Software Corner

Businesses urged to prepare for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) - it's coming fast!

By Vanessa Willans, Marketing

15 August 2022

A new financial year is always an important date for Australian businesses. However, 1 July 2023 has even more significance as on this day, “Google Analytics 4” (GA4) replaces “Universal Analytics”.

Why does this change matter? 

In today’s competitive commercial landscape where measurement is king, businesses need to navigate new challenges to understand the complex, multi-platform journeys their customers take with them — all while prioritising user privacy.

To this end, two and a half years ago, search engine giant Google introduced GA4 to address these evolving measurement standards and help businesses succeed. GA4 is an analytics service that enables business to measure and predict traffic and engagement across their websites and apps more efficiently. 

Time is ticking

More significantly, in just over a year, GA4 will replace the established Universal Analytics, an older version of Google Analytics that in 2012 set new standards for how user data was collected and organised.

However, in the world of technology, a decade is akin to millennia, and Google has decided it’s time for its old school standard to go the way of Tyrannosaurus Rex and into extinction in just over a year. 

What are the primary benefits? 

According to Google, while Universal Analytics has done a great job, GA4 will offer additional flexibility to measure many more kinds of data and deliver a more robust analytics experience designed for the future. GA4 allows businesses to see unified user journeys across their websites and apps, use Google’s machine learning technology to predict new insights, and most importantly, keep up with a changing digital ecosystem.

As an example of how GA4 works, consider the results from custom surveys (Google surveys is a marketing tool that gathers valuable insights into the minds of your target audience). If your business regularly surveys its database, it’s common for plenty of your contacts to not respond for whatever reason. However, once you transition to GA4, you’ll receive enough data from a survey to make predictions about consumer behaviour outcomes enabling managers and leaders to make strategic decisions about the future of their businesses.

How to prepare for the transition to GA4?

From 1 July 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. That said, businesses will be able to see their historical Universal Analytics reports for a period after 1 July 2023. 

Now is the time for businesses to start migrating to Google Analytics 4. The first step is to identify whether you have a Universal Analytics property or a GA4 property. You can do this by looking at your property ID to see which type of property you have:

• Universal Analytics property IDs start with UA and end with a number (UA-XXXXXXXXX-1).
• Google Analytics 4 property IDs have only numbers (XXXXXXXXX)1.
  

Disclaimer

The information provided in this article does not constitute advice. The information is of a general nature only and does not take into account your individual financial situation. It should not be used, relied upon, or treated as a substitute for specific professional advice. We recommend that you contact Brentnalls SA before making any decision to discuss your particular requirements or circumstances.