Observations on GA4 – The New Google Analytics
There is a lot that is different about Google Analytics and these observations just highlight some interesting areas that we should be looking at to get more out of reporting.
All reporting needs to lead to one key outcome – actions. Too often a report is glanced at or even ignored, people and services spend a lot of time putting reports together so having them given a cursory bit of attention is a huge waste of time for all concerned.
Too often small business owners just operate from gut feelings. Sometimes even if they have the report that tells them otherwise in their hand. The slogan, if it feels right it must be right is one that could be applied to 98% of all small businesses.
This was most likely Google’s problem with UA (universal analytics) the old version of Google Analytics. We all grew complacent, we all looked at less than 10% of what was on offer and usually ignored that. If Google was doing analytics on its own Analytics it would have surmised that while 55% of all websites have Google Analytics installed the chances are 90% of all Google Analytics accounts have not been logged into for over a year.
Google was collecting data for billions of page hits across millions of websites for absolutely nothing. It was time for an upgrade.
Privacy
Not a huge amount has changed within Google Analytics when you dig around, everything that was there is still there, after all, we’re talking hits to your pages so you would expect all the basics to be there.
What’s changed is emphasis. One of the biggest emphases of course was Privacy. Things are going to tighten up further on Privacy and Google knows it. So people have been questioning why all the reporting is not in place that was there on the old UA.
The answer is Privacy. Google is a US company and within the EU and UK, Google is not allowed to send data to the USA on users. So Google does the bare minimum.
That all changes if you create your own report – and send that data to the US. You’re not allowed to do it, but Google does give you the tools to make this happen. It’s a bit like giving you a gun and then saying you can’t shoot anyone. In legal speak it works.
In the old UA Analytics, there were actually very few options to make your own reports, you could but few did. In the new GA4 Analytics – you can build any report you like, and it’s not too difficult, but you do have to learn how to.
Emphasis
In the old UA Analytics, there was a distinct emphasis on Users, and that they did. Particularly within the eCommerce reports the emphasis was on the number of Customers, where they came from and who they were.
In GA4 that has changed to be about ‘events’ – what happened on the website, what pages were looked at, what products, how many products were added to the cart, and how many products were sold.
This changes things and forces marketers to look at their marketing anew. Should we be focussed on satisfying that user in New York – who is our target market aimed at, is it about the customer? Or should it be about the services and products the website sells? If Product X is out-performing Product y should we be making more Product Xs? Where’s the money? What do users like about our website, Page A or Page B?
The change is subtle, but it is there, marketing will change due to this new slant on things,
Looker Studio
Reporting is moving away from Google, I suspect Google already realised that the majority of it’s accounts were never looked at, but Google has kept on collecting the data. But instead of making GA4 the all singing all dancing showpiece of reporting, Google is aware that most marketers extract the data they need and reformat it for presentation to their peers. Few marketing meetings have everyone sitting around a screen looking at Google Analytics in any great depth.
Enter BigQuery for Enterprise-level Organisations and Looker Studio for smaller businesses. It is now possible to fairly easily build a report that can look good and be sent to all relevant parties on a scheduled bases. far nicer to look at – with plenty of interactivity and personalisation for decision-makers.
Conclusion
When GA4 first came out, I deemed it an unfinished product – where were all the old reports I have relied on for so long in the past? When was Google going to give me the tools I needed to carry on in the same old way?
As time has moved on, I am reassured that all the questions I had have been overcome by better solutions. GA4, if I can make an observation, forces one to pay attention and if anything meaningful is to come out of it, such as actionable actions on their reports then Good – GA4 has achieved what it set out to do.