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Google Analytics 4 Reporting: Your Most Common Questions Answered

Do you want to simplify Google Analytics 4 reporting for your team and clients? Look no further than our recent webinar on Google Analytics 4 Reporting Simplified!

During the webinar, Measurelab’s Daniel-Perry Reed and Swydo experts discussed everything you need to know about GA4, its evolution, core concepts and recent updates, including: 

  • The three key takeaways to remember when using GA4
  • The four most useful reports in GA4 
  • How to build GA4 reports from scratch or templates within Swydo  

That’s not all! We also addressed migration concerns, including the importance of completing the GA4 migration journey and using Tag Manager effectively. You can watch the replay here 👇 and find the answers to the most common GA4 questions in this blog post. We’ve also recapped some recent GA 4 changes you should be aware of.

Expert Tips to Simplify Your GA4 Reporting

Our Key GA4 Takeaways

1.  🚀 Is it possible to achieve 100% accurate data in our web analytics? Google Analytics 4 (GA4) rethinks how we measure marketing insights and has some lessons we must embrace. 

2. 🤖 Machine learning is at the core of GA4, but what are its two main aspects? It’s the dependency on ML and a focus on events. From page views to app installs and even in-store actions, GA4 is built to be agnostic, meaning it can integrate data from different sources.

3. 🎯 The Google Analytics 4 system is designed around events, meaning even page views and sessions are now considered events. This eliminates the need for separate tracking of various actions and allows for a more unified approach to measurement. 

4. ❌ With increased privacy concerns, data restrictions, and changes in the industry, the idea of 100% accurate data is becoming a thing of the past. Instead, we should expect to rely on ML-generated estimates, which will impact the completeness of data in our reports. 

5. 👤 Users aren’t people! When it comes to web analytics, we must remember that user metrics are a proxy. While GA4 can help us get closer to understanding user behavior, we can’t perfectly track every individual and their actions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common GA4 questions we answered during the webinar:

1. How long do I have to export historical data from Universal Analytics before it’s turned down?

You have a year from July 1, 2023, to export the historical data that you want to keep from Universal Analytics. After July 1, 2024, Universal Analytics will be turned down, and all historical data will be deleted.

2. What are some of the key aspects of measuring marketing campaigns in Google Analytics?

One of the key aspects of measuring marketing campaigns in Google Analytics is the e-commerce side. Another aspect is tracking the right metrics that answer specific questions, such as clickthrough rates and conversion rates.

3. Why is the total revenue from traffic versus user acquisition so different?

It is due to Attribution modeling. Every time a different Attribution model is used, the revenue split per marketing channel can be different. Using first click Attribution for user acquisition and last click Attribution for traffic acquisition is cutting the pie in slightly different ways.

4. Should GA4 be used with Tag Manager? What are the advantages with or without Tag Manager?

GA4 can be used with or without Tag Manager. If analytics and management responsibility is within the organization, it is better to use Tag Manager. However, if the responsibility is with the IT team, they may prefer deploying it through the back end, in which case Tag Manager may not be needed. Using Tag Manager can save time and avoid dependencies on other people.

5. How does Google Analytics 4 differ from Universal Analytics regarding bounce rate?

Bounce rate in Google Analytics 4 is defined differently than in Universal Analytics, as it factors in engagement time and conversions in addition to page views per session. Bounce is considered bad in GA4, whereas it may not have been useful in Universal Analytics.

6. What is the benefit of using user acquisition and first-user metrics in measuring social and prospecting campaigns?

It enables us to measure things like social and prospecting campaigns a bit more meaningfully because it’s all about user acquisition rather than traffic acquisition. The difference between the two is our favorite marketing subject, attribution modeling. Last-click attribution and first-click attribution.

7. How does real-time reporting compare to universal analytics?

Real-time reporting in GA4 has a 30-minute rolling window of data, which can have a two to three-minute lag, and is not truly real-time. Universal Analytics does not have real-time reporting.

8. How does Google Analytics 4 treat events?

In Google Analytics 4, everything is considered an event, including sessions and page views. This means that events play a central role in tracking and reporting data in the analytics platform.

9. Is data in Google Analytics 4 complete?

No, the data in Google Analytics 4 is not complete. Google may model or estimate some of the data, which means it may not be 100% accurate. Complete and 100% accurate data is no longer available in Google Analytics 4.

10. Can users be tracked directly in Google Analytics 4?

No, users cannot be tracked directly in Google Analytics 4. Instead, the metric used is “users,” which serves as a proxy for tracking people. The exact number of people visiting a website or performing actions cannot be determined in Google Analytics 4.

11. What are the advantages of using Swydo reporting over GA4 reporting?

Swydo reporting offers several advantages over GA4 reporting. One significant advantage is the ability to preselect and display only the relevant data you want to see. Swydo’s GA4 reporting allows you to compile reports in a specific order, displaying the desired metrics and dimensions, saving time, and providing a clear overview.

