Google Analytics There is a big difference between the recently launched GA4 and Universal Analytics – which has been around for years. Some of the new features of the platform include improved user engagement analysis, enhanced customer journey tracking, intelligent user privacy and tracking features, simplified goal and event setup, improved reporting, and machine learning-powered data collection, among other features.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly what the benefits are of starting to use the new version of Google Analytics and why you should update your website version right now.
User Journey
Google Analytics has really changed – and not just in how it structures its reports in the user interface. The focus is no longer on measurements that are easily broken down by device or platform, like sessions. The emphasis is now on users and their interactions – which are now captured solely as events.
This new event-driven, user-centric data model means you can now use a single set of dimensions and metrics to analyze data across web and apps, enabling smarter measurement.
User involvement
In addition to being able to collect and aggregate more data, Google has made it more intuitive for marketers and analysts to explore user-centric reports by aligning sections of the reporting menu with the customer journey.
The Audience, Acquisition, Behavior and binance database menus. In their place is a section ‘Life Cycle’ that breaks down the analysis into Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization and Retention, while there is now a separate ‘User’ section that focuses on user demographics and technology.
One of the best features of GA4 is its powerful new user-centric metrics and dimensions that use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict customer actions and value.
Smarter user privacy and tracking features
Google Analytics 4 gives you and your users more intuitive and precise control over what personal data, helping you comply with current and future privacy regulations.
For example, with GA4, you can now exclude vsdc free video editor events and user properties from ad personalization. Google’s new approach to analytics is to be more flexible and adaptable to a future where cookies much less common and where privacy will be an increasingly central concern for both users and regulators.
The new Google Analytics uses a more fluid approach to measurement and, in the near future, will include modeling to fill in the gaps where data incomplete.
Improved reporting
While much of the user interface has largely the same across the platform, there are several new visualizations and reporting functions. Existing visualizations, such as ‘Real Time’, have and made more intuitive.
The Analysis Hub – which features a gallery of asb directory with charts you can create, such as exploration, funnel analysis, segment overlays and path analysis – is a significant improvement and helps simplify some of the more complex multi-dimensional metrics reporting.
Extended segmentation
Audiences in GA4 allow for better targeting for marketing campaigns. You can now create event-based segments, which is not an option in Universal Analytics (UA)! and add the concept of time.
This means you can now focus more on your users and their interactions, without unnecessary divisions by device type or platform. And by incorporating the concept of time into your segmentation, you can do a lot more, like analyzing the time users spent between stages of your sales funnel.
It’s also worth noting that any targeted audiences automatically shared with Google Ads. The exact audience you want to reach will be there when you run a campaign.
Cross-platform monitoring
Website and app engagement were always separately prior to GA4.
Now, Google Analytics 4 combines these two into one property, meaning that getting a complete view of engagement across your platforms no longer needs to involve a tedious, manual process.
