Are you ready for Google GA4?
The digital world and the web continues to move and evolve at a pace and Google isn’t showing signs of slowing down. Google is effectively one of its drivers, at the forefront of many current digital technologies. Therefore, this makes the content of this blog all the more important and relevant. Let’s get ready for Google GA4 (Google Analytics 4).
The GA4 conversation online
The news coming from the technological leader will only become more trendy and relevant as the magic date for GA4, set to launch on the 1st of July 2023, gets closer.
Most online publications are already covering this change, with some even offering an alternative. But would you trust a tool to report on your website with data that wasn’t generated by the platform where your website was published?
What is Google Analytics?
Originally, Google Analytics was developed and run by a software company called Urchin. Urchin is no longer in operation, and Google Analytics has been run by Google since its takeover in 2005. Google Analytics is a web service that Google offers to provide tracking and the reporting of data on website traffic.
Better data means more reliable insights, helping businesses and giving them the tools they need to achieve growth.
In short, Google Analytics enables first hand, live analytical information used by websites around the world. This information helps improve performance and research audiences by providing behavioural, geographical and demographical insights.
In addition to many other important aspects that marketing, sales and operational departments use regularly to have a clear overview of the status of their websites.
Google sits on top of the search pyramid, with over 83% of the total share of the search engine market (data source: Statista). This figure helps put the upcoming change into perspective.
Why is Google Universal Analytics closing down? Do I need to get ready for Google GA4 now?
Google Analytics 4 doesn’t just offer more of what the current version of Universal Analytics (UA) offers. The platform has been built differently from the ground up. This means that GA4 will align not only with current needs, but also with future needs for reporting and privacy.
These are some of the benefits and differences between both platforms:
- Based on Events: UA bases its data on sessions (time spent), whilst GA4 does so by events (user activity). In other words, GA4 was built on the ability to track events, i.e. button clicks, video plays, whilst this requires advanced setups in UA. This is because page views on GA4 aren’t the only important metric.
- Cross-device tracking: UA was built around desktop web traffic, whilst GA4 has been designed to give businesses visibility into the customer journeys across all of their website(s) and apps.
- Machine learning: GA4 has the ability to use machine learning technology which works harder for you by learning from its own errors to share insights and make predictions.
- Privacy-friendly: UA data relies heavily on cookies, GA 4 doesn’t.
For the above reasons, Google recommends switching to GA4 as soon as possible.
What will 
the impact of Google GA4 be?
The aim of GA 4 is to offer a way of measuring information:
- Collecting both website and app data to better understand the customer’s journey
- Using events instead of session-based data
- Including privacy controls such as cookie-less measurement, and behavioural and conversion modelling
- Predictive capabilities offering guidance without complex models
- Direct integrations to media platforms helping drive actions on your website or app
So, are you ready for Google GA4?
As you will already be able to tell, the changes will be significant and will require expertise in handling advanced applications. Many marketing departments are currently looking at the impact that the new platform is going to have. Do you know what the impact on your business will be?
Calibre Marketing offers comprehensive Search and Website Creation services to help you get the most of your website. Please contact us for further information and a discussion about your website analytics and online search requirements. The Calibre crew is standing by, ready to get you into the air and flying high.
