How to make a seamless switch to Google Analytics 4

Did you know there’s a major change coming to the way that Google Analytics works over the upcoming months?

Universal Analytics will be retired in July 2023 and tracking will cease entirely.

And in its place?

A significant update: Google Analytics 4.

This switch will produce fundamental changes in the way that tracking will function, and will impact businesses. 

To avoid interruption to your analytics, it’s now vital that businesses get prepared for it – and sooner rather than later. It’s the only way to ensure that ongoing (and comparable) website data is still accessible to you and your team.

So, what is Google Analytics 4 — and what does the switch mean for your  business?

Well, simply put, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the next generation of Google Analytics — a tool that collects event-based data from websites and apps. 

Google Analytics 4 has been designed to address the new privacy landscape with more detailed controls on collecting, holding and analysing user data.

The team behind Google Analytics 4 have developed a form of data collection that doesn’t use cookies or identifiers. Where data may be incomplete or inaccessible, the new platform will employ data modelling to build the customer journey.

From July 2023, your existing Google Analytics account will no longer record new tracking information — meaning you’ll no longer have the ability to see is interacting with your website. And Google Analytics 4 will not allow the transfer of your historic data to the new platform. 

In order to build up a tracking history in advance of July 2023, you should be making the switch right about, now. 

Google Analytics 4 isn’t just a simple upgrade from the old version. As it’s a brand new tool, implementations for both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 need to happen simultaneously for the transition process to be a seamless one. 

Remember, you can’t import data from the legacy version. That’s why we recommend creating a new Google Analytics 4 property as soon as you can!

What are the benefits of Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is a great tool and it really does have some incredible benefits.

Some of them include:

• Improved user engagement analysis
• Intelligent features for user tracking and privacy

• Improved customer journey tracking
• More flexibility and simplified cross-domain tracking
• And much more.

So, how do you make the switch?

At J B Cole, we’re already helping our clients make the transition to Google Analytics 4 a seamless one.

We’re here to support businesses across industries create their new Google Analytics 4 property and setup tracking tags through Google Tag Manager — replicating their existing tracking where possible

Once we’ve completed a new Google Analytics 4 setup, we’re providing businesses with everything they need to being using it — including a guided tour of their new analytics dashboard, our ‘get started’ user guide and more.

Book your assessment today

If you need support handling your GA4 transition, give Tom Kingham, our Client Partner a call today and discuss your assessment phase today on 0754 668 8951 or email tom@jbcole.co.uk.