Google Analytics Skills and Learning Guide

Differences in GA4 versus Google Universal Analytics 3

Google Universal Analytics Version 3 and Google Analytics 4 are two of the most widely used web analytics tools in the world. Google Analytics 4 is the latest version, released in 2020, and includes significant improvements over its predecessor, Google Universal Analytics 3.

The main differences between these two versions include:

Data Collection: Google Universal Analytics 3 collects data from web properties and mobile apps through the use of tracking codes. Google Analytics 4, on the other hand, allows for more extensive data collection options including event-based tracking and custom parameters.

Data Analysis: The reporting capabilities in Google Universal Analytics 3 are limited, while Google Analytics 4 provides enhanced reporting features such as segmentation, funnel analysis, and more.

Visualization: Google Universal Analytics 3 provides basic visualizations such as geographical maps and heatmaps, while Google Analytics 4 offers more detailed visualizations including user journey flow diagrams.

Audience Tracking: Both versions offer audience tracking capabilities, but Google Analytics 4 offers additional insights through its Customer Lifecycle report and custom audiences.

Machine Learning: Google Analytics 4 includes advanced machine learning capabilities that allow for more accurate predictions and automated insights.

Google Analytics 4 offers more comprehensive data collection, analysis, and visualization options than its predecessor. With these improvements, businesses can gain an in-depth understanding of their audience, allowing for more powerful marketing campaigns and better customer experiences.

GA4 Setup and Installation

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool for businesses to measure and analyze website traffic. To get started with it, the first step is to create a new property in your Google Analytics account and then install the tracking code into your website or app.

Creating a New Property requires you to specify what type of property you are setting up and what data you would like to collect. After that, you will be able to access your tracking code which is necessary for installation into your website or app.

Installing the Tracking Code can be done either manually by copying the generated code snippet and pasting it into your website's HTML source code, or automatically through a Tag Manager like Google Tag Manager or other third-party tag managers.

By setting up and installing your new GA4 property, you will be able to gain comprehensive insights into your website’s performance and user behavior. With the right tracking code in place, you can begin to track web analytics with far more accuracy than ever before.

Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool for businesses to monitor and optimize their websites. With the right setup and installation, you can begin collecting data that will help you create more effective marketing campaigns, increase website conversions, and gain valuable insights into your customers’ behavior.

GA4 Settings

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) settings allow you to customize how data from your website or app is collected and organized:

• The Setup Assistant helps you configure new GA4 properties quickly and easily.
• Property Settings lets you manage the name, tracking ID, reporting view, currency, and time zone associated with a property.
• Property Access Management allows you to control who can access the property and assign specific roles and permissions.
• Data Streams allow you to configure how data from the web, app, or other sources is tracked in your GA4 property.
• Data Settings lets you control the types of data that are collected and stored in your GA4 property.
• Data Import enables you to import external data into your GA4 property.
• The Reporting Identity feature lets you specify how GA4 identifies and reports user data.
• Attribution Settings allows you to configure attribution models to better understand the source of your website or app's conversions.
• Property Change History helps you keep track of any changes that are made to a property.
• Data Deletion Requests help you delete unwanted data from a GA4 property.
• Product Links enable you to link your GA4 property with products from Google Ads and other marketing platforms.

With the right combination of settings, GA4 can help you gain valuable insights into your website or app's performance. Using Google Analytics 4 Settings in conjunction with other analytics tools can help you understand customer behaviors, create campaigns that yield results, and optimize your website or app for success. With the right settings in place, you can gain insights into customer behavior and use those insights to improve your product or service offerings. Leverage the power of Google Analytics 4 Settings to make data-driven decisions that increase customer engagement and drive business growth.

New Reports

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) introduces new reports to help marketers and individuals better understand the performance of their websites and apps. These reports include Real-time Reports, Life Cycle Reports, User Reports, and Custom Reports.

Real-time Reports show an up-to-the-minute view of user behavior on a website or app to understand the impact of marketing initiatives in real time.

Life Cycle Reports track user interaction with a website or app throughout the customer journey. The Acquisition Report shows where users come from, Engagement Report measures how often users interact with the site, Monetization Report tracks revenue per acquisition channels and Retention Report monitors how long users stay engaged with the site.

User Reports offer marketers the ability to gain insights into customers by analyzing their demographic information and technology preferences. The Demographics Report helps marketers understand user characteristics such as age, gender, or location, while the Tech Report allows them to identify the device type and platform usage of users.

Custom Reports allow users to create personalized reports that focus on specific metrics and audience segments. With these reports, marketers can create tailored visualizations focused on the most pertinent data to inform campaigns.

Google Analytics 4 offers users a powerful new set of insights into website or app performance. These reports provide detailed data about user behavior to help marketers better understand their customers and optimize their sites for maximum success. With the launch of these new reports, marketers now have valuable insights to help them make informed decisions about their campaigns and websites.

Events and Conversions

Google Analytics 4 Events and Conversions offer powerful insights into customer engagement and behavior.

Events are user interactions with content on a website or an app. Automatically tracked events are those that Google Analytics 4 collects without the need for any additional configuration, like pageviews, button clicks, and video plays. Recommended events provide granular data about engagement with certain content, such as impressions of ad units and product detail views. Custom events are user interactions with a website or app that you can configure Google Analytics 4 to track for you.

Conversions enable marketers to measure when users complete desired actions on a website or an app. With conversions, you can get granular data about the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and the value of different types of customers. You can track multiple conversions by setting up Goals or creating custom Conversion Actions.

Google Analytics 4 Events and Conversions allow you to gain powerful insights into customer engagement and behavior to help inform your marketing strategies. With this data, you can better understand what types of content are resonating with your website visitors and audiences.

GA4 Integration with Google Ads

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) integration with Google Ads enables you to use data from both platforms to gain a better understanding of your customers and their behavior. By linking the two services, users can create remarketing audiences in GA4 based on user activity and track performance goals in Google Ads using events collected by GA4. This integration provides an analytics-driven approach to optimizing campaigns and allows you to assess the customer journey more holistically. It helps you identify key performance metrics that are most important for demonstrating the ROI of your Google Ads efforts. With this integration, you can better understand how well your ads are performing concerning user activity on your website and make data-driven decisions about your marketing initiatives.