GA4 Training and Implementation
If you already make use of Google Analytics on your web properties, you will almost certainly have been getting lots of messages telling you that you should consider upgrading to Google Analytics 4 – or GA4 for short. However, for many casual users – especially business owners with a lot of other things to do, finding the time to do so can be hard, and understanding the new platform even harder.
At Pearl Lemon, we are all about Google Analytics. While we make use of lots of other tools too when providing services for our clients, GA is always at the heart of what we do. After all, SEO means search engine optimization and the biggest – by a HUGE margin – search engine you need to optimize for is Google. So doing things the way they like them to be done is a must.
The one thing that strikes new GA users is just how much data it offers. A dizzying amount in fact. That is about to increase in GA4, as the whole point of the upgrade is to offer users even more data, more often. It’s very useful stuff, as long as you know how to use it.
That’s why, as the deadline for making a switch draws closer, Pearl Lemon is pleased to offer GA4 training and implementation to any business who needs help accessing and understanding all that GA4 has to offer. You don’t even need to be a regular Pearl Lemon client, just someone who wants to get the best possible ROI from their web presence.
Why Use Google Analytics at All?
A simple and cost-free method of monitoring and analyzing website traffic is provided by Google Analytics. Even if you receive thousands or even millions of visitors each month, if you don’t know anything about them, their existence is essentially pointless. Google Analytics can help you get the most out of visitors and even help with converting them into customers thanks to its powerful web analytics and reporting capabilities.
Google Analytics offers important insights into how your website is working and what you can do to reach your goals in addition to tracking the number of visitors. You can monitor everything, including the amount of traffic your website receives, its source, and the behavior of its users. To assist you in making smart business decisions, you can also track mobile app usage, identify trends, and monitor social media activity.
The most recent version of Google Analytics 4, also known as GA4, was released in October 2020. This launch’s marketing highlighted its potent capabilities.
Let’s examine GA4 in more detail and the benefits of GA4 migration and training as provided by the data and SEO experts at Pearl Lemon.
What is GA4?
The newest version of Google Analytics is called GA4. It completely reimagines what data collecting and analysis might be, combining all of Universal Analytics’ strengths with brand-new capabilities created to take advantage of the potential provided by big data and machine learning. It’s basically the most advanced analytics available, from Google or anyone else, for anyone who owns a website
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What distinguishes Universal Analytics from GA4?
GA4 is replacing Universal Analytics. But are there really that many differences? The main distinction is that Google used an entirely new architecture to build GA4. The idea of sessions, which are effectively a string of page views, served as the foundation for the creation of Universal Analytics. Things have changed a lot in GA4.
GA4 is centered on the idea of events, on the other hand. Pageviews, clicks, form submissions, and even bespoke events that you define yourself can all be considered events. This ability to define your own events may be one of the best ‘upgrades’ on offer, and will be covered in great detail if you choose
The repercussions of this architectural alteration are vast and significant. First off, it demonstrates that GA4 is much more data-capable than Universal Analytics. It also means that GA4 can provide you with a lot more information on what users are doing on your website or app. Thirdly, it implies that GA4 can be used to track a variety of different things in addition to online traffic.
Let's examine a few of GA4's most important features.
Tracking across platforms—web and applications
The tracking of users across platforms and devices is one of GA4’s most potent capabilities. This enables you to obtain a thorough understanding of how customers engage with your business, whether they are using your website, your mobile app, or both.
The use of “data streams,” which are effectively distinct “views” of your data that you can construct based on specific criteria, enables this. You could, for instance, make a stream for all online traffic, one for all app traffic, or one for all traffic coming from a specific area.
The other major benefit of this is that it greatly simplifies conversion tracking because you can see the whole user experience from beginning to end, regardless of the platform or device the user is using.
Reporting and analysis
A new Google reporting area that offers new tools to conduct sophisticated analysis was added with GA4. Depending on the website or event you choose, this will happen automatically. Additionally, you may export your data into this new interface – called BigQuery – using the new analysis tool for even more thorough analysis.
Integrating with Google’s cloud-based data warehouse service, BigQuery, is one of GA4’s most intriguing features. As a result, you may export your GA4 data and store and analyze it in BigQuery.
This is a big benefit for two reasons: first, it provides you with almost infinite storage for your data; and second, it opens up a world of possibilities for advanced analysis that was just not feasible with Universal Analytics without an external connector.
You might, for instance, export your data into BigQuery and use SQL to conduct sophisticated searches that are just not possible to execute through the GA interface. Alternatively, you can employ machine learning to find hidden patterns in your data.
The integration of GA4 with BigQuery is a game-changer if you’re serious about data analysis, in our opinion. But for many people, this level of tech skill is something they just don’t have. Our GA4 training will help you understand how to simplify things, and how to make sense of this new wealth of data without the need to take a degree in data analytics!
Machine Learning Magic
The use of machine learning by GA4 to give wiser insights is another significant benefit. To combine data from many sources and provide you a more full view of your users, GA4 uses “probabilistic matching.”
Consider the scenario where your campaign is active on both Facebook Ads and Google Ads. GA4 can combine the data from the two campaigns using probabilistic matching to offer you a single picture of their performance.
This is just one illustration of how GA4’s usage of machine learning can provide you access to insights that with Universal Analytics are simply not available.
How data is gathered has undergone one of the most significant modifications in GA4. Data was gathered through tags that were positioned on each website page in Universal Analytics. GA4 employs “event-based tracking,” which records user interactions, or events, as they take place rather than depending on pageviews.
Due to this, GA4 can track user activity with a great deal more precision and flexibility.
Consider the case where you have a website with a search function. You can monitor pageviews for the search results pages using Universal Analytics. However, regardless of the page the user is on, you can track actual searches as they happen with GA4.
Additionally, this event-based paradigm enables tracking of user activities that don’t always take place on a website, such offline conversions and in-app purchases.
The enhanced data model in GA4 gives you a more precise and thorough picture of how users are interacting with your website or app.
Probability of purchase and churn
The ability of GA4 to forecast purchase probability and churn is yet another intriguing new feature. The likelihood that a user will make a purchase on your website or app is measured by purchase probability. Churn gauges a user’s propensity to discontinue utilizing your product.
For each unique user, GA4 employs machine learning to forecast churn and buy probability. As a result, you can focus on the users who are most likely to convert or churn with your marketing efforts.
Additionally, GA4 will keep picking up new information and improve its accuracy over time. As a result, it will increase in value as you utilize it.
Why you should immediately switch to GA4 ?
You can see that GA4 is a significant improvement over Universal Analytics. It is more potent, adaptable, and accurate. You should switch to GA4 straight away if data analysis is something you take seriously.
You’ll be able to benefit from GA4’s ongoing learning and development in addition to having access to all the new features and capabilities. It’s crucial to keep in mind that Google will stop supporting Universal Analytics in July 2023, necessitating an upgrade.
Moving your tracking now ensures that you will have a year of historical data in your new platform, whether it is GA4 or anything else, as UA will shortly stop collecting new sessions.
Taking advantage of GA4 training and implementation from Pearl Lemon now will ensure that you make this important switch in plenty of time and that you can start reaping the benefits of all this extra data right away. We can provide extensive training for you and your staff, or even, if you prefer, eliminate lots of time and hassle and do the hard work for you, monitoring your new GA4 on an ongoing basis, providing you with just the information you need. The choice is yours!
Contact us today to discuss just what GA4 training and implementation can do for you, and how Pearl Lemon can help.
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