Additionally, Swydo using Swydo’s pre-set templates, you can instantly access the relevant data for each client, avoiding the need to navigate through different accounts or properties. Plus, our monitoring tool allows you to track multiple client metrics all under one hub, making it easier to keep tabs on your client data.

Bring your favorite marketing data together in one platform to create comprehensive client reports. Start your journey here.

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Recent GA4 Updates You Should Know About

In this final part of our Demystifying Google Analytics 4 series, we recap what we’ve covered, outline the current timeline, highlight some changes since we started this series, and give some further resources to help you carry on your GA4 journey. With just weeks left now before Universal Analytics stops collecting data, getting to grips with GA4 is essential. So why not take advantage of our special offer to all Swydo customers for 10% off each ticket with code ‘SWYDO10’ on our 6-week GA4 Immersion course.

GA4 Recap

The overarching aim of this series was to provide reassurance that the impending sunset of Universal Analytics is not bad news, despite the initial panic in the industry when it was first announced. It is an entirely new and different product from Universal Analytics, and as a result, there has been a steep learning curve for those of us familiar with “the old way”.

However, that learning curve is more than worth it once you realize how much of a leap forward GA4 is in the modern analytics landscape. It presents an opportunity for brands and agencies to be better informed, more privacy-conscious, and ultimately make better and faster decisions based on the advanced features offered by GA4.

In this series, we have covered:

How to set up events for tracking GA4 conversions (GA4 data collection), then we looked at how to customize reports in GA4 (native GA4 reporting) to make them more meaningful for your business, in turn helping you quickly find the data you need to make good decisions. And most recently, we moved beyond the GA4 interface to look at building GA4 reports in Swydo (exporting GA4 data to use elsewhere).

To wrap up the series, it’s worth recapping the current timeline for Universal Analytics and covering a few things that have changed in GA4 since we started this series.

We’ve also tackled some of your most common GA4 questions in this recent webinar with Measurelab and Swydo experts you might want to check out.

GA4 Timeline

Now two terms are being used that are important in terms of the timeline; sunset and turndown. Sunset refers to the point when new data will stop being processed, and turndown refers to when all users will lose access entirely to the Universal Analytics platform.

Sunset for standard (i.e., free) Universal Analytics properties is on July 1, 2023.

For 360 (i.e., paid) Universal properties, with a current order, this is extended to  July 1, 2024. 360 Universal properties without a current order will not receive the extension and will stop processing data on July 1, 2023 (the same as Standard Universal).

​​Turndown is the same date for standard and 360 properties. Everyone will lose access to the Universal Analytics user interface on July 1, 2024.

For Standard UA properties, between the date of sunset and the platform turndown (so July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024), you will still have your existing access roles and be able to query historical data and reports in the user interface. You will also be able to export your data.

This timeline still leaves plenty of time to export historical Universal Analytics data if you need to, but as mentioned in the very first article in this series, we advise you to consider how much historical data will actively be used and for which purposes. Exporting and storing all your historical data will involve some effort, so this shouldn’t be done just for the sake of keeping it.

Top 6 Updates You Should Know About Google Analytics 4

GA4 will also continue to evolve as Google invests further into this technology. In the time since starting this series there have been many updates, including the following highlights:

  • The long-awaited introduction of custom channel groups 🙌
  • Item-scoped custom dimensions.
  • The ability to modify and create events using regular expressions.
  • Making data-driven attribution (DDA) the default – first-click, linear, time-decay, and position-based models will be removed from September.
  • Introducing a counting method setting for conversion events, allowing you to choose either once per event (recommended) or once per session (legacy).
  • New custom funnel reports, allowing you to define your own funnels and measure how many users drop off between steps. Also, a new user purchase journey report, showing drop-off between each step in your purchase funnel, from starting a new session to completing a purchase.

We’re really excited here at Measurelab about GA4 and we hope that this series has helped you to feel excited about it too. There was a lot of confusion and uncertainty when the news initially broke that Universal Analytics would be going away but the pace of change with GA4 combined with the fact it is purpose-built for modern analytics requirements (privacy conscious, suitable for web and app, leverages machine learning and uses a flexible, event-based data model) make it a powerful tool for marketers and agencies alike.

As a final sign-off on this series, just two more suggestions to help you carry on your GA4 learning journey and stay on top of updates.

Final Thoughts and Resources

Firstly, we’ve mentioned our own Measurelab GA4 immersion cohort training throughout this series and we truly believe this is the best way to learn GA4 in detail. This course is run over 6 weeks, with a mixture of videos and other training materials to consume in your own time along with a live session every week. This format allows you to digest and practice the learning material between sessions and also to learn alongside – and from – the other peers in your cohort. Swydo customers can avail of our special offer of 10% off each ticket with the code ‘SWYDO10’.

We recently conducted a webinar with Swydo on Google Analytics 4 Reporting Simplified. It offers expert insights on what we think the transition entails and answers some of the common GA4 questions.

