Is Google Analytics 4 Better than Universal Analytics?

In CXL Institute on learning the major difference between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics. We actually implement it on a CMS, using Weebly. We were showed how you can create a free website. We’re going to do some guided implementation work where we actually created a Google Tag Manager account. We add in the GA4 tags. Experience how the automatic measurement works. And we built basically a sandbox that we can use. The other benefit is this allows you to experience GA4 on a test website, easily allowing you to get that experience so you can take it and actually implement it on your real website after. an experience by using Google Tag Manager.

Google Analytics 4 is on track to be more powerful than Universal Analytics and provides more relevant data about why users are on your site and/or app. It allows you to combine the data from multiple data streams into one property and more accurately attribute actions to users across devices.

Universal Analytics hit types include page hits, event hits, eCommerce hits, and social interaction hits.

In contrast, Google Analytics 4 property measurement is event-based, with the principle that any interaction can be captured as an event. As such, Universal Analytics property hit types translate to events in a Google Analytics 4 property.

There are major differences between UA and GA4. One difference is how users are tracked. In UA, users are tracked via sessions (or set periods that encompass everything a user does on your site). 

GA4 is event-based. Instead of creating a new session when a user returns to a site, GA4 records all events they complete. This allows Google to more accurately deduplicate users and emphasizes what users actually do on your site, rather than just caring that users get there

Another difference is the reporting. In UA, there are several set reports with some customizations possible. GA4 has only top-level reports built-in, and if you want specific reports, the analysis tab is the place to go. This gives you greater freedom in how your reports look and lets you drill down to the data that’s most important to you. 

Another difference is how they’re set up. UA uses a property and view setup while GA4 allows you to mix data from your apps and website. This happens through a single property and Google Analytics’ data streams. 

You can place the same tracking code in the different properties (i.e., website, iOS app, or Android app) and consolidate the data to track a user between the streams. That means that there’s a new tracking code. Instead of the UA-XXXXXX-X type code, the tracking ID now looks like this: G-XXXXXXX.

A Google Analytics property sits within a Google Analytics account. The account is the level of the hierarchy where you log in. Other than that, it’s a shell. Data processing takes place at the property level.

In the time before GA4, a company with both an App and a Website would have a single account and two distinct properties – one for the app and one for the website. With Google Analytics 4, a single property contains data for both app and web.

In UA properties, Analytics groups data into sessions, and these sessions are the foundation of all reporting. A session is a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame.

During a session, Analytics collects and stores user interactions, such as page views, events, and eCommerce transactions, like hits. A single session can contain multiple hits, depending on how a user interacts with your website.

A Universal Analytics event has a Category, Action, and Label and is its own hit type. In Google Analytics 4 properties, every "hit" is an event; there is no distinction between hit types. For example, when someone views one of your website pages, a page view event is triggered.

Google Analytics 4 events have no Category, Action, and Label notion and, unlike Universal Analytics reports, Google Analytics 4 reports do not display Category, Action, and Label. Therefore, it’s better to rethink your data collection in terms of the Google Analytics 4 model rather than port your existing event structure to Google Analytics 4. Because the GA4 event-based data model is more agnostic and flexible, each parameter can serve a more specific and meaningful role. Whereas Event Action and Event Label values typically rely on the Event Category value to be understood, the lead type parameter is inherently more descriptive. Pageviews themselves are considered a type of event in GA4, with pageview as the event name parameter.

Google Analytics 4 events fall into four categories: automatically collected events, enhanced measurement events, recommended events, and custom events. Automatically collected and enhanced measurement events DO NOT REQUIRE that code be added to the web page or app

Google Analytics 4 is on track to be more powerful than Universal Analytics and provides more relevant data about why users are on your site and/or app. It allows you to combine the data from multiple data streams into one property and more accurately attribute actions to users across devices. 

While GA4 won’t give you all this data right off the bat, early implementation will help you take advantage of the enhanced experience and data sooner rather than later. We encourage all site owners to implement GA4 on their sites and apps as soon as possible.

How Does Google Analytics 4 Measure Users?

Data gets into Universal Analytics from “cookie-based” tracking. A website with UA sends a cookie into the user’s web browser, and that allows the platform to monitor and record web activity on the site in question during that user’s session on the site. The measurement approach is a session-based data model.

According to Google, Google Analytics 4 allows “businesses to measure across platforms and devices using multiple forms of identity.” This includes first-party data and “Google signals” from users who have opted into ad personalization. And Google Analytics 4 will still use cookies where they are available for tracking. Instead of tracking sessions, GA4 has an event-based data model.

In a world where privacy is becoming increasingly important, it’s a fair assumption that those cookies may become less and less prevalent. This is arguably a net positive for humanity, but for now, seems like a big negative for digital marketers.