Google has stated that as of July 1, 2023, it would stop processing data using the default Universal Analytics features. Instead, data will now be processed using Google Analytics 4. Google Analytics 4 is a prominent digital analytics software solution that allows you to thoroughly assess marketing efficacy and website visitor behavior. When it comes to data collection, storing, and filtering, this change in analytics properties will undoubtedly result in a big difference.
So, this brings us to the main question: What’s new in Google Analytics 4?
Well, in this article we will go over the new features of Google Analytics 4 and how it helps marketers in their data tracking journey.
What’s New In Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 employs an entirely new data structure and data-collecting methodology. Google Analytics 4's primary features are as follows:
Tracking across several platforms (web and apps)
Enhanced Google Ads integration
Predictions and insights enabled by AI
Integrate BigQuery for free.
Google Signal
Event-based model
Tracking across several platforms
If your company owns both websites and mobile applications, you can now easily stream data to both. Prior to this, you had to deal with your Google Analytics property for monitoring website data if you wanted to measure the data on your website.
To view traffic in an app, we had to use Google Analytics for Firebase to get the data. All data from your website and app is now consolidated into a single account. The new Google Analytics 4 integrates both online and mobile app traffic consumption statistics into a single property accessible via a single interface.
This is feasible because of a new architecture that enables us to implement cross-device tracking and unify data across devices. This also provides the ability to monitor a user between devices. Marketers can now observe the consumer journey across devices comprehensively thanks to Google Analytics 4 and cross-device tracking.
Enhanced Google Ads integration
Google Analytics 4 integrates more deeply with Google Ads. You may leverage GA4’s data to create customized audiences that are more relevant to your consumers, which you can then target with paid or organic marketing. Google Analytics 4 will also track activities from YouTube-engaged views that take place both in-app and online.
Marketers can now monitor conversions from Google and non-Google sponsored channels, YouTube video views, Google searches, social media, and email, giving them a more comprehensive perspective of their outcomes.
Predictions and insights enabled by AI
Google is a machine learning pioneer, so it's no surprise that modern machine learning, as the primary method of data measurement, has been used in Google Analytics 4 to discover and notify users of data patterns. Google Analytics 4 can forecast user actions and behavior, making it much easier to plan your next move by providing data that tells you what to concentrate on. It is unquestionably important and vital for determining where to invest your time and money to maximize your return(ROI). Predictive analytics and automatic insights are two components of GA4 that leverage machine learning to assist digital marketers.
Purchase probability, revenue prediction, and churn probability are the three predictive metrics covered by Google Analytics 4. These metrics enable you to anticipate your clients' future actions using all of the data you acquire. Google Analytics 4 can provide marketers and users with automatic insights about their traffic, customers, and customer journeys by utilizing AI. Automated insights are automatically created and are available by default in the Google Analytics 4 reporting interface. GA4 can automatically notify marketers of data patterns with their assistance.
Integrate BigQuery for free
The ability to view and transfer raw data from Google Analytics to Google BigQuery (BigQuery linking) is one of the most interesting new capabilities in Google Analytics 4. Previously, BigQuery connectivity was only available for Google Analytics 360 (the corporate edition of Google Analytics), but it is now available to everyone at no extra cost. You only pay for real data storage and querying when you surpass the free tier restrictions of Google Cloud, and extracting data is free.
In Universal Analytics, sampling was a constant issue, especially when dealing with extremely large datasets. You may conduct data analysis on completely raw, unsampled data with BigQuery integration. This leads to your analysis being stronger and more precise.
Google Signals
An advertising reporting tool called Google Signals enables advertisers to get cross-device information on users who are logged into a Google account and have enabled ad customization.
Google Signals was introduced in 2018, however, the new connection with Google Analytics 4 is a significant improvement because all reports may now use this feature, whereas it was previously limited to a small number of pre-built reports. Since Google Signals do not collect any personally identifying information, the data is aggregated and GDPR compliant.
The benefits of turning on Google Signals for your building are as follows:
Obtain details on the interests, gender, and age of your clients
Make a list of users to whom the Google network should be remarketed to
Get a more comprehensive understanding of your audience's activity across devices
Event-based model
Universal Analytics is based on several hit kinds, including pageview, events, social engagement, and e-commerce. Everything in GA4 is considered an event. Each user interaction is treated as an independent event using an events-based model across all online and app visits
Historically, Universal Analytics organized all data into sessions, which served as the backbone for the whole reporting system. Google Analytics 4 still displays session data, however, it bundles all gathered data as events.
An event-based data paradigm allows for data collection from both web and app platforms. It also complements an entirely new set of reporting based on this new data paradigm. The event-based concept is crucial, despite its simplicity. It makes a significant difference and poses a significant difficulty for traditional reporting based on session-model data.
To conclude, Google Analytics 4 is a much-needed analytics improvement. It assists marketers in understanding how people engage in their applications and on their websites in a consistent manner. It also respects the privacy of users and is designed to meet the requirements of a cookieless future. Google Analytics without a doubt fulfills modern-day marketing needs, and it gives marketers greater freedom.
SO, WHERE DO YOU FIND THIS PARTNER?
Well, aren’t we glad you asked! We at DigiCom are obsessive data-driven marketers pulling from multi-disciplinary strategies to unlock scale. We buy media across all platforms and placements and provide creative solutions alongside content creation, and conversion rate optimizations. We pride ourselves on your successes and will stop at nothing to help you grow.
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