We would also recommend you bookmark the resources included in our analytics resource round-up. This list includes community forums, official Google help guides, social media groups and individuals to follow as well as our recommended podcasts and industry events.

Good luck on your journey forward with GA4 and if you would like independent analytics advice at any stage, please reach out to us at hello@measurelab.co.uk.

Dara Fitzgerald Measurelab

Dara is the CEO of Measurelab. He has specialized in Google Analytics for the last 15 years, consulting clients, running training courses, and speaking at industry events. His mission now is to make Measurelab the world’s favorite digital analytics consultancy and the all-time greatest place to work (for analytics types).

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Building GA4 reports in Swydo

In this fourth part of our Demystifying Google Analytics 4 series, we move beyond the GA4 interface to look at how you can use your Google Analytics (GA4) data within the Swydo platform. With only months left now before Universal Analytics stops collecting data, getting to grips with GA4 is essential. So why not take advantage of our special offer to all Swydo customers for 10% off each ticket with code ‘SWYDO10’ on our 6-week GA4 Immersion course?

So far in this series, we have focussed solely on working within GA4. We covered how to set up events for tracking GA4 conversions, and then in the previous post, we showed how to customize reports in GA4 to make them more meaningful for your business, which in turn helps you quickly find the data you need to make good decisions. 

Now it’s time to move beyond the GA4 interface and look at how to work with your GA4 data within the Swydo platform. 

Let’s do this step-by-step.

Crafting GA4 Reports Using Swydo

If you haven’t done so before, it’s quick and easy to connect to your GA4 data within your Swydo account. First, click the “+ New report” button.

Click on the + icon to make a new report

This will bring up the report template gallery.

The template gallery allows you to choose preset reporting templates

You have two choices here, you can either create a report from scratch (using the “New blank report”) option, or you can use an existing template, e.g., the “Google Analytics 4 report” template. This template is an excellent kickstarter if you’re not sure exactly what you want to include. It can be hard working from a blank canvas, so using the GA4 template gives you something to look at and then add, edit, and remove as you see fit to tailor the report to your specific needs.    

However, for the purposes of this article we will start with a blank canvas and run through building a report that shows the performance of some of the events we covered previously.

After clicking “New blank report”, we then need to choose a client for this report to sit under.

We then need to choose our data source, so click the “+ New data source” button.

Scroll down to Google Analytics 4 in the integrations list and then click “+ Connect new account”.  

Then click “Connect Google Analytics 4”.

You then need to go through the Google authentication/approval process to allow Swydo to connect to your GA4 data. Once you have done this, you will see your new data source ready to use to create your own GA4 report.

At first, you will see this blank report screen, ready for you to add your widgets and KPIs to visualize the GA4 data you are most interested in.

Working with GA4 data in Swydo

For this article, I will use our Measurelab data to demonstrate and the report I will build will focus on the training section of our website.

I want to include some high-level metrics (users and pageviews) as well as some macro and micro-conversions (training bookings – our KPI – and enquiry form submissions, video plays, etc. – micro-conversions) and then break these down by some common GA4 dimensions for a more granular view of performance.

So let’s start by making a scorecard to show the high-level metrics. Click the blue “+” button and then select “KPI” from the options.  

Creating GA4 reports in Swydo

I then need to select the data source I connected to earlier.

Then I search for and select “Users” in the list.

Adding filters to GA4 reports

In my case, I only want users that viewed training pages on our site so I need to add a filter in the widget settings.

In this case, I add a filter on the “Page path” dimension to only include pages on our website in the training section. 

I then repeat this process for all the other metrics I want to show in my scorecard and I end up with this view.

GA4 dashboard in Swydo

The users and page view widgets both need the filter I showed above to ensure it’s only including those who visit the training section of our website. 

The training form enquiry metric is using one of GA4’s enhanced measurement events (which are automatically tracked), called form_submit. The metric used in this widget is “Event count,” and the filter is based on “Event name” including form_submit. 

The start checkout, training bookings and live chats initiated metrics are all using manually created events (begin_checkout, purchase and live_chat respectively). In other words, these events were configured manually using Google Tag Manager, as opposed to the automatically collected events which require no manual implementation. 

The same approach can be used for any events you are tracking in GA4 and as mentioned in our previous event tracking article it doesn’t actually matter which method you used to create the events – within a reporting context they are all the same. So you can create various different widgets using combinations of the events you are tracking along with the different dimensions available in GA4 to break this data down further for more meaningful analysis. 

To give some examples of this, I will build out this dashboard a little further to wrap up this article. 

Choosing the correct data visualization

Given the KPI for this dashboard is successful training course bookings, I will first look at purchases by day, split by the users first marketing channel. 

First I create a new widget, just as before, but this time in the widget editor I will set the presentation visual to “Column chart”.

