News
The new Google Analytics has landed
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you may know that Google Analytics is the largest analytics program (for websites and apps, anyway) in the world. This giant recently received a major update: GA4 or Google Analytics 4-property in full. The update is here to stay, so you better get used to it. A beta version has been available since July 2019, but now things are serious for everyone.
WHAT MAKES GA4 DIFFERENT?
In short: new insights via machine learning, cross-platform user insights & a privacy-centered design plays a major role. But the biggest difference is in how websites are measured. GA4 measures from an event-driven data model that separates sessions and page views. Each event passes information to Google Analytics. This means that the number of visitors no longer matters, but the value of the visits does. Or better: which interactions your visitors engaged in. This new way of measuring is partly inspired by the rise of mobile apps and one-pagers (websites that consist of one page) where keeping track of sessions and page views is not always the best way to measure a visitor experience.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF GA4?
We will not go into further detail about the technicalities of the new GA4 and the way of measuring, but rather list a number of advantages of GA4 for you
- AUTOMATIC TARGET GROUPS
Google Analytics 4 makes it easier to create audiences based on what users have done on your site. You can automatically group visitors based on their collected data.
- STOP SAYING BOUNCE RATE
A metric that has been often used until now is the bounce rate. This has now been replaced by 'engaged sessions'. Your users must meet one of the following criteria:
- They left the website/app open in the foreground for at least 10 seconds.
- They performed 2 or more 'pageview/screenview' events.
- A conversion was performed. You can determine this yourself and it is comparable to the 'goals' in regular Google Analytics.
This will give you new statistics:
- Engagement rate (Engaged sessions / sessions).
- Engaged sessions per user (engaged sessions / users).
- Engagement time = (sum of engaged time).
- AI-DRIVEN INSIGHTS & FORECASTS
The AI alerts the marketer when data trends emerge. For example, an increasing demand for a certain product or service. Or when certain segments of your customers show an increase in purchases. The AI will also be able to make predictions based on income or actions. This way, marketers can better anticipate and set up campaigns for the right target group.
- CROSS PLATFORM OPPORTUNITIES
If you have an app & website, you can link both data sources via the new data streams. This allows you to better monitor your campaigns.
SHOULD I REPLACE OR UPGRADE MY OLD GOOGLE ANALYTICS NOW?
Currently it is best to simply add a new GA4 to your current website, in addition to your current UA code. Not everything has been rolled out for GA4 yet. This way you get two versions on your site that both collect data and there are no surprises when GA4 becomes the standard.