The latest version of Google Analytics V4 – GA4 offers more tracking and reporting options than ever before. One of the key features that differentiates GA4 from Google's Universal Analytics platform is that it can be used not just for websites, but also for apps, or both, allowing you to track features that were not possible before. Universal Analytics or UA, like the new Google Analytics, is the type of Google Analytics asset your company is most likely to use to track analytics on its website. The new Google Analytics is a feature of Google Analytics that allows your business to track both website and app analytics, adapting to changing standards for tracking user activity using cookies so you can create smarter data and manage marketing strategies.
Google Analytics 4 was previously called "App + Web" and offers users a new set of reports that you are used to seeing in Universal Analytics (Google Analytics 3). The new benefits of Google Analytics 4 provide a richer, omnichannel view of the customer journey and differ from the Google Universal Analytics platform with a new data model, the ability to combine mobile apps and web data, analytics tools, public controls and changes made to address privacy policy fluctuations, browser updates and cookies. With a new data model, the ability to combine mobile apps and web data into a single view, analytics tools, audience management, and dimensional differences, an understanding of Google Analytics App + Web is required, as well as a change in how data is handled. initiatives within your organisation. Recognising the growing overlap between web and mobile app development and content, and meeting the needs of unified data marketers, Google Analytics 4 aims to eliminate the need for manual stitching and workarounds across platforms.
As such, Google Analytics 4 is designed to help businesses and marketers achieve several key outcomes, including cross-platform data unification and providing additional customer data after initial acquisition, such as engagement, monetisation, and retention. Advanced integration with other Google products, such as Google Ads, works with combined website and app data, making it easy to use Analytics data to optimise your campaigns. Specifically, the integration allows you to view internal and web conversions for Google Ads, YouTube Ads, other non-Google paid channels such as Facebook, and regular channels including search, social media, and email.
Of course, the biggest benefit is the unified view of users between the app and the website, but Google has also redesigned its custom reporting tool into an "Analytics Centre" that offers a bit more flexibility with custom reports and custom reports. Since the data is presented in a standardised way in one place, it becomes much easier to analyse user engagement and optimise their purchase paths. There are new metrics (such as interaction time and interaction sessions per user) that are more accurate than your current analytics program.
The machine learning processing in the new version of Analytics means it can fill in the gaps where businesses are unable to understand their entire customer base due to users opting out of cookies and data collection. By applying Google's advanced machine learning models, the new version of analytics can collect data about website traffic and user behaviour without relying on "visits" to each page. One of the biggest differences is a new data modelling feature that uses artificial intelligence to fill in data gaps that traditional analysis might have blocked by cookie consent rules, blocking JavaScript and privacy concerns.
Google recently released a new version of Analytics, calling it the new default version of the popular web traffic data collection and analysis software. Google has rebuilt it from the ground up for the first time, changing the way it collects data to provide consistent measurements across websites and mobile apps.
In addition to enabling users to unify website and app analytics to learn more about shopper journeys, the new Google Analytics is also future-proof with support for cookie-free tracking and evolving privacy standards. With privacy-focused tracking, multi-channel data measurement, and AI-powered predictive analytics, Google Analytics is definitely a cutting-edge feature that many websites and apps will benefit from. Google Analytics 4, no longer known as the "App + Web Resource Beta", has become the de facto default standard for any new resource created in Google Analytics, be it a website, an app, or - oh - - both.
While the current version isn't going away anytime soon and will be available until July 2023, it is recommended that you create a new Google Analytics 4 property as soon as possible and start collecting data alongside your existing assets. As Google continues to improve Google's e-commerce reporting, attribution models, and other as-yet-unannounced updates, it's in your company's best interest to at least get these new properties up and running, collect user data on their devices, and start packaging their devices. Discover the true flexibility of event monitoring using common parameters. With the launch of Google Analytics 4 a few months ago and the recently released Agency Analytics integration with the platform, this is a great opportunity to learn about the key features and differences of the update and how to migrate from the current version. You can also run the old and new version at the same time on your website using the two pieces of code so you can compare the two until Universal Analytics is removed next July.
Useful Links:
https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/prepare-for-future-with-google-analytics-4/
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