When we learned of the official sunset date of Universal Analytics (UA) in favor of the “next generation of Google Analytics,” GA4, we were a bit surprised. Not so much because of the evolution of the Google Analytics platform but because UA has been a staple within the digital analytics space for a long time now. This legacy, the short transition window, and that it’s not a flip-the-switch upgrade have created practical challenges for companies to “get in line.”
Prior to GA4 coming out of beta in late 2020, we were learning the ins and outs of preparing our clients. That knowledge is now critical given the July 1, 2023, sunset date for Universal Analytics.
In our GA4 implementations, we’ve found key differences between UA and GA4 that stood out, including a few “gotchas” that we weren’t expecting.
Key Differences Between Universal Analytics and GA4
Reporting Changes and Hit Types
Universal Analytics has been leveraging hit types for reporting on events. These events have had Category, Action, and Label to differentiate between and filter them. With GA4, on the other hand, every “hit” is an event; there is no distinction between hit types anymore. Google has added parameters (additional pieces of metadata that add context to event data) to these events to allow for more streamlined reports that weren’t possible with UA.
Data Retention Changes and Impact
UA allowed a data retention period of up to 50 months, with several other flexible options to set different data retention ranges. GA4 has a stricter data retention policy with only two options: two months or 14 months. Data retention in GA4 can go as high as 50 months with an upgrade to Analytics 360.
The strict data retention in GA4 affects Explorations but does not affect aggregate standard reports. Explorations is a flexible dashboard feature and provides immense value, querying raw event and user-level data, but it is different from reports.
The simple truth is that the value of a free GA4 account will not be the same as a free Universal Analytics account. Though we know data, privacy, and security are increasingly important to all brands, our interpretation is that Google is also trying to draw clients to BigQuery and/or Analytics 360. Owning your raw data is important, but some users will be looking for ways to pull simple reports without needing to store and extract data. If you’re looking to have meaningful YoY deep-dive analyses and plan on leveraging GA4, that will be harder to achieve without the use of one of Google’s paid platforms.
Engaged Sessions Replaces Bounce Rate
Bounce rate has become less relevant today based on the way media, websites, and apps work and the way users engage with content. That’s why Google opted for Engaged Sessions in GA4, which relies on more than just pageviews, giving a slightly better look at user behavior.
The Engaged Sessions metric (the number of sessions that last longer than 10 seconds, have a conversion event, or have at least two pageviews or screenviews) also has a time threshold associated with it and cannot be considered the inverse of Bounce Rate.
Cross-Device Tracking
GA4 is introducing a User-ID feature that allows brands to define a unique User ID to understand behavior across devices and “time.” When deployed, cross-device tracking allows for data to be contextualized across multiple devices, providing a more holistic view of users and their interactions. Though there were different ways to create cross-device views before GA4, the framework wasn’t native to UA and required extra work to make it happen.
Property Views
UA has three levels of access: Account, Property, and View. GA4 has Account and Property, but not View. If you’re looking to replicate reporting views from UA, GA4 users can leverage Segments and Custom Dimensions.
Additionally, internal traffic filters in GA4 remove matching data completely; there isn’t a concept of RAW data and filtered data like in UA.
Channel Groupings
Channel groupings are rule-based definitions of your website’s traffic sources that let you monitor the performance of the channels sending traffic to your website. UA allowed for the creation of custom channel groupings and editing of the default channel groupings. GA4 does not yet have custom channel groupings. We expect Google will add this functionality to GA4 in the future.
Thought Starters When Beginning a GA4 Migration
- What will future reports look like without relying on viewing data at a session level? And how will this impact dashboards (etc.) that rely on GA data?
- What KPIs would be most useful to report on in the future?
- Is GA4 a viable long-term option with its stricter data retention policy?
- Is it necessary to consider an upgrade to GA360, leveraging Google’s BigQuery, or shifting to another analytics platform?
The transition from UA to GA4 will continue to evolve over the next year as more GA4 features are released. As we, and others in the space, are learning more about the new GA4 platform, Google is also gaining insight. The fact that Google is adapting on the fly makes it all the more interesting that they’re forcing this sunset date so soon.
We’d love to know how your GA4 implementations have been going or if you need help making the transition from UA to GA4.
