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We’re moving into an unprecedented era of user experience, at least, that’s what experts suggest. Behavioral data tracking is allowing businesses to find ways of providing buyer experiences that feel personal. Meaningfully tracking behavioral data requires the right tools. One solution that will provide your company with the metrics to stand out is to integrate Google Analytics 4. This blog will discuss what this solution is about.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google has been a leading provider of analytics tools for web developers for a long time. Since they began, the ways in which consumers browse the web and in which businesses interact with those consumers have evolved. Over the years, Google has updated its analytics offering to stay abreast of current market trends on both sides of the equation.
Google Analytics 4 is the latest iteration of that effort. The previous version of the product, Universal Analytics, was built largely with desktop tracking in mind. Universal Analytics was built in a time when independent sessions were more easily tracked, and cookies were still a dependable way to track data. With the industry, including Google’s own browsers, moving away from third-party cookies, Google Analytics 4 brings a more privacy-focused, cross-platform solution to the table.
Benefits of Google Analytics 4
The benefits users see when they integrate Google Analytics 4 go beyond keeping up with technical requirements. In addition to dealing with modern tracking difficulties, GA4 brings a number of new features that will let users work more efficiently with the system.
- Improved Customer Journey Tracking.
- Improved user engagement analysis.
- More powerful audiences for your ad campaigns.
- More intelligent user privacy and tracking features.
- Simplified Goals and Events Setup.
- Enhanced visualizations and reporting.
- A plethora of parameters.
Step by Step on How to Integrate
Although there are plenty of options to explore when setting up GA4, the basic process isn’t very difficult. In fact, the four steps below are all anyone needs to get started. Google has announced that all standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023, and 360 Universal Analytics properties will follow on October 1, 2023. It’s important for users of Universal Analytics to integrate Google Analytics 4 before that time.
- Create a GA4 property – For those with a Universal Analytics property, creating a GA4 property on the same account is recommended. To create a G4A property, users must sign up for Google Analytics or sign in to their accounts. From the properties tab, clicking on GA4 Setup Assistant will open a wizard to guide users through the process.
- Enable data collection – Like previous versions of the product, GA4 uses tags placed on a web page to track information about visitors to that page. From the Google Analytics dashboard, user’s will find the Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration option under the Tags -> New -> Tag Configuration menu. Selecting it will open a wizard to complete the process and provide you with instructions for adding the tag to your website’s pages.
- (Optional) Transfer goals to conversions – Universal Analytics referred to conversions as goals. The name has changed in GA4, but the concept is the same. Inside the GA4 dashboard, users will find a Goal Migration tool to automatically convert UA goals to GA4 conversions.
Setup events and conversions – To create a new GA4 conversion from scratch, an event must first be created. This can be done from the Configure -> Events menu. In GA4, Events track when a visitor engages in a certain activity. From the Configure -> Conversions menu, Events can be set as conversion events.
Closing Points
Tracking the ways in which consumers browse your site has always been an important part of improving the user experience, measuring conversions, and tracking the success of marketing campaigns. Google Analytics 4 ensures that those analytics remain accurate and offers an exciting new range of features on top.
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