You’ve probably already heard the big news – Google Analytics is being retired! More specifically, we’re bidding goodbye to Universal Analytics, also known as GA3 – the most commonly-used version of Google Analytics.
As of 1st July 2023, Universal Analytics (UA) will no longer be processing data and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will take over. Here’s a link to the official announcement made back in March
Note:
Premium account users (GA 360) have a bit of additional time until 1st October 2023.
Well, since the announcement made in March, what have you actually done about it?
The most urgent task at hand is to make the switch as soon as possible. Or better yet, use both versions simultaneously so you can compare the differences, and slowly sink your teeth into GA4.
The main issue is that it will not be possible to move historical data over from UA to GA4. So, although there’s plenty of time before the official retirement date, if you don’t hop on the GA4 bandwagon NOW, you will lose out on a whole year’s worth of historical data to compare against once UA is well and truly gone next year.
Year-on-year data comparisons are an integral part of marketing and sales. A business can be greatly impacted by a lack of performance comparison stats. You don’t want to be left with a ‘gap year’ simply because Google Analytics made an upgrade, do you?
No excuses, no disruption. Get ahead now!
If you would like us to do it for you please schedule a chat to discuss the possibilities and pricing.
Recent data protection and privacy laws (including GDPR) are forcing a trend of going cookieless. Gathering user data has become a lot more complicated – prioritising data privacy and maintaining transparency have become the need of the hour. Third-party cookies will soon become a thing of the past.
UA has relied on tracking users with session-based browser cookies. GA4, on the other hand, uses event-based data tracking, where an event can be the click of a button or any other user action, with no cookie tracking at all.
There are a number of differences that make GA4 a much-improved version of Google Analytics. Here are the main ones.
For a comprehensive list of differences, see this article from Google Support.
First, check which version of Google Analytics you are using. If you started using Google Analytics after October 14, 2020, you’re probably using GA4 already, in which case you won’t need to do anything further.
If you started using Google Analytics before October 14, 2020, you’re probably using Universal Analytics.
If you’re not sure if you are using Universal Analytics, check the property ID of your account. If it begins with UA followed by a bunch of numbers, you are indeed using Universal Analytics. GA4 property IDs only consist of numbers.
If you are still using Universal Analytics:
If all this feels like a bit of information overload, or you are unsure about how to set it all up, Globemrk Digital Studio is here to do all of that for you!