Starting in July 2023, users no longer had a choice between the two versions of analytics: the old Universal Analytics stopped collecting data. This means that those who hadn't switched to the new version earlier were forced to do so. However, the difference between the two versions of the tool can be confusing for new users, because not everyone fully understands what exactly has changed and how to work with the updated data.
What's new in Google Analytics 4? The main difference is that the updated version uses event-based data, not session-based data, as it was in Universal Analytics. It is more flexible and scalable, with a focus on behavioral analysis and user privacy. This is a very useful tool, so both SEO specialists and website owners who independently monitor the performance of their resources should know how to use it.
In today's article, you will learn what Google Analytics 4 is and what its capabilities are. We will also show you how to create an account if you already have an account in the old analytics, how to set up the tool, and what key metrics will be useful for your analysis.
How to create a Google Analytics 4 account
How do I switch to Google Analytics 4? The good news is that it's not difficult. Especially if you already have old analytics. In this case, you need to go to the settings by clicking on the gear labeled Admin:
And then choose an assistant tool to migrate to GA4:
Follow the assistant's prompts and in just a few clicks you will create a new view.
If you follow the instructions from Analytics correctly, the newly created GA4 will start collecting data immediately. However, we recommend that you let it ‘brew’ and check its performance in half an hour. The easiest way to do this is to run a real-time report:
Go to the site, browse the pages, maybe even perform some targeted action, and then go to the new analytics: if you see your (or maybe not only you're) presence on the site in the Users in the last 30 minutes block (i.e. the number here is greater than 0), then the settings have been completed successfully.
But what if you have never used Analytics before? Here's how to create a GA4 account from scratch:
- First, you need to sign up for Google Analytics if you haven't already. To do this, go to https://analytics.google.com/ and sign in with your Google account.
- If you don't have a Google account, you can create one for free. To create a new Google Analytics 4 account, click on the "Create an account" button in the upper right corner.
- On the next page, you need to fill in several fields, such as account name, resource name, industry category, and time zone. The account name is a common name for all your Google Analytics resources that you can create under one account. The resource name is the specific name for your site or application that you want to analyze. The industry category and time zone will help Google Analytics provide you with more relevant data and reports.
- Once you have filled in all the fields, click on the "Create" button. You will be redirected to the settings page for your new Google Analytics 4 resource. Here you can choose whether you want to receive emails with news and tips from Google Analytics, as well as set up data collection options, such as measuring user demographics and interests, deleting data upon user request, and more.
To complete the creation of your Google Analytics 4 account, you need to connect it to your website or application. How do I connect Google Analytics to my website? To do this, you need to get a tracking code or Google Tag Manager tag and insert it into your website or application.
A tracking code is a small piece of JavaScript code that sends data about visits and user actions to your website or app to Google Analytics.
Google Tag Manager is an alternative way to set a tracking code that allows you to manage all the tags on your website or app through one interface.
You can choose one of these methods to connect to your Google Analytics 4 resource on the resource settings page. Click on the Get Tracking Code or Get Google Tag Manager button and follow the on-screen instructions. After you paste the code or tag into your website or app, your Google Analytics 4 account will be ready to go.
Key steps and tips for setting up Google Analytics 4
GA 4 allows you to get a huge amount of crucial information about the traffic coming to your website. Correct and competent website promotion is simply impossible without its regular use.
After creating an account, it is important to know how to set up Google Analytics correctly. After all, this is what determines the accuracy and reliability of data to understand user behavior on a website or application.
First of all, define your business goals and how GA4 will help you achieve them. Find out whether you need to increase the number of leads, and sales (this indicator is especially important when it comes to promoting an online store) or simply increase the number of visits to your website or app.
Next, determine the key performance indicators (KPIs). Choose the main metrics that are important to you. These can be conversions, average time on site, and others.
How to set up goals in Google Analytics 4
Many new users often face the fact that they don't understand how to work with goals in the new analytics.
The thing is that Google Analytics 4 operates with the concepts of event and conversion. An event is any action a user takes while on your website. By default, GA4 automatically collects some standard events and parameters, such as number of visits, time on site, device type, location, etc. You can also set up your own events and parameters to measure specific actions and characteristics of users on your site. Any event can be made into a conversion - that is, an action that you want to track. To do this, just mark the corresponding event in the settings:
How do I create an event in Google Analytics 4? It is best to follow the guidelines from Google. But if you are not completely sure that you can handle it on your own, ask for help from specialists.
If the question of how to understand Google Analytics still scares you, here's a tip: start small. Go through all the reports, try setting different parameters, and see how the data changes. You may realize how the new analytics work right away.
Detailed analysis of metrics in Google Analytics 4
The main difference between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics is the set of reports. Essentially, you can get all the traffic data you need from the User Acquisition and Traffic Acquisition reports. Here you can see how many users have visited your site over a period of time, how many of them were on your site for the first time, how long their session lasted, what pages they visited, what countries and cities they were from, and so on. Reports from the Engagement block will allow you to learn more about events and conversion actions. The Monetization block will be useful for owners of e-commerce sites.
Another innovation of GA4 is the ability to analyze data in a ‘day of the week to day of the week’ comparison. This allows for more accurate comparisons.
Let's see how you can customize the report to see all the data you need. To promote a website, it is important to understand a whole lot of indicators - usually, an SEO specialist monitors them regularly. You can customize the report to your needs using Comparison and Dimensions. You can set them up here:
By adding a new comparison to the chain of comparisons, you create your report in this way. This way, you can filter out organic traffic from America, excluding traffic from blog pages.
The ability to operate reports in the fourth analytics is extremely important, especially if you want to expand your business to new countries. With the help of GA4, you will be able to find out not only from which countries, but also from which cities your users come to you.
Connecting Google Analytics 4 to Google Looker Studio
The new analytics integrates seamlessly with Google Looker Studio, a handy tool for creating visual reports, including analytics. With its help, you can create a convenient report for monitoring, which will already include all the parameters you need. You can either create your report from scratch or use one of the ready-made templates from the gallery.
How to connect Google Analytics 4 and add information to Google Looker Studio:
1. Go to Google Looker Studio and sign in to your Google account.
2. Click the Create button or select any template and from the Start with a Template block
3. If you start with an empty document, select Analytics from the available services, go through all the steps, and select the data you want to import.
4. If you are starting with a template, click the use my own data button and select the necessary options.
Conclusions.
Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool for collecting and analyzing data that allows you to get deep insights into user behavior on a website or application. Previously, we have already discussed the differences between Google Analytics and GA4 - read our expert's article to understand more about what is new in Google Analytics 4 and what has changed in data collection.
