GA4 vs Universal Analytics: What's the difference?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Universal Analytics are two different versions of Google's analytics platform. GA4 is the newer version and is designed to be more user-friendly and comprehensive than Universal Analytics.

Here are some of the main differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics:

• Measurement model: GA4 uses an event-based measurement model, while Universal Analytics uses a session-based measurement model. This means that GA4 tracks individual events that users take on your website or app, while Universal Analytics tracks sessions, which are groups of events that happen within a certain period of time.
• Data collection: GA4 collects more data than Universal Analytics, including data about user demographics, interests, and online behavior. This data can be used to create more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns.
• Reporting: GA4 offers a more flexible and customizable reporting system than Universal Analytics. This makes it easier to find the insights you need to improve your website or app.
• Integrations: GA4 integrates with more third-party tools than Universal Analytics. This makes it easier to connect your analytics data to other marketing platforms and tools.

Overall, GA4 is a more powerful and flexible analytics platform than Universal Analytics. If you're looking for a way to get more insights into your website or app traffic, GA4 is a great option.

What Makes GA4 Better than Universal Analytics?

GA4 has a number of advantages over Universal Analytics, including:

• It is event-based: GA4 tracks user activity as events, which provides more granular data and insights into user behavior.
• It is cross-platform: GA4 can track data from both web and mobile devices, giving you a more complete view of your users.
• It is privacy-focused: GA4 is designed to collect and process data in a way that respects user privacy.
• It is machine learning-powered: GA4 uses machine learning to generate insights and recommendations that can help you improve your marketing campaigns.

Overall, GA4 is a more powerful and flexible analytics platform than Universal Analytics. If you are looking for a way to get more insights from your data and improve your marketing campaigns, then GA4 is the better choice.

Here are some additional details about each of these advantages:

• Event-based tracking: GA4 tracks user activity as events, which are defined by you. This gives you much more granular data than Universal Analytics, which only tracks page views and sessions. For example, you could track events such as a user signing up for your email list, making a purchase, or watching a video.
• Cross-platform tracking: GA4 can track data from both web and mobile devices. This is important because more and more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet. GA4 can help you understand how your users are interacting with your content across different platforms.
• Privacy-focused: GA4 is designed to collect and process data in a way that respects user privacy. This is important because users are becoming more aware of how their data is being used. GA4 offers a number of features to help you comply with data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Machine learning-powered: GA4 uses machine learning to generate insights and recommendations. This can help you improve your marketing campaigns by identifying trends and patterns in your data. For example, GA4 could recommend that you create a new ad campaign targeting users who have visited your website but not yet made a purchase.

If you are still using Universal Analytics, I recommend that you start migrating to GA4 as soon as possible. GA4 is the future of Google Analytics, and it offers a number of advantages that Universal Analytics does not.

What does this warning on your universal analytics property mean?

Google Analytics 4 has replaced Universal Analytics. As of July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties stopped processing data.?

You will have access to your data that has already been processed on your Universal Analytics property until July 1, 2024. If you want to continue using Google Analytics to measure your website's current traffic, you need a Google Analytics 4 property.

If you do nothing, a new GA4 property will automatically be created for you, and your Universal Analytics configurations will be copied to the new GA4 property. Automatically created Google Analytics 4 properties contain only basic features. Depending on your business and measurement needs, you might want to set up additional features to get the most value out of your new property.

I strongly recommend you manually migrate your Universal Analytics settings to GA4. Not all UA configurations have an obvious GA4 counterpart, and the automated process might not make the same choices as you would.

Here are some of the difficulties of transitioning to GA4:

Data loss or inaccuracies: As I mentioned earlier, not all UA configurations have an obvious GA4 counterpart. This can lead to some data loss or inaccuracies if you don't manually migrate your settings.

Different measurement model: GA4 uses a different measurement model than Universal Analytics. This means that your data will be organized differently, and you may need to adjust your reporting and analysis accordingly.

New features and terminology: GA4 has a number of new features and terminology that you'll need to learn. This can be a challenge, especially if you're not familiar with data analytics.

Limited resources: There are still a limited number of resources available for GA4. This can make it difficult to find help and support if you need it.

Need help migrating to Google Analytics 4?

If you are feeling concerned about migrating Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, Clickteller can help.

Our team holds many Google Analytics qualifications and can assist you with:

end-to-end GA4 migration

Training sessions

Custom dashboards

Google Tag Manager Setup

Depending on your business and your measurement needs, you can contact us to get the most value from your new property.

For more information about our services, please visit our website or reach out to us directly.