Is your company prepared to upgrade to GA4- Google Analytics? Google has revealed that Universal Analytics will be phased out in June 2023, so you will only have a short time to switch.
Change is complex, and you want to avoid migrating to the new system. Most marketers are concerned about data collecting and don’t want to invest time learning how to use GA4, change is unavoidable, and it’s better to start now rather than later.
This post is about Google Analytics 4 migration and how to transfer information with Google Analytics.
What Is GA4 and Why Should You Opt for Google Analytics 4 Migration?
Universal Analytics is the name of Google’s latest analytics product. It is the 3rd phase of Google’s analytics service and has been available since 2012. Over 73 million websites already utilize Universal Analytics, and most will continue to use Google for analytics long after the program is terminated.
According to Search Engine Land research, 70% of marketers intend to switch and manage it themselves. A further 14% intend to relocate but will pay a consultant to assist them, while only 12% intend to investigate other possibilities.
But why should web admins switch technologies in the first place? As you may expect, a lot has happened since 2012, and Universal Analytics is now obsolete, at least from Google’s perspective.
Many web admins utilized Universal Analytics in 2012 to add traffic counters on their sites, for example, to display visitor counts. Fast forward to now, UA no longer provides all of the demands of enterprises, owing to how the internet world has changed over the previous decades. Users’ browsing habits have evolved, so they no longer visit a website to get knowledge or make a buying choice. In addition, there is more focus on privacy than ever before.
Problems with UA
- UA has difficulty tracking users who access company information through applications and websites. This makes obtaining a single perspective of your clients difficult.
- Data privacy regulations impede UA’s efficacy. It is even illegal in France, Austria, and Italy.
- Ad and cookie trackers make it difficult for UA to gather correct data, resulting in reporting gaps.
Considering these factors, it’s easy to understand why Universal Analytics users have declined since around 2021.
Google Analytics 4 (commonly known as GA4) is now publicly live. However, UA to ga4 migration is more complex than you may think. That is why so many businesses and marketers have been cautious about leaping.
Google Analytics 4 Migration
Step 1: Audit and evaluate your UA account before Universal Analytics Migration
The first step before upgrading to Google Analytics 4 is to evaluate your Universal Analytics account.
Keep a note about each event you’re monitoring and your most recent traffic counts, reports, and conversion rates. Write down whatever you consider to be vital data that you consult daily.
Step 2: Make a ga4 migration checklist
New analytics attributes do not inherit particular tracking items (e.g., objectives, events) from other attributes (including UA properties).
Below is a list of the most frequently used monitoring items in Google Analytics. You may have extra ones to add, but here are some usual ones to include:
- Goals for Events (Conversions)
- Groupings of Content
- Dimensions/Metrics to Order
- Exclusions from Referral Programs
- Connections between products
- Audiences
After you’ve made your list, consider what you need to maintain, what you can get rid of, and where holes may exist where you would want to create new monitoring items, such as new events, new objectives, and so on.
Step3: Create a GA4 account for Google Analytics 4 migration
If you previously have a UA account, using the GA4 Setup Assistant to create a GA4 account will be a breeze. It’s in the admin area of the UA dashboard.
After clicking it, you’ll be prompted to establish a new GA4 property or link an existing one. Click the “Get Started” button under the new property section. Using the most recent gtag.js script, you can gather data with the same tag.
Lastly, you’ll get a checklist of the data that GA4 will gather.
Step4: Transfer The Events used In Universal Analytics
Many events you were observing in Universal Analytics should have transferred across. Because GA4 is such a distinct platform, only some things may carry over. This is your opportunity to add events that do not transfer immediately from UA and address any transfer problems that may have arisen.
Check out the automatic objectives that GA4 monitors first. Certain events you may have explicitly configured in UA (such as scroll depth) are recorded automatically in GA4.
Then, returning to your UA audit, add a new event in GA4 for each behaviour that isn’t presently being recorded.
Step 5: Configure Any Required Integrations
This may appear simple, but establishing Google integrations is critical to ensuring your platform is tailored to your needs.
Examine the UA integrations you’ve utilized before connecting them to GA4. Google Ads, AdSense, Ad Exchange, and MerchantCentre are among the most popular integrations.
Step 6: Create a strategy for archiving historical data
Finally, it would help if you devised a strategy for archiving your past data before Google Analytics 4 migration. You must understand how you intend to preserve historical data to safeguard it from data breaches while keeping it available long enough to offer value.
Stay calm about data kept in Universal Analytics. Google plans to delete all data by December 2024 at the latest.
Conclusion
These instructions should assist you in making GA4- Google Analytics migration seamless. But don’t put off putting my counsel into action! The sooner you switch to Google Analytics 4, you will have more time to understand it.
Note that there are many variations between GA4 and Universal Analytics, so give yourself sufficient time to wrap your mind around everything. Be sure to read my in-depth GA4 instruction as well.