In the Dimensions & Metrics tab I choose “Day” as the primary dimension, with “First user default channel grouping” as the breakdown dimension and the metric I want is “Event count”.

GA4 in Swydo

I then need to create a filter so this widget will only report on purchases. Otherwise, we would see the total event count for all events tracked. So in the Filter tab, I create a filter for “Event name” includes “purchase”.

The resulting Column chart looks like this.

Another enhancement measurement event (automatically tracked in GA4 when enabled) is page scroll. The event named “scroll” triggers each time a user scrolls to 90% of the page depth. So to see how engaged users are with our training pages I will create a widget that looks at 90% scroll by page path. 

This time I choose “Bar chart” as the visual in the Presentation tab of the widget editor, then select “Page path” as the dimension and “Event count” as the metric in the Dimensions & Metrics tab. Then on the filter tab, I need two separate filters this time. First I need to include the “scroll” event only and secondly, I need to include training pages only. 

I click “Save settings” and the resulting bar chart looks like this.

We also have an embedded YouTube video on our main training page and this is tracked using another enhanced measurement event. Any embedded videos that have JS API support enabled will automatically track video_start, video_progress and video_complete events in GA4. In this case I want to include both video_start and video_complete and I want to see this broken down by the marketing channel for the session where the video was interacted with. 

For this widget I will select a “Heatmap” visual on the Presentation tab of the widget editor. On the Dimensions & Metrics tab I need to select “Session default channel grouping” as the Primary dimension, with “Event name” as the Breakdown dimension. This is because we want to see both video_start and video_complete events. Then I select “Event count” as the metric.  

On the Filter tab I need two filters again, one to include the video_start and video_complete events only and another to include the main training page (/training/) only.

I click “Save settings” and here is my Heatmap widget showing video interactions by session channel.

One final widget I will add to this dashboard is to show training enquiry form submissions by city. 

For this widget I would like to visualise it on a map so I will select “Bubblemap” on the Presentation tab. Then on the Dimensions & Metrics tab, I select “City” as the Location dimension and “Event count” as the metric.

And on the Filter tab I need to create a filter on the “Event name” to include the event form_submit.

This is yet another (automatically tracked) enhanced measurement event in GA4, which triggers each time a form is submitted on your website. Note: It is always advisable to check any enhanced measurement events you are using to ensure they work correctly on your specific website. 

This is the resulting “Bubblemap” widget showing enquiry form submissions by city. 

There is obviously a lot more you can do within the Swydo platform itself, including adding additional data sources to your reports so you can measure KPI performance across all of your marketing activity, not just web and app analytics data. Hopefully, this article showed you how easy it is to start building out reports in Swydo using your GA4 data. 

In the next and final article in this series, we will recap what we have covered so far on demystifying GA4, as well as updating you on the GA4 changes since we started this series and finally give you some of our key tips and takeaways to make the most of what GA4 has to offer. You may also want to check out this recorded webinar from Measurelab and Swydo experts on frequently asked GA4 questions.      

Dara Fitzgerald Measurelab

Dara is the CEO of Measurelab. He has specialized in Google Analytics for the last 15 years, consulting clients, running training courses, and speaking at industry events. His mission now is to make Measurelab the world’s favorite digital analytics consultancy and the all-time greatest place to work (for analytics types).

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How to customize reports in GA4

In this third part of our Demystifying Google Analytics 4 series, we discuss the GA4 reporting interface and how to make the GA4 UI your own. Yes, it also explains how you can replicate many of your favorite Universal Analytics (UA) reports in GA4.

With only months before Universal Analytics stops collecting data, getting to grips with GA4 is essential. So why not take advantage of our special offer to all Swydo customers for 10% off each ticket with code ‘SWYDO10’ on our 6-week GA4 Immersion course.

Customize GA4 reports

In the previous article in this series, we discussed how to collect data with GA4 using the different event types and how these can be marked as conversions to report performance against.

So in this article, we will dive into the GA4 reporting interface, showing you some different customization options you can use to tailor the presentation of the data you are collecting to suit your own reporting requirements.

Then in the final two articles we will discuss the following:

Part 4 – GA4 and Swydo: How to get the data you need in the place you need it

Part 5 – What’s next? Get the answers to what the future holds, what do you need to do, and when

You may also want to check out the recording of our recent Measurelabs/Swydo joint webinar exploring the most common GA4 questions marketers have.

Back to the GA4 reporting interface, the reports workspace in GA4 is highly usable right out of the box and you can read more about this in our Measurelab blog posts Understanding and using GA4’s default reports and How to use the real-time report in GA4.

However, one of the main benefits of the GA4 reporting interface is how highly customizable it is and that will be our focus in this article.

You can edit the overview and detail reports, as well as the reports navigation menu, and even add your own reporting collections and topics.

Important notes: 

  • You need to be an editor or administrator to make report customizations
  • You can undo any report customizations you make
  • Everyone with access will see your customizations

Let’s do this step-by-step.

