Google Analytics 4 Will Be Make-Or-Break For Data & Marketing Teams in Q2 2023

Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023. Prepare now by setting up and switching over to a Google Analytics 4 property.

• The message UA users have been seeing since January 2022.

Universal Analytics is sunsetting in 2023. July, 2023- which, as I'm writing this post, UA will be a thing of the past in only 8 months from now. Is that enough time, or are we awaiting a mismanagement/mass-confusion scenario similar to when Google acquired the analytics platform Urchin 2005 - thus becoming Google Analytics by 2008? Those that have experience with Urchin will remember it is a simple web log app, though including some cool graphics. In the mid 2000's, Urchin was the only key player in digital analytics, unless savvy marketers were able to traverse raw http logs.

Google acquired and transformed Urchin over a 3-4 year period in '05 to '08-'09. Those that are data-nostalgic remember the VIDA system and The Schedular features fondly. Intentionally forgotten, however, was the disastrous migration to Google Analytics from Urchin.

Fun & Cool Trivia Facts You Should Already Know:

The common UTM tracking method is named after Urchin: Urchin Tracking Module

Google's Urchin Analytics immediately suffered downtime due to demand and license transfer issues. They introduced a sloppy lottery system to existing (paying) Urchin users. On top of that, Google introduced a very new concept out of the box: asynchronous tracking codes. This caused SEO'ers, media buyers, banner buyers, popup purchasers to forcefully adjust to an entirely different landscape in a few months time. Everything was different, new, cutting edge, and full of cookies. Here's the difference between Universal Analytics and GA4 that makes me, my colleagues, and my nightmares have doubts:

1. Google Analytics & the rest of the Marketing Platform has mostly remained the same since 2006. The UI, the technology, the core functionality has been familiar for marketers and analytics teams for 8-10 years.
2. Third party cookies are now becoming obsolete- Google, Apple, Facebook- Meta... and all tech giants in-between have all informally agreed to 'end 'rework' 3rd party cookie tracking and implement their own version of event based/1st party tracking.
3. GA4's user interface, report building, integration capabilities, sampling thresholds, attribution modeling, event/conversion tracking is entirely different than what marketers have been familiar with- in many cases- most of their careers.

Ten months ago I needed a refresher on Amazon's KDP platform to consult a client in the same industry. I decided to publish a quick little e-guide book from my past brief writeups on GA4. I imported 3 pages or so related to GA4 event tracking and compiled it into a Kindle eBook, set it at the lowest price (.99 cents) and forgot about it.

I checked back a few months later and with nearly 100 sales, my suspicion was confirmed: very few teams, contractors, fractional CMO's, CMO's, devop teams, adtech teams, and so on, are prepared for Google Analytics 4.

I've polled our agency partners, software partners, and tech partners in the last few months about their knowledge of GA4 and to summarize:

1. Bigcommerce Enterprise Solutions team just last week (December 2022) just finished the most basic GA4 native integration.
2. As far as I know, Shopify's GA native integration is still entirely confused about GA4's new tag format
3. Magento/Adobe Commerce recently started charging a fat fee for the most basic eCommerce level tracking
4. Woocommerce natively introduced basic GA4 eCommerce tracking within their official GA plugin.

I'd like to finish with a very good read on Search Engine Journal by Greg Jarboe published several months ago regarding the consequences of Google Analytics 4 Migration. He begins by perfectly summarizing the transformation of the web analytics team as a subsidiary of the IT team, and how GA4 will completely separate these two departments, for good (or for worse!).

The “web analytics” team still sits in the IT department in far too many organizations.

Why?

Because the team was originally created back in 1995 when web analytics meant servers, log files, and complex handwritten code to parse the log files and pump out reports.

So, putting them in the IT department made perfect sense back then.

But, data collection, storage, and processing have all moved into the cloud (hosted by your application service provider rather than in-house).

If you or your team have postponed or procrastinated GA4 migration up to this point, I strongly suggest you start today. If you need guidance, solutions planning, or experienced feedback, please reach out to me or directly at our agency page Custom Design Partners .

Originally published on my official blog, AlexHatala.com, 11/23/2022

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