Google Analytics is a free web analytics software from the search engine operator Google. In addition to websites, the software can also be integrated into apps and other digital devices. Google offers website operators, companies and marketing experts a tool for tracking website visits, user behaviour on the website and campaigns. Google Analytics (GA) also makes essential key figures and website statistics available.
Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4
Even though Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the direct “successor” to Universal, there are still some differences:
The user interface has changed considerably and is more complex:
- Although GA4’s new features and data views offer more options, the individual reports that were directly recognisable on the start page in Universal Analytics (UA) are now only listed under the “Reports” menu item.
The “user” measurement value is redefined in GA4.
- A session with interaction is tracked as an active user (new), total users correspond to the total number of users, new users are the sum of active users without past sessions.
The basic collection of data already differs in focus:
- While the focus of Universal Analytics was on sessions, the focus of Google Analytics 4 is now on users.
The analysis options are becoming more extensive and complex:
- GA4 offers new analysis methods such as funnel or user lifetime analyses Individual goals, however, must first be created as a separate event and can then be marked as a goal.
Migration and setup of Google Analytics 4
“Google Analytics 4 is our next-generation analytics tool and replaces Universal Analytics. From 1 July 2023, no new hits will be processed in standard Universal Analytics properties.” announces the search engine operator on its support page and recommends switching to GA4.
To switch to Google Analytics 4 or set up the tool from scratch, Google provides comprehensive instructions on its support website.
A basic distinction must be made between three scenarios when setting up the tool:
- Set up data collection for the first time
- Adding GA4 to a website with Universal Analytics
- Adding GA4 to a website with CMS
One thing is clear, however, in order to be able to analyse data via Google in the future, it is essential to switch from Universal Analytics to GA4!
Costs of the new tracking tool
With Google Analytics, Google has created a free analytics tool that is used worldwide and has a market share of more than 80 %.
However, the free standard version has two small limitations. Firstly, it provides data with a slight delay and secondly, traffic recording is limited to a maximum of 10 million hits.
Companies that do not want to be affected by these restrictions pay a considerable price. The next possible version is Google Analytics Premium, which costs €105,000 per year with a maximum of 1 billion hits/month.
Advantages and disadvantages of GA4
Basically, GA4 can be used to create more relevant and better mapped analyses. Other individual advantages are as follows:
- Algorithms for machine learning (a branch of artificial intelligence) have been developed to better analyse data and create forecasts.
- If data is missing, GA4 uses modelling approaches to fill in incomplete data.
- Cross-platform tracking is made possible by utilising user IDs.
- Unexpected user behaviour is detected by automatic anomaly detection.
- In addition to page views, further automatic events are recorded (e.g. standard user interactions such as scroll, click, etc.), even without prior set-up.
Despite this list of advantages, the disadvantages should not be ignored. The disadvantages of Google Analytics 4 are
- Different display and more complex first steps on the new user interface.
- Data from Google Analytics Universal cannot be imported, i.e. data is only recorded again once the GA4 account has been opened.
- Due to the new definition of the “User” measurement value, the new Google Analytics version achieves a higher value, but the number of sessions may be lower as a result.
- For new campaigns, attention must be paid to the time and date, as a new session is no longer started if the date is changed (after midnight). As a result, fewer sessions are recorded in tracking, while the average session duration increases.
Resume
Finally, it is clear that the new tool will bring many changes for users. At the same time, however, it opens up new avenues in web analytics. It remains to be seen whether Google Analytics 4 was a step in the right direction and whether data protection-compliant tracking will soon be possible.
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