Overview and detail reports

You can edit any existing report in GA4 by simply clicking on the “Customize Report” button in the top right corner (the pencil icon).

Customize GA4 reports
Click the pencil icon to start customizing

This will bring up the report editor panel on the right-hand side of the report.

Customize GA4 reports
Report Editor Panel on the right-hand side

Within this report editor panel, you can remove existing reporting cards (each block of data in the report), reposition them, and add new ones – up to a maximum of 16 cards per report.

The default reports are standard across all GA4 properties so they are likely to include some data that won’t be relevant to your business. In the example above for the Acquisition overview report, one of the default cards included is for Google Ads traffic. This particular website does not advertise with Google Ads so this reporting card could be removed as it will never show any data. We could also add in Conversions by Default Channel Grouping.

Once you are happy with your changes you just need to click “Save” and view your newly customized overview report.

Editing detail reports is very similar so let’s take the example of the “Tech Details” page shown below. Again click the pencil icon in the top right corner.

Customize GA4 reports
Editing Tech Details page

This will open up the report editor panel.

Customize GA4 reports
Customizing Report Editor Panel

It’s the same report editor panel that we saw with an overview report but this time we have a few more customization options.

For the two charts shown on the page, we can change the chart type between bar, scatter and line. If you think this is limited, bear in mind this is not dashboard building (like you can do more comprehensively in Google Looker Studio) but simply editing some existing interface reports. You can also hide one or both of the charts and reorder them (left or right) if you wish. You can also change the dimension used in the charts by clicking on the Dimensions list and then choosing a different default dimension, as shown below.

Customize GA4 reports
Changing dimensions as default

Whichever dimension is set to default in this list will also be the primary dimension in the report table.

Customize GA4 reports
Setting Primary Dimensions in your report

Whereas clicking into the metrics list will allow you to control which metrics are shown in this table. You can remove existing metrics, add new ones and reorder the list to suit your preference. In this example, there is no revenue being collected as this is not an E-commerce business so the “Total Revenue” metric could be removed from this report.

Customize GA4 reports
Removing unwanted metrics from reports

One other customization you can make to the detail reports in GA4 is to save a custom report filter to show only a subset of the overall data to users of this report. A good example would be to filter to include only web data if you are collecting both web and app data into your GA4 property (or vice versa). The screenshot below shows how you would configure this report filter only to include web data.

Customize GA4 reports
Reporting Filter only to include Web Data

Customize the navigation menu for the reports workspace

So far, we have shown how to edit the reports themselves, customizing the dimensions, metrics, and charts shown to users of the reports. Now we will zoom out a level and look at customizing the navigation menu for the reports workspace.

By default, we see the menu below when we click into the reports workspace.

Customize GA4 reports
Your reporting workspace

We have two default reports, “Collections”: Life cycle and User, and within each of these, we have “Topics” (e.g., Acquisition) and Reports (e.g., Traffic acquisition). We can edit the existing Collections, Topics, and Reports included by default as well as add new ones by clicking into the Library (link at the bottom of the menu).

Customize GA4 reports
Editing existing collections in the Library

If we are not collecting any revenue data, then we might want to remove the Monetisation “Topic” from the Life cycle “Collection”. To do this, we would click on the blue “Edit Collection” link at the bottom of the Life cycle “Collection” card.

Customize GA4 reports
Editing existing collections in the Library

Then scroll down to find the Monetisation “Topic” and click the “x” icon to “Remove Topic”.

Customize GA4 reports
Customizing collections

This will then remove that Topic from the menu for all users of this GA4 property.

You can also build new Collections entirely from scratch if you wish, or start them from a template.

Customize GA4 reports
Creating reports from templates

You can even use emojis in your new Collection and Topic names if you’re feeling brave! 🤯

Customize GA4 reports
Customize GA4 reports
Naming your reports

Replicating your favorite UA reports in GA4

As we’ve shown in this article, the reporting interface in GA4, which is useful even by default, can be fine-tuned through the different customization options to present the data you’re collecting in GA4 in a way that suits you and your fellow report users. We hear a lot of people say the GA4 interface is lacking compared to Universal Analytics but in reality, much of the same reporting data is there; it’s just a simplified User Interface. You can replicate many of your favorite reports by simply changing the primary dimension in any of the detail reports in GA4.

For example, in Universal Analytics, there are separate reports for Browser & OS and Device Categories, as shown below.

UA to GA4

Whereas GA4 simplifies this by containing the same combined data in a single report, “Tech Details”. This defaults to the primary dimension of “Browser”:

UA to GA4

You can then change with the primary dimension drop-down to show your device categories without needing to navigate to a different report:

And of course, as we’ve shown, you can then customize these detail reports to present the dimensions and metrics that are most relevant to you.

We hope this guide helps you tailor your own GA4 reports to make them more meaningful for your business, which in turn will save you time finding the data you need to act on. In the next article, we will move on to looking at GA4 data in Swydo.

