Let's embrace the change.

Author

apurv singh
January 11, 2023

Read time: 4 minutes

I recently did a poll on my Instagram- What topic should I pick for this newsletter? And below was the result:

Clearly, people want to address the elephant in the room- GA4

I still wish this happened.

Elon sees more value in Twitter of course.

Whether Twitter will fly high or will see sunset only time will tell. But GA3 is certainly seeing a sunset on 1st July 2023.

The current version of Google analytics is actually the 3rd version of the tool.

Now, Google is mandating webmasters to migrate to a newer version- GA4 before the above-mentioned date.

This is truly a massive change for SEOs, analytics teams, and anyone who uses Google Analytics.

GA4 is very, very different from the current GA3 version.

GA4- What's changed?

In short… a lot.

GA4 uses a significantly different data structure and data collection logic.

If I have to give you a one-line description of what's changed? It would be this-

GA4 captures everything based on users & events. GA4 also integrates web and app data to have a more unified view.

In GA4, everything is built around users and events – not sessions, as we’ve been used to with GA3.

An events-based model processes each user interaction as a standalone event. For example, loading a page is an event, clicking a link is an event, downloading a file is an event & so on.

This change is significant because historically we relied on a session-based model which grouped user interactions within a given time frame.

I will not go deep into sessions now because sessions-based reporting will become history starting 1st July, 2023.

By moving to an event-based model, GA4 is more flexible and better able to predict user behavior.

A best practice about the implementation of GA4- You must implement GA4 via Google tag manager ((Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management solution that allows you to add and edit segments of code (tags) that collect and send data to Google Analytics & other 3rd party platforms). 

If you are a marketer, I recommend getting help from a developer, and an analytics expert. Or hire an agency.

There are a few agencies that are doing a good job of developing analytics capabilities.

In case you want to get in touch with such an agency, ping me here:

Avoid implementing GA4 by yourself if you are not very certain of how it happens.

The numbers GA reports are serious numbers on users and business & you wouldn't want to be in a spot if things go wrong.

Speaking of events, there are 3 types of events that you can capture on GA4:

1. Automatically Collected Events are collected… well, automatically; you will not need to do anything extra to collect a user’s first visit or page views

2. Enhanced Measurement provides events you can toggle on and off within Google Analytics 4:

So, scrolls, outbound link clicks, site search, video engagement & file downloads can be enabled by toggles (as represented by the above image)

3. Custom Events can measure anything that’s not automatically collected or a recommended event.

I will leave you with this much information to process today.

This newsletter will help you take the first step in the right direction in order to implement GA4 on your website.

If you are keen on learning more about GA4, invest in this.

Since you are a subscriber to my newsletter, I am giving away a flat 20% discount on this GA4 course for the first 10 enrolments only.

Use code- GA4DISCOUNT (on the cart page)

I suggest, even if you will go through the course on the weekend, just buy and keep it to take advantage of the offer.

By the way, this week I wrote original content on 'Divide your competition into these 4 quadrants for extreme clarity'. Do check it out.

Want to book a 30 min free session with me to discuss a project?

Cheers,

Apurv

P.S. Reply back to this email with a newsletter idea, and I'll add it to my growing list!