As many might already know, Universal Analytics will be sunsetting on July 1st, 2023, and will no longer be supported by Google. Google Analytics 4 will now be replacing Universal Analytics. Universal analytics has been the go-to tool for observing web traffic by marketers for over 17 years (since 2005!) so this might be a bit of a shock factor for some. While this is going to be great in the long run, which we’ll explain later in this blog, it does mean a transition is coming and with transitions might mean a few pain points.
Essentially, this blog is us trying to help you avoid a Titanic situation by saying, “Iceberg ahead!” Fortunately, we are saying something now so you don’t sink any ships and that means there is time to figure this out. We’ll tell you the most important next steps to make the transition as smooth as possible. So don’t hit the panic button just yet.
The good news is GA4 seems like it’s going to be a great analytics platform overall. It provides new features such as enhanced user privacy, cross-device tracking, and machine learning-powered insights. I know, that’s a lot of technical language. But, essentially, your data is going to get better and become more accurate and that will help your marketing efforts in the long run.
GA4 seems to be quite a bit more technical than UA. Marketers may need to undergo a bit of training in order to fully utilize the new features and capabilities of GA4, and implementation may require technical expertise, so marketers should plan ahead to ensure a smooth transition.
So, what’s actually changing?
All Goals are Event-Based
Marketers in property management typically use analytics to track website visitors and captured leads. An event, which you create in your analytics, allows you to measure a specific interaction or occurrence on your website, such as a form-fill. You may have been setting a KPI or goal for your property around the number of users landing on the /thank-you page after a lead filled out a form.
Those days are going to be gone after the sunsetting of UA. You’ll be leaning more heavily on Google Tag Manager (GTM) to create custom events and custom dimensions to track your goals. This might be an area where you need help from a website developer. Essentially, you can track a “submit” button instead of a landing page redirect now.
Once an item is marked as an event in GA4, you can designate that event as a trackable conversion.
Bounce Rate is “going away”
In UA, bounce rate was calculated as the percentage of website users that didn't view more than one page on your website. So even if a website visitor read a whole page and spent a good amount of time on the site before leaving, it still would’ve been collected as a bounce rate.
GA4 has chosen to take a more “positive” approach and report on figures for engagement rate. Simply put, engagement rate is a ratio metric presented as a percentage. So now, that visitor who spent time on a page and left will be given a percentage instead of being marked as a bounce.
In Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is now going to be the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions, meaning they didn’t scroll or move on the site whatsoever. In other words, bounce rate is the inverse of engagement rate. Still sounding a bit technical? We know. Hang in there.
What do you need to focus on before July 1st?
Switch over to GA4 ASAP!
It’s time to change your analytics over as soon as possible to start collecting data in GA4 because it is NOT possible to transfer UA data into GA4. Both your UA and GA4 codes can live on your website, to allow you to collect new data and set up goals and events while you begin the process of exporting and saving your UA data.
Download your Universal Analytics Data
When UA sunsets, that data will disappear. So, save it and keep it somewhere safe so you have it for reference.
Google has not indicated how long you’ll have access to UA after sunsetting (some sources say about 6 months), only that the dashboard will stop collecting data. But we highly recommend you do download and store that data NOW! Don’t lose that important information! You can learn how to export your data from UA here.
Re-evaluate your KPIs and goals
Because Universal Analytics had 3 distinct categories of events while GA4 only has 1 (event) many of your existing goals may have to change, while some values will be calculated differently (for example, bounce rate, mentioned above).
If you don’t set up a Google Analytics 4 “property” (the Google ID for each website you own) by early 2023, Google will create and link a GA4 property for you with basic features for goals and Google Ads links, as well as attempt to imitate existing goals.
However, Google recommends that you migrate your goals rather than wait for automatic creation, as they may not be able to recreate every goal (remember, bounce rates are gone)
Talk to a web developer and an SEO company
This is new for a lot of us, so there’s still some unknowns as to how this will impact SEO for your site. We highly recommend you call in outside expertise for this. They can help you smooth out the wrinkles and prepare for the transition a lot quicker and with less bruises on the other side.
Have your marketing team spend time training in GA4
Google is slowly releasing information and training around GA4. We recommend your teams keep a close eye on new information and education they release in the upcoming weeks and months. Again, GA4 is going to be a bit more technical than UA so we think this will serve you in the long run to do so.
Note for Razz customers: Razz is currently working on a project that will ensure your websites are sending the events to GA4 with super easy, user-friendly names, making it simple for you to find the "click" you're looking to track. Setting up new goals is currently not a service included in the changeover. Stay tuned for updates.
Be assured that you will have even better data reporting and measurement abilities with this new platform. This is one of those changes and transitions that might feel a little painful now, but down the line, your marketing will only be stronger and better than before!
