Google Analytics 4: 7 Things You Should Know
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics. It will replace its predecessor, Universal Analytics (UA).
Google announced that Universal Analytics will stop processing new hits starting from July 1, 2023, which means that Universal Analytics will stop collecting data on that date. All users who want to continue to use Google Analytics will have to use Google Analytics 4 starting from July 1st, 2023. We recommend you set up Google Analytics 4 on your website prior to that date so you can start collecting data and becoming familiar with GA4 sooner rather than later.
GA4 comes with new advanced features. Some features have also been removed. Here are eight things you should know about the new GA4.
Scroll depth is a default metric in Google Analytics 4
Scroll depth is defined as how far down a user scrolls on a webpage. Scroll depth measures how far down a user scrolls on a webpage. Units for this measurement can be in pixels or percentage. For example, you can track the number of users who scroll down 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% on your webpages. Scroll depth helps you gain insights on users’ engagement and their interest in your content.
Outbound link clicks are automatically tracked
Outbound links are URLs to external websites. For example, if you include hyperlink social media icons in your website footer to your Facebook page or Instagram account, these hyperlinks are called outbound or external links because they’re linked to external sites. Tracking outbound links help you see the number of users clicking on external links such as links to your Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook account or external blog posts. This helps you gain insight into the type of content your website visitors are interested in.
Site search is automatically tracked
If you have a search engine on your website, you can track site search with GA4. You can see which search terms website visitors are looking for on your website. Previously in UA, site search functionality had to be configured. With GA4, site search is automatically set up. Seeing which search terms your website visitors are looking for helps you understand the content, products or services your target audience is interested in. You can use the insights to better understand your clientele and use the content for marketing purposes, such as SEO or Google Ads.
Video engagements such as video progress and video complete are automatically tracked
If you embed YouTube videos on your website, GA4 will track video engagement metrics, such as video progress or video completion rate. Previously with UA, you’d have to set up video engagement tracking via Google Tag Manager, then integrate Google Tag Manager with UA. Now with GA4, video engagement is automatically tracked in GA4’s default mode. Neat!
Tracking video engagement is important for understanding the impact of your videos. Are your clients watching the videos on your website? Are there any differences in website behaviours between those who watch your videos and those who don’t? Are website visitors who watch your videos on your website more likely to make a purchase? This is all important information that you can derive from your video engagement data.
Path exploration
UA has a feature called Behaviour Flow that shows you a website’s behaviour flow or path journey on a website. You can use the feature to see the sequence of pages that a visitor clicks through on your website . GA4 has the same capability, but with more advanced features. In GA4, you can see your visitor’s reverse path. As in, you can start with the end point of the visitor’s journey and look backwards through their site path. For example, you can select a webpage that a majority of website visitors exit your website from, and you can see the second last page that these website visitors visit, and the third last last page, and so forth. This gives you another perspective of the website journey and can help you optimize your website’s user-experience (UX) so you can improve the overall engagement or conversion rate.
Attribution isn’t fully developed
Attribution models are available in UA, which shows the different touchpoints that visitors interact with on a website before converting or making a purchase. Attribution models are excellent for gaining insights on how your marketing efforts are driving sales or conversions on your website. For example, you can use attribution models to see that customers click on your Google Ads, visit your website organically, and then revisit your website directly to make a purchase. This data helps you learn how various marketing channels contribute to generating website conversions or sales.
Attribution models aren’t available in GA4 as of right now since GA4 is still in beta mode.
Average page load time isn’t included in Google Analytics 4
Average page Load Time is broadly defined as the average amount of time (in seconds) it takes a page to load, from initiation of the pageview (e.g., click on a page link) to load completion in the browser. The faster the page load time, the better for the user experience (UX). The UX affects a website’s search ranking because Google takes UX under consideration when ranking a website on search results. UA lets you see your average page load time within a specified timeframe so you can see if there are any spikes in page load time and see if there’s anything that needs to be addressed. This feature isn’t yet available in GA4 but may be available in the future.
There are lots of new and exciting features in GA4. There’s a lot to learn and take in. and we’re excited about what GA4 will bring to the data analytics world. If you have any questions about GA4 or need help with setting up GA4 on your website, please book a discovery meeting to learn about our Google Analytics training session or GA4 setup.