GA4 Webinar: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Your current Google Analytics is going away – but don’t fret, GA4 experts from Granular hosted a webinar to share all of the relevant information you need to know about the switch from Google Analytics to GA4.

Check out the webinar below, followed by more in-depth information on key slides and helpful resources.

If you have any questions or are interested in having Granular help with your GA4 migration, please fill out the form on the Contact Us page and someone will get back to you!

The Google Analytics GA4 Webinar

Key Slides & Details

Universal Analytics is Going Away

• On March 1st, 2023, Google will begin to create GA4 properties (unless you opted out manually)
• Until June 30th, 2023, Universal Analytics (UA) will continue to collect new data
• Starting July 1st, 2023, Universal Analytics will no longer collect new data
• For at least six months after July 1, 2023, you’ll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property
• Google will remove access to universal analytics properties at some point: a date has not been confirmed [source]

How About Auto-migration to GA4?

What is Google’s definition of users who “haven’t migrated?”

1. You have a UA property and have not set up a GA4 property. The UA property is not opted out of the auto-migration setting
2. You have created a GA4 property but haven’t linked it to a UA property. Google doesn’t know it’s the same as your UA property and doesn’t consider this migrated
3. You have created a GA4 property and linked it to a UA property but haven’t completed all GA4 Setup Assistant steps

Common Issues with GA4 Auto-migration

1. SmartGoals, Duration Goals and Pages/session goals – These can’t be migrated to GA4. A new approach must be taken to define these conversions through events
2. RegEx URL and event-related goals – These also cannot be migrated to GA4
3. Goals that relied on GA filters to remove set query parameters from the URL will not pass through
4. Remarketing settings which are set to ‘Off’ are auto-changed to ‘On’ in GA4. This very likely breaches GDPR privacy regulations if left unchecked
5. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) pages are not supported by GA4, so if your website uses AMP pages you will lose the ability to track pageviews
6. Acquisition channel attribution issues where the GA referral exclusion list won’t have been copied to GA4
7. Google Ads deflation resulting from broken migrated conversions that break your CPA bidding
8. Google Ads inflation can be caused by migrated conversion events working at the same time with Google Ads conversions where both are set as Primary sources for CPA bidding
9. Completing the 12 steps in the Setup Assistant – The GA4 setup assistant is split into two different actions. The first is to assist you in migrating from a UA property. The other helps set up your GA4 configuration. Those who have auto-migrated may find that the data appearing in GA4 is not as clear or accurate. It is recommended that each of the 12 steps is completed manually.

What is Actually Changing in GA4?

App Tracking

Hit Types

Sessions Calculations

Free BigQuery Exports

Bounce & Engagement Rate

Google Tag Manager Importance

Account Structure

GA4 Conversion Resources

Granular Offerings

1. Meet with client to understand Google Analytics account setup (Estimated time to complete: 1-2 Weeks)
2. Create GA4 property and implement it either through hard code or through GTM. (Estimated time to complete: 1 Week)
3. Implement event tracking for all required goals through GTM, utilizing GA4’s new event tracking protocol. (Estimated time to complete: 1 Week)
4. Allow time for events to populate and set preferred events as goals, test to make sure data is pulling through correctly, utilizing GTM and GA’s built-in debugging tool. (Estimated time to complete: 1-2 Weeks)
5. Allow one more final test for data quality at least a week after full GA4 implementation. (Estimated time to complete: 1 Week)
6. Walk through GA4 implementation and confirm how conversions are tracked. (Estimated time to complete: 1 Week)

Demo Accounts from Google

• Accessing the Demo Account: [link] 
• GA4 Property: [link]
• UA Property: [link]

Google Analytics Resources

• Granular Marketing Analytics Blog
• Google GA4 Dev Guide
• Adswerve Data Layer Inspector Tool
• Analytics Mania Training Courses
• LovesData GA4 Training Courses

Tools: Data Visualization & Analysis

• BigQuery [link]
• Looker [link]
  • Formerly Data Studio
• Supermetrics [link]
• Funnel [link]

If you have any questions or are interested in having Granular help with your GA4 migration, please fill out the form on the Contact Us page and someone will get back to you!