Track your GA4 data with Swydo

Connect your Google Analytics 4 account to Swydo, you can include GA4 metrics with data from 30+ other marketing channels to get a comprehensive look at your marketing efforts in one automated report or dashboard. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or schedule a walkthrough.

Dara Fitzgerald Measurelab

Dara is the CEO of Measurelab. He has specialized in Google Analytics for the last 15 years, consulting clients, running training courses, and speaking at industry events. His mission now is to make Measurelab the world’s favorite digital analytics consultancy and the all-time greatest place to work (for analytics types).

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10 Must-Have GA4 Reports For All SEOs

Love or hate it – if you’re a digital marketer, you cannot ignore it. With the Google Analytics 4 migration clock ticking fast, we have UK’s leading digital marketing agency MD and brightonSEO’s Measurefest speaker, Farhad Divecha, shedding light on the must-have GA4 reports for all SEOs. Here’s an updated slide deck to go along with your reading.

Tell us about your topic, 10 must-have GA4 reports for all SEOs, and why you chose it?

I’m very acutely aware that everybody’s being pushed to move to GA4, and I’m acutely aware that many people are unhappy about that. They find it very, very different and fairly challenging. I have also seen much information and misinformation about GA4 and its workings. I know it’s quite a powerful tool, but you’ve got to understand the system and make the most of it. At BrightonSEO, I will specifically uncover GA4 reports for SEO, show how to set them up via GA4 + GTM, explain insights to be gained from those reports, and discuss actions that SEOs can take from those insights.

How’s your experience with GA4 been?

Personally, I really like it. I think it’s way more powerful than Universal Analytics. I say this because we have been using Facebook Pixel for much longer than GA4, before it even existed. Facebook Pixel has so much flexibility in what you can measure and how you track conversions and important actions on your site —moving to a similar event-based model with much more ability to track important parameters and get flexible reporting is a step up.

One piece of SEO advice for folks learning the ropes?

The most important thing any SEO can do is look at the data and start realizing where they’re already — getting organic placement rankings and traffic — compare that to what they want to achieve and understand why that gap exists. 

Look at the traffic you get from certain non-branded keywords and understand what stops you from getting that traffic on the keywords you want to rank for. Usually, that’s a very good starting point, so understanding what’s working in some ways is also understanding what is not working. It lets you figure out how to reach Point B from Point A.

What presentations are you most interested in attending/speakers you are most interested to hear and why?

I remember looking at the list and thinking there were some really interesting ones — topical conversations about equality, embracing diversity, and how people can put their genuine, authentic sleeves forward. There are a couple of AI sessions that I’m looking forward to. And, of course, the SEO topics because it’s fascinating to see how deep some people get into it and try to reverse engineer the algorithm.

What has been your core mantra in driving your agency forward?

I think there are two things. It’s incredibly good client support and a laser-sharp focus on growing internationally at scale. We set ourselves up for some high client support targets within the company that we insist everybody meets. So when a client asks us for anything, we have to respond within four hours, and if it takes a little bit more time, we have to start working on the solution within 12 hours. We aim to deliver most solutions within 48 hours. Where they want tweaks, where they want things changed, where they want an opinion, where they want advice, that sort of stuff is resolved very quickly. That’s why our clients stay with us for as much as 10 to 12 years. The agency average in the UK is a bit more than one year. Yeah, so it’s a massive difference for us. We believe in always taking a step back, looking at the bigger picture, and delivering on the impact.

What are the top 5 tools or apps you use daily and why?

Apart from the obvious platforms (Office 365, Meta Ads, Google Ads, DV360, LinkedIn Ads & TikTok Ads), I personally spend time daily using:

  1. Unyte.ai – Our marketing mix modeling tool
  2. Google Analytics – To track traffic & online actions for us & our clients
  3. Adobe cloud – For all things creative 
  4. Swydo – Reviewing daily activity reports for my team 
  5. SharpSpring  – Our CRM and marketing automation tool

Farhad is MD of digital agency AccuraCast. He advises corporations on their analytics and data strategy, and is passionate about using technology to improve performance marketing.

UK’s leading digital marketing agency trusts Swydo with their client reporting. You can too! Start your journey here.

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How to set up events for tracking GA4 conversions

In the second part of our Demystifying Google Analytics 4 series, we are talking about GA4 events. With only months left now before Universal Analytics stops collecting data, getting to grips with GA4 is essential. So why not take advantage of our special offer to all Swydo customers for 50% off each ticket with code ‘SWYDO50’ on our 6-week GA4 Immersion course.

Measurelab + Swydo GA4 conversions

In the first article of this series, we mentioned that GA4 uses a much improved event-based data collection model and features both automatic event tracking (enhanced measurement for web) and event editing and creation (customized events).

In this article, we will dive deeper into these concepts, covering the new data model, comparing it to Universal Analytics (UA), and explaining the different event types in GA4 with examples. We will also cover conversions in GA4, again comparing to UA for reference.

