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This article first appeared on the Exposure Ninja blog.
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Love it or hate it, Google Analytics 4 is here to stay.
Google has decided to move towards a more customisable analytics platform which helps to combine website and app data, as well as giving you more control over the data that you see.
It gives you the opportunity to focus more on data that matters to your business, rather than standardised data that’s trying to cater to every business type.
There’s lots of new terms in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), different types of reporting, and everything is an event (a slight exaggeration, but it’s not far off)
Please note: Google Analytics 4 is still in development, and some aspects of your account may look different to the screenshots below.
Google Analytics 4 is going to replace Universal Analytics (UA) in 2023, and is a new way of collecting and reporting on data.
According to Google, it has several advantages over Google’s Universal Analytics, which is the current standard.
On 1st July 2023, Google Analytics 4 will become the standard and Google will retire Universal Analytics. You’ll still be able to access your Universal Analytics data for 6 months after the switch over, and Google recommends that you export your existing data, as it will not be brought over to Google Analytics 4.
We recommend setting up a Google Analytics 4 property as soon as possible regardless as to whether you intend to use it right away, as this new Google Analytics 4 property won’t be using any retrospective data from Universal Analytics.
You don’t want to miss out on data you could be gathering now when they force you to make that switch, even if you don’t intend on using Google Analytics 4 until 2023.
It’s also quite different to Universal Analytics, so it’s better that you get practice now before you have to make the switch.
Looking at of the changes and challenges UA users have faced when moving to GA4, some common issues we found were:
These are just a few of the changes we noticed, but hopefully they make you feel less alone if you’re struggling with GA4.
Moving to a new platform can be difficult, especially if you’ve been using Universal Analytics for years, or just got to grips with it and now you’re having to make the change to this new way of collecting analytics.
So what are we losing when we move to Google Analytics 4?
That said, here is everything you will gain by moving to Google Analytics 4:
Many of these elements will help us gather data in a cookie-less future.
Now, let’s have a look at how to get GA4 set up. If you’ve already set up your Google Analytics 4 Property you can skip to the next section.
Setting up Google Analytics 4 is fairly straightforward, although you may need to speak to your web developer.
Step 1. Head to the admin section of your Google Analytics account
Screenshot of the Universal Analytics admin screen
Step 2. Look at the number of columns
If you can see Account, Property and View, you’re using Universal Analytics
If you just have Account and Property, you’re already using Google Analytics 4 and won’t need to make the switch.
The Account and Property columns in Google Analytics 4
Please note: Setting up Google Analytics 4 won’t remove your access to your existing Universal Analytics property. It will simply create a new property that uses the Google Analytics 4 tools and layout. You can use both in tandem with each other until you’re ready to make the switch to Google Analytics 4.
Step 3. Select “GA4 Setup Assistant”
You can find this in the Property column on your admin screen.
Screenshot of where the GA4 setup assistant is located
Step 4. Choose from the two options – Get Started or Connect Properties
Get Started is what most people will use, as they likely don’t have an existing GA4 Property set up.
If you did somehow set up a GA4 Property that isn’t connected to your existing Google Analytics account, you can select “Connect Properties” and follow the walk through there.
Google Analytics 4 set up options
Step 5. Select your tag type
The Google Analytics 4 Setup Wizard
Depending on whether you prefer to use Google Tag Manager or Global Site Tag (gtag.js), your options will be slightly different here.
If you have the alert at the bottom as seen in the screenshot above, you’ll need to install new tags on your site to use GA4. You can do this using Google Tag Manager.
If you use gtag.js, you’ll be able to select “enable data collection using your existing tags”.
If you’re unsure as to which applies to you, the “enable data collection using your existing tags” checkbox will be inaccessible if you use Google Tag Manager rather than gtag.js, so you can’t accidentally check it if you’re not using gtag.js.
If you’re unsure, speak to your web developer (or ours) and they’ll be able to help you out.
Step 6. Explore and set up your GA4 property
Google Analytics property Setup Assistant connected screen
You’ll now be greeted with this screen, and you can click “See your GA4 property” to head over to your Google Analytics 4 property to set it up further.
Google Analytics 4 Setup Assistant page in GA4
Step 7. Set up the new tracking tag
First thing to do is to set up the new tag on your website.
Start by clicking “Tag Installation”, which will take you to the “Data Streams” page. Here, you can set up data streams from your website, as well as your iOS or Android Apps.
Google Analytics 4 Data Streams
The setup assistant will have already set up a data stream for you.
