Recently, one of the biggest happenings in the world of digital marketing is the sunsetting of Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) dashboard, and the ascent of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Simply put, Google Analytics has long been the top, free option for marketers and webmasters looking to track their stats and monitor their performance. The transition to GA4 means marketers everywhere are learning to master a whole new set of analytic tools.

The good news is that GA4 is designed to be fairly intuitive, and most marketers will find it easy to master through ongoing exposure. For those seeking a crash course in GA4, here are a few beginner-friendly suggestions.

How to Familiarize Yourself with GA4

1) Know What's Different

First and foremost, it’s helpful to have a conceptual understanding of why Google made this change in the first place, and what sets the new Google Analytics apart from the old one. This knowledge can provide some direction for using GA4 to its maximum effect.

In brief, GA4 accounts for a couple of key shifts: An understanding that browser behavior now spans multiple platforms and devices, and a recognition that changing views about digital privacy make it more challenging to observe browser behavior via cookies.

As such, while UA provided data about individual user sessions, GA4 has an event-based model, mapping the user journey across different apps and websites.

2) Get Set Up Properly

There are a few steps marketers can take to ensure they have fully migrated their content and customized their GA4 property. Here’s what we recommend:

• Check out the GA4 Setup Assistant, which will provide an intuitive, personalized walkthrough.
• Also explore Google’s Setup Guide, which provides some additional tips for getting the most out of GA4.
• For advertisers: Double-check that your Google Ads links have been imported properly, that your conversions and goals have transferred over, and that you’re still bidding for the right audiences.

3) Educate Yourself

Google actually offers some helpful resources that can help you get the lay of the land with GA4. Specifically, we recommend:

• Analytics for Beginners and SMBS: For those who are brand new to Google Analytics, and those who are a little less keen on the technical aspects of digital marketing, this resource is incredibly helpful.
• Analytics for Marketers and Analysts: Those who have a little bit more experience with analytics may find this to be a helpful shortcut to understanding GA4’s more robust features.

These Google-generated resources can be invaluable to anyone looking to get their bearings.

4) Explore the New Features

Even if you know the features that UA provided, there are some tools associated with GA4 that may take you by surprise. If you just want to focus on the new capabilities, here are a few areas to play around with:

• Business objectives. The new version of Google Analytics allows you to specify a business goal or objective; you’ll then receive automatically generated reports that are relevant to the goal in question. There’s even a library of predetermined business objectives to help you get going.
• Analytics intelligence. GA4 also allows you to leverage machine learning in order to generate custom reports and analytic insights, as well as to keep tabs on any significant trends that emerge within your data.
• Customized homepage. UA always showed the same basic information to each user, but the new version provides a more customized layout, based on product usage and user signals.
• Predictive audiences. While UA used past data sets to generate new audiences, GA4 actually uses advanced AI technology to predict audiences; you can even get predictions for users who will make a purchase in the immediate future.
• Cross-device and cross-platform audiences. One of the primary factors that distinguished GA4 is that it’s built to follow the consumer journey across devices and platforms. You’ll be able to capture and synthesize more touch points from across the user journey, which can be incredibly helpful for enhancing your audiences.
• User-ID. Along the same lines, GA4 has significantly improved the utility of user-ID, using it throughout your reporting to provide an accurate and user-centric view of your customer behavior.

These are just a few of the advanced features that make us excited about GA4, and that are worth focusing on as you seek mastery of this new toolset.

Take a Deeper Dive into Google Analytics

At enCOMPASS, we see tremendous value in the use of advanced data and analytics. And while Google’s property alone may not provide a full view, it’s certainly the best free tool around for marketers and small business owners.

We’re always happy to chat about analytics, to answer your questions about using Google’s toolset, and to let you know about the data we employ on behalf of our client campaigns. To talk to someone from the enCOMPASS team, reach out to us at your convenience.