What is the GA4 data model and why is it all built on events? This will be a core part of the series. We will explain the different types of events, with plenty of examples. And how conversions fit in (with comparisons against UA).

In the coming editions we will discuss:

Part 3 –  Reporting and the library: how to make the GA4 UI your own

Part 4 – GA4 and Swydo: How to get the data you need in the place you need it

Part 5 – What next? What the future holds, what do you need to do, and when

We’ve also recorded a joint Measurelab and Swydo webinar exploring marketers’ most common GA4 questions.

Let’s do this together!

Data Collection Model

Starting with the data model, Universal Analytics data is mainly collected using pageview hits and event hits. So pageviews and events are tracked separately in UA.

UA DATA MODEL

UA Data Model

Whereas GA4 collects all data via events. Therefore, Universal Analytics property hit types translate to events in a GA4 property.

GA4 data model

GA4 Events Data Model

Since GA4 captures all data in events, even metrics like Sessions and Pageviews are tracked using events, the session_start and page_view events to be specific. This makes life easier as it means all data is available in all reports, unlike Universal Analytics. 

There are several different ways of creating events that need to be considered when implementing GA4 for your websites and apps. To be clear, these are methods of event creation and the resulting events will all be reported in the same way, regardless of the method used. For simplicity, we will refer to these different methods of event creation as event types.

The different event types in GA4 can broadly be categorised into automatically collected, manually created, and customised events.

Automatically collected events

Automatically collected events are collected without additional implementation once you have a GA4 tag on your website or the GA for Firebase SDK in your app. These events cannot be disabled. Some examples of these events are:

  • first_visit
  • session_start
  • user_engagement
  • in_app_purchase

It’s worth noting that some automatically collected events are specific to web, Android and/or iOS Data Streams.

For websites, enhanced measurement events are collected from websites automatically when enhanced measurement is enabled within the interface. These events can be enabled and disabled and as mentioned above they are only available in web data streams.     
You can see which Enhanced Measurement events are enabled under Admin > Data Streams, then select a Web Data Stream.

You can also disable each one inside this settings panel, with the exception of the page_view event which is mandatory.

Here is the full list of the enhanced measurement events.

You should always test each enhanced measurement event you are using on your own website. Like any standardised implementation, it assumes the interaction being tracked works in a typical way and this is often not the case.

Manually created events

This event type will require some implementation via Google Tag Manager (GTM) or the Google tag (gtag.js) and will therefore need some coding and/or tagging expertise. There is a list of recommended events to use when implementing them, which unlock existing and future reporting capabilities.

A good example is for e-commerce event tracking as there is currently no Enhanced E-commerce in GA4. If you want to see transactions and revenue in the GA4 reports, you will have to use the exact event name and event parameter naming convention for the purchase event. Otherwise, the conversions and revenue metrics will not be populated in the data, although you will still be able to report on the count of events as you would expect.

Customised events

Customised events is the generic name given when events are created within the GA4 interface. You can access all of the existing (and add new) customised events by navigating to Admin and then in the Property column, click Events. Then to create a new event, click Create event.

GA4 customised events

To give an example, let’s say we want to create an event that will trigger when a specific page is viewed, so in this case the page /training/thank_you. To do this we need to create a new event that triggers on the existing pageview event but only when the page location parameter for that event contains /training/thank_you. We would configure this as shown below.

A big benefit of customised events is that they can be added and removed at any time, without needing to change or update the implementation on the apps or websites. This is especially useful for apps where any tagging changes require a new app version to be published to the app/play store.

Note: You can create up to 50 customised events at any one time per data stream.

For even further detail on the different event types, you can read our GA4 event types guide or listen to us talk through these on an episode of our podcast The Measure Pod.

Conversions

In GA4, conversions are events. Unlike goals in Universal Analytics, conversions in GA4 are simply existing events that have been marked as a conversion. Any event (regardless of which method was used to create it) can be marked as a conversion in the GA4 interface.

In the previous section we created a customised event to track when the example page /training/thank_you is viewed.

In Universal Analytics we would track this using a destination URL goal as shown below.

Goal setting GA4 EVENTS

In GA4 we just need to mark the event we created earlier (training_checkout_complete_page) as a conversion, as shown below.

GA4 check out conversions

You can then view the performance of all your conversions in the dedicated Conversions report in GA4, as shown below.

GA4 EVENTS CONVERSIONS

Remember that conversions are simply events though, so you will also see these events that you have marked as conversions in the main Events report, alongside events not marked as conversions.

GA4 events reporting

And as mentioned earlier in this article, all events are reported in the same way in the interface regardless of the method used to collect them.

To help customers who need to migrate existing Universal Analytics goals over to GA4, recreating them as conversion events, Google provides this handy [UA→GA4] Goals migration tool. This allows you to quickly recreate eligible goals from your connected Universal Analytics property as conversion events in your GA4 property.