Click this data stream, and the “Web Stream Details” tab will open up. Here, you want to copy your Measurement ID, which is in the top right corner of this tab. If you’re used to Universal Analytics, this is like the tracking ID you may have used there.
Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID
Once you’ve copied your Measurement ID, head over to Google Tag Manager.
Select “Tags” in the menu and click “New” to create a new tag.
Add a new tag in Google Tag Manager
Give the tag a name, we’d suggest calling it “GA4”, and then select “Tag Configuration”.
Google Analytics 4 Tag Configuration
For the “tag type”, select “Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration”.
Now paste your Measurement ID into the box.
Paste your Measurement ID into the Tag
Next, click the “Trigger” box, and select “All Pages” so that the tag is installed on every page of your website.
Set up a trigger for your tag in GA4
One you’ve set up this trigger, hit save on your tag.
To test that it has been set up correctly, click “Preview” in the top right corner of the screen, which will take you to the Google Tag Assistant tool.
Put your website’s URL in the box and press connect.
Google Tag Assistant
This will open up another window which has your website in debug mode. You will get a confirmation in the bottom right corner to let you know that your website has been connected to Google Tag Assistant.
Google Tag Assistant connection confirmation
Minimise this window and head back to Google Tag Assistant. Click “continue” on the popup box, and see if your GA4 Tag has fired. If it says that it fired once, it’s working.
GA4 Tag fired once
Once you’ve checked this, head back to Google Tag Manager and click “submit” to save the changes.
Now your new tracking tab has been installed.
Head back to the GA4 Setup page and take a look at the other items that can be set up.
Some of the things you can do here are:
Take a look and set up the things that matter to your business. You may want to read the rest of this article before setting up some of these as they can be quite different in Google Analytics 4.
If you’d prefer to follow this setup in video form, check out the video below.
Views, where you see your data and reports in UA, no longer exist in GA4.
This may change in the future, but the name of the replacement is Data Streams. There are currently less options for filtering to include or exclude certain data from your reports at this stage, as you do this in your custom reports.
What is useful, however, is the ability to see all your data in one place, no matter if it’s from your website or your app. You can set up multiple data streams to see website and app data in one property, rather than needing to switch back and forth between properties.
Even if this isn’t relevant to you right now, you may end up with an app for your business in the future.
As GA4 develops, there may also be the potential to connect with other pieces of tech, such as your point of service system or future technology developments.
This is the screen you’ll see when you open up GA4. It has a couple of top level bits of data, with some shortcuts based on your previous visits to GA4.
Screenshot of the GA4 Home tab
Overview of traffic
Users in the last 30 minutes
Recently viewed quick menu
“Because you viewed recently” quick menu
Top level insights
The reports snapshot in GA4 shows you all the most popular data sets all in one place. This is a great place to see some top level info and track your progress at a glance.
As each of these data sets are pulled from other reports, which we go into more detail about in the next few sections of this guide, we won’t go into as much detail here.
The data sets included in the reports snapshot are:
The real-time overview report shows you where users are browsing your site from in real time.
You can see which pages they are on, and even use this report to track them on their journey throughout your website.
The real-time overview report
Here you can see:
Users in the last 30 minutes
Interactive geo-map
Users by first user source
Users or new users by audience
Views by page title and screen name
Event count by event name
Conversions by event name
Users by user property
You can also use the view user snapshot button in the top right corner to follow the live journey of a user currently on your website. You’ll be able to see any events they trigger in real time.
View user snapshot in GA4
Under Life cycle you can find acquisition, engagement, monetisation and retention reports.
We’re going to break each one down and explain what they all do, as well as the data included in each panel on these reports.
The acquisition reports are found under reports – acquisition.
The location of acquisition reports in Google Analytics 4
Acquisition Overview
The Acquisition Overview page shows you key acquisition metrics all in one place.
Google Analytics 4 Acquisition Overview screen
Here you can see:
Users trend graph
Users in the last 30 minutes graph
Default channel grouping shows the top channels by which the user was first acquired. You can’t create custom channel groups in GA4, which you could do in UA.
The default channel groupings in GA4 are:
You can learn more on the Google Support page for default channel grouping.
Traffic sources are categorised into channels based on the rule-based definitions in the default channel grouping.
These new users can also be viewed based on the source, medium, platform or campaign that first acquired the users.
“New users by channel” graph
Sessions
Lifetime Value
User Acquisition
On the User Acquisition page, you can see:
New users
New users over time trend graph
User acquisition data
The dimensions used here are the pretty much the same as UA, and some examples include:
These dimensions are then measured using the following metrics:
