On 14th October 2020, Google sent ripples across the digital ecosystem when it announced the latest version of it’s analytics property, Google Analytics 4. If you’re someone knee-deep into web and product analytics or a web developer, you’ll find this blog resourceful. We’ll be discussing the impact of this change on universal analytics tags, some key differences between UA and GA4 and lastly, a resource that can quickly and easily help you navigate through this change.

In case you want to get a deeper understanding of Google Analytics 4, we found this blog to be particularly helpful.

What about UA Tags?

Short answer — It’s not getting obsolete. Yet. But it’s important to understand how these changes will start affecting businesses that are largely set up on Universal Analytics.

Sooner or later, UA will get obsolete as soon as Google decides to clamp down.

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But What Are The Key Differences?

Google Analytics is truly forward-facing. It requires you to unlearn and get comfortable with what it has to offer. We’ll cover some of the key differences that you may notice.

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Measurement Models

The biggest difference between UA and GA4 is their measurement models. As you’re aware, UA broadly measures based on page views and sessions. GA4 on the other hand, measures based on events. So each hit counts as an event and may (or may not) contain parameters.

Monthly Hit Limits? Gone!‍

Universal Analytics gave a monthly hit limit of 10 million. Not anymore. Because Google Analytics 4 measures events. That has a cap of 500 events in the free version. But in essence, now there is no hit volume. This alone is becoming a big reason for large organisations to opt for Google Analytics 4.

Free BigQuery Connection

Previously parked exclusively for GA360 customers, BigQuery connection is now free with GA4!
For those unfamiliar with BigQuery, it basically simplifies data analysis by querying complex data sets. By doing away with the issue of sampling from Google Analytics, BigQuery makes data digestible for you.

Some of our clients have taken this up a notch by imbibing real-time data practices for contextual experiences. We’ve created a solution called Pipestream for the same. It streams raw unsampled first-party data to BigQuery in less than 60 seconds.

Logical Next Step? Migration.

Sooner than later, Google Analytics 4 will become the new standard of analytics. It’s only logical to start migrating your tracking to Google Analytics 4 from Universal Analytics as soon as possible due to the following reasons:

• Learning Curve
  Getting comfortable with the new version of Google Analytics too will take its own sweet time. Why not start right away?
• Understanding The Difference
  Over the course of time, we will start understanding the core differences between Universal Analytics and GA4. We will briefly cover some key differences later.
• Cross-Platform Tracking [Web & Apps]
  Google Analytics 4 is an absolute MUST-HAVE if you manage a business on the web and apps. Within a few clicks, you can link your firebase & start collecting data.
  

But How? Here’s the Solution!

Tag migration is an arduous and time-intensive activity. For enterprises with hundreds of tags to migrate, it eats into a ton of time and effort that could’ve been monetised on another activity.

So we have created a solution to save you a ton of time and resources, called Tagmate! Within, we’ve created a module dedicated to tag migration for UA to GA4.

Our clients have reported over 70% cost savings and 80%+ savings in time.

We’re eagerly looking for some brutally honest, constructive and valuable feedback. If you’re reading this, feel free to test drive Tagmate and tell us your experience!

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Take a look at how Tagmate saved time and money while ensuring accurate tag migration from UA to GA4 for one of our customers.

Download Case Study

If you have any specific topics in mind that you’d like us to cover over the course of the coming weeks, do let us know.

Here are some reference links we used while composing this blog:

• ^{https://www.adaptworldwide.com/insights/2021/google-analytics-4-vs-universal-analytics-whats-the-difference}
• ^{https://www.freshmetrics.co/fresh-blog/what-is-google-analytics-4}
• ^{https://www.vitroagency.com/the-parrot/key-differences-between-universal-analytics-ua-ga3-and-google-analytics-4-ga4-and-what-that-means-for-marketers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=key-differences-between-universal-analytics-ua-ga3-and-google-analytics-4-ga4-and-what-that-means-for-marketers}
• ^{https://www.rootandbranchgroup.com/google-analytics-4-vs-universal-analytics/}
• ^{https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9964640?hl=en#zippy=%2Cin-this-article}