if you’re like me, you probably bemoaned the loss of the Bounce Rate metric. However, it’s still there (sort of) as Engagement Rate. Engagement Rate is simply the inverse of Bounce Rate. A positive spin that gets you focusing on those who engage with your content rather than those who didn’t. In fact…
GA4 is all about engagement
Engagement is really what we’re here for. We want people – ideally all the people – to not only see the University’s website, but to engage with it. UA’s Pageviews and Unique Pageviews told you that people had visited certain pages, but for all you knew they might have opened your page on a tab and then forgotten all about it.
GA4’s Engaged Session metric is much more useful. A Session in GA4 is only triggered when a page is open on the active browser tab, and it’s only an Engaged Session when the user is there for at least 10 seconds, triggers a key event, or has two further page views on the website. And so, while Engaged Sessions for your pages may be lower than UA’s Pageviews, you can be more confident that the figures you have are more meaningful.
GA4 is there for the whole journey
You know I mentioned that GA4 owes some of its features to Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase? Well, that’s no accident. Unlike UA, GA4 is designed to be able to track a user’s journey across platforms and devices. So, if someone looks at our pages on their smartphone and switches to a laptop, GA4 is able to identify that as a single journey whereas, previously, each device would have triggered a new and distinct session. In this way, GA4 is much more user-focused than UA, making its insights much more useful.
GA4 is ready for the future
Nobody loves change. At least, not at first. But, a.) it’s inevitable and b.) GA4 is trying to meet us halfway. Take its AI-assistant, Analytics Intelligence, in the GA4 search bar. Not sure where to look for the number of visitors from Zambia to our homepage? All you need to do is ask the question as you would another (very knowledgeable) person – ‘How many people from Zambia visited our homepage last year?’ and GA4 will give you the answer (it’s 1,934 in case you’re wondering). What’s more, GA4 will also suggest other related reports and data you might want to see.
Try it. Have a play. Ask questions about your pages. I think you’ll be surprised at how much useful information you can surface with simple questions asked in a disarmingly human and natural way.
It’s time to let go
If you take one thing away from this blog, I hope it’s this: that GA4 isn’t Universal Analytics and it’s not supposed to be. Your data may not look exactly like it did before, but GDPR already changed how much data we can expect to see about visitors to our site. GA4 is not only designed for that new normal but has the features to be a genuinely useful tool for anyone shaping content for an audience. So, take a deep breath, let UA go and give GA4 a try. You never know, it might be the start of a beautiful friendship.
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