Universal Analytics will be going away - Here's what's going to happen
- You need to create a new G4 instance by June 1, 2023.
- On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits.
- After July 1, 2023, you'll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. We know your data is important to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historical reports before this time.
- If you haven't already created a new Google Analytics 4 property before early 2023, the Setup Assistant will create one for you. This new Google Analytics 4 property will have some of the same basic features, such as goals/conversions and Google Ads links, that you have in your corresponding Universal Analytics property. You will be able to opt out of this directly in the Setup Assistant or in the notification banner that will soon appear.
What we need from you to keep analytics going on your site
We need you to follow the instructions for setting up your new G4 property and link it to your current Universal Analytics tag. Then once you have you should see data start to appear in your G4 account!
How to tell if your GA4 property is connected to a Universal Analytics property
- Click Admin.
- Make sure you are in your GA4 property.
- In the Property column, click GA4 Setup Assistant.
- Next to "Setup Assistant", look for a green "Connected to" notice. This notice tells you which Universal Analytics property this GA4 property is connected to. If the green notice is missing, your GA4 property is not connected.
Why the Change?
Nowadays we are actively using our mobile phones to check information on a website, upload picture on social media or visit mobile app. New ways of going online require new ways of measuring our online engagement. Established metrics, such as pageviews or user sessions, might show a website’s use, but it may not accurately measure all the different ways we can access that service.
New Metrics
Google Analytics 4 is built on Google’s App plus Web property, which automatically brings together data from your connected mobile apps and websites. It also shifts how it measures user engagement from hits & sessions to events.
In addition rapid changes in security and privacy controls are forcing changes on browsers and information (cookies) collected. Importantly, Google Analytics 4 will no longer store IP addresses, but uses an event-based data model to deliver user-centric measurement.
Let's take a look at the data collected by Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4.0:
Current Google Analytics collects information on page hits, event hits and social interactions. Though on our current platform due to media items structure it is very hard to collect and analyze this data.
In contrast, Google Analytics 4 data is event-based, with the principle that any interaction can be captured as an event without any distinction.
For example, when someone views one of your website pages, a page_view event is triggered.
|
Universal Analytics property |
Google Analytics 4 property |
|---|---|
|
Page View |
Event |
|
Event |
Event |
|
Social |
Event |
|
Transaction/e-commerce |
Event |
|
User timing |
Event |
|
Exception |
Event |
|
App/screen view |
Event |
Page views in Universal Analytics translate to the page_view event in Google Analytics 4 properties. Some Universal Analytics pageview attributes have Google Analytics 4 equivalents:
|
Pageview attribute in Universal Analytics |
Pageview attribute in Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|
|
page_title |
page_title |
|
page_location |
page_location |
|
page_path |
page_path |
|
None |
page_referrer |
A screenview is the app analog to a pageview. In Google Analytics 4 properties, a screen_view event is triggered each time a user views a screen.
A session is a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame.
In Universal Analytics, a session can comprise multiple page views, events, social interactions etc. Sessions are typically defined as having ended once there has been a 30 minute period of inactivity or another qualifying reset event has occurred.
Google Analytics 4 session metrics are derived from the session_start event that is automatically collected. The duration of a session is based on the time span between the first and last event in the session.
Active user calculation
User activity is detected automatically in Google Analytics 4. For example, a user can launch an app and be considered an active user in Google Analytics 4 but not in Universal Analytics. This may lead to higher active user counts for Google Analytics 4.
Session counting
In Universal Analytics, a new campaign will start a new session regardless of activity. In Google Analytics 4, a new campaign does not begin a new session. This may lead to lower session counts in your Google Analytics 4 property.
Walkthrough of the Google Analytics 4 User Interface
What happens next?
All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023. After that, you’ll be able to access your previously collected data in Universal Analytics for at least six months, till end of 2023. And you will be able to export your historical reports during this time.
Additional Materials
1. Overview https://youtu.be/RhS85WQiBLU
2. Connect to existing UA property https://youtu.be/6sBsMt3vWgg
3. Setting with gtag.js https://youtu.be/g8Ujq4vLqUQ
Learn more about Google Analytics 4
- We encourage you to take some free online training on Google Analytics 4 to learn more about new concepts.
- Build Looker reports for your current Google Analytics data, because it will be easy to point these reports to new Google Analytics 4 properties.
- Start looking into Google Search Console metrics that are already reporting in terms of sessions and hits.