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What does GA4 mean for website analytic reporting?
The journey of GA4 began in 2005 when Google purchased Urchin, the predominant analytics tool of its time. They aptly named it GA4, as it represents the 4th version of Google Analytics.
By 2007, Google had launched its Classic Google Analytics. Google launched Universal Analytics, often referred to as UA, in 2012, following continual updates to the platform.
Currently, most people tracking their website analytics using Google will collect data using Universal Analytics tracking codes. That leads us to the here and now!
So, what is GA4 and when will it go live?
In October 2020, Google first announced Google Analytics 4 or GA4 and since then, Google has been urging its web and app customers to migrate to the new GA4 service. On 1st July 2024 Google will cease to process your website traffic using UA so the urgency to migrate is now building.
GA4 is the next-generation analytics service that measures traffic and engagement across your websites and apps. Google has provided an abundance of migration guides for those who haven’t yet made the leap. Any new accounts created will only be able to use the new GA4.
What is the difference between UA and the new GA4?
Privacy
GA4 has implemented the first notable change by ceasing the collection or storage of IP addresses to enhance the protection of users’ data. This however does not mean that you cannot, as an example, exclude internal IP addresses from your traffic flow.
Google has also enabled easier data deletion, allowing users to delete data if requested by any users.
Another big change in GA4 is how Google Analytics collects and structures your data. Google call this a measuring model.
Measuring Model
A measuring model is, as it sounds, the method by which Google Analytics measures and structures the data captured.
Within UA, the measurement model is based on sessions, pageviews and hits. (Now don’t worry, we have put together a glossary at the end in case you aren’t sure what this means!).
In comparison, GA4 employs a model based on events and parameters, capturing any interaction as an event.
In layman’s terms, this means that GA4 now considers all the UA ‘hit’ types, such as sessions and pageviews, as events.
A new user interface
In GA4, we observe a shift in ‘language’, specifically concerning ‘engagement’ and ‘monetisation’. The data streams from UA remain accessible and, in fact, are often more detailed in GA4 due to a new filtering approach. It appears that the new GA4 layout is a simple redesign of the old format.
In line with the change in language, one can observe that ‘Bounce Rate’ has transformed into ‘Engagement Rate’, signifying its opposite. The Engagement Rate reveals the percentage of traffic actively engaging, removing the negative connotation linked with bouncing.
In the current UA interface, a wealth of information is available, categorized in a way familiar to regular GA users. However, GA4 shows a significant shift in how it presents the data.
Users
Under the UA reports, the reporting is focused on ‘total users’ and ‘new users.’ This has always been a primary metric to understand how many ‘new users’ visited your site for the first time, usually in combination with ‘total users’. When looked at comparatively, this will indicate your repeat users vs. new users, and for many of us, understanding the retention level is key.
In GA4 you can now identify 3 user metrics.
Total Users: Now indicates the total number of unique users who log an event.
New Users: The total number of unique users who log any event for the first. New Users are measured by those IDs with the parameter first_open or first_visit.
Active Users: This is the primary metric in GA4 and indicates the number of distinct users who have visited your website and have an ‘engaged’ session. It is also when analytics collects parameters such as first_visit event or engagement_time_msec.
Be cautious here; both UA and GA4 employ the term ‘User’, but the calculation of data differs. In UA, it uses ‘Total Users’ whereas GA4 is using ‘Active Users’.
Sessions
The UA tool defines Sessions as a ‘period of time that a user is engaged on your site’. Once inactivity exceeds 30 minutes, the session times out. It also timed out at midnight. With GA4, a session would end after 30 minutes of inactivity but no longer end at midnight. This means that if you were to draw a comparison between UA reporting and GA4 reporting, you would likely see a discrepancy. In turn, if you run an internal monthly report for analytics, you will likely see a change in your ‘sessions’.
Reporting
Upon first look, GA4 appears to have less reporting. However, whilst there are fewer standard reports, you can create your own custom reports – Which is very handy for that ad hoc analysis! Google has provided templates so you can get started. Looking at the new layout at first can be quite daunting. It is easy to default to using the old reporting methods, however, we encourage you to spend time setting up the reports, and exploring the tool because you will get more valuable insight from your analytics.
How to get GA4
To gain a deeper understanding of how to initiate Google Analytics, it’s crucial to determine whether you are already running Google Analytics.
Our Opinion
Overall, GA4 provides modern and powerful analytics and it allows for more accurate and granular data collection, greater insights through AI and improved reporting options, making it more useful in our marketing efforts.
We are excited to see the continued development of web analytics, we recommend jumping in and exploring what it can do for you today!
Examine the new terminology closely so that you are well-prepared when reporting to your senior management.
For more information on how we can support your digital marketing efforts, reach out to one of our specialists.
Glossary
Analytics Platform by Google
| Name | Meaning | |
| Urchin | Urchin was a web analytics platform that Google purchased and developed further in 2005. | |
| Classic Analytics | The 2007 analytics platform was used to track visitors to your website. | |
| Universal Analytics | Also known as ‘UA’, is the 3rd version of Google analytics launched in 2012. | |
| Google Analytics 4 | Also, known as ‘GA4’. The latest version of the analytics platform. All new accounts will be created using GA4, if you are using UA, you will need to migrate before the end of June 2024. |
Analytics Terms – Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
| Name | Meaning |
| Sessions | A session is considered a period of time a user is actively engaged on your site. A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or at midnight. It is considered a ‘hit’. |
| Events | Events are specific actions to monitor on your website, such as a registration sign-up button being clicked. These events will have a Category, Action and Label and are considered a hit. |
| Bounce Rate | Where a user visits a page on your site but does not click on any other links and does not move between pages. They come to your site and leave without exploring more content. |
| Pageviews | Once a user has loaded a page of your website within their browser, this is called a Pageview. |
| Hit(s) | A hit is considered any specific interaction between a user and your website. Essentially, any interaction resulting in data being sent to Google Analytics. |
Analytics Terms – Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
| Name | Meaning |
| Sessions | A session is considered a period of time a user actively engages on your site, ending after 30 minutes of inactivity. A session will not end at midnight. |
| Events | An event is considered a specific interaction between a user and your website, all actions are events. |
| Engagement Rates | This is an alternative method to Bounce Rate. If a user visits your site, reads content for a minute and leaves, this is no longer considered a bounce. It is considered engagement. Engagements are considered as: – a visitor lasting 10 seconds or longer, – a visitor having at least one conversion event, or – a visit having at least two screen/pageviews |
| Page Views | Considered an event, this is where a user has loaded a page of your website within their browser. |
| Hit(s) | Are not tracked in GA4 – These are now called Events |