Exit page GA4 events

This can be a useful tool but our recommendation is to take this opportunity to review the data you have been collecting in Universal and consider if you need to recreate all of this in GA4. If you need help reviewing your measurement requirements and ensuring you get the most out of GA4 then Measurelab can help. And with only months left now before Universal Analytics stops collecting data, getting to grips with GA4 is essential. So why not take advantage of our special offer to all Swydo customers for 50% off each ticket with code ‘SWYDO50’ on our 6-week GA4 Immersion course.

In the next article in this series, we will take you through how to use the different reports available in GA4, and how to customize them to suit your business requirements.

Track your GA4 data with Swydo

Connect your Google Analytics 4 account to Swydo, you can include GA4 metrics with data from 30+ other marketing channels to get a comprehensive look at your marketing efforts in one automated report or dashboard. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or schedule a walkthrough.

Dara is the CEO of Measurelab. He has specialized in Google Analytics for the last 15 years; consulting clients, running training courses, and speaking at industry events. His mission now is to make Measurelab the world’s favorite digital analytics consultancy and the all-time greatest place to work (for analytics types).

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Demystifying Google Analytics 4 (and why it’s not as scary as you might think)

In the coming months, we will be publishing a series of blog articles documenting the GA4 transition process. Continue reading for a special training deal for Swydo customers!

GA4 with Swydo and Measurelab

Time is running out for Universal Analytics (UA). Google Analytics 4 (or just GA4) is Google’s next-generation measurement solution and is replacing Universal Analytics entirely. In this blog series, we aim to show you that this is not a reason to panic. We believe GA4 is a major shift in the right direction, a sign of real progress, and therefore an opportunity for marketers to be better informed and make better decisions, based on the features offered by GA4.

We’ll start with this overview, a lay of the land if you will. And in the subsequent posts in the series, we will dive a little deeper – with practical advice and examples – to help you migrate confidently to GA4 and start using it to its full potential.

In the meantime, and without wanting to give too many spoilers, here’s the topline for what you can expect from the following posts in this 5-part series:

Part 2 – Events, events, events!

What is the Google Analytics 4 data model and why is it all built on events? This will be a core part of the series. We will explain the different types of events, with plenty of examples. And how conversions fit in (with comparisons against UA).

Part 3 –  Reporting and the library: how to make the GA4 UI your own

See how to use the different reports available in GA4, and how to customize GA4 reports to your business requirements. We’ll even cover how to change the reports menu within the GA4 interface.

Part 4 – GA4 and Swydo: how to get the data you need in the place you need it

This will nicely follow the previous post, which talked about report customization within GA4, covering how to get the data out of GA4 and into the Swydo platform.

Part 5 – What next? What the future holds, what you need to do and when

We will go deeper into what all this means, and what needs to be done to finalize a migration to GA4. This will also allow us to cover any common frequently asked questions that might have arisen from the previous 4.

With this blog series we hope to cover the most commonly required of these new features, with practical examples, but GA4 is a powerful, new tool and we appreciate there is a lot to learn. To gain complete confidence in using GA4 to its full potential, knowing both its limitations and its differences from UA, we recommend registering your interest for our 6-week Google Analytics 4 Immersion training course at a special price for Swydo customers.

Why there is no reason to panic

GA4 with Swydo and Measurelab

The fact is Google’s timeline for the sunsetting of UA has left many businesses feeling panicked. It’s worth noting that this is the first time Google has made a change to GA that results in historical data becoming unavailable. There are many GA accounts in use that will have data from urchin, classic GA and Universal, all in the same property.

GA4 timeline to keep in mind

First some straightforward facts. Data will stop being collected for standard, i.e. free, UA properties on July 1, 2023. Then you will have until July 1, 2024 to access your historical data in UA. After July 1, 2024, you’ll no longer be able to see your UA reports in the GA interface or access any UA data via the API.

Saving your historical data

GA4 with Swydo and Meaurelab

For this reason, Google strongly recommends exporting your historical reports during the 6-month window from July 1, 2023 (if not before). However, we would advise you to consider how much historical data will actively be used and for which purposes. Exporting and storing all your historical data will involve some effort so this shouldn’t be done just for the sake of keeping it.

A one-off extension was recently announced for 360 UA properties. Data will continue to be collected until July 1, 2024. We talked about this extension on a recent episode of our podcast: The Measure Pod: The inevitable… Google postpones sunsetting GA360. GA 360 UA properties will also lose access to historical data effect July 1, 2024.

Time for a quick reality check. For those of us wishing to continue using GA as our primary marketing analytics tool, we have no choice but to move wholesale to GA4. In return, you get a rich feature set including machine learning-based behavioral and predictive modeling, a free export of your GA4 data to BigQuery for data warehousing and larger analysis projects, and a much improved event-based data collection model.

The five-step framework you can follow

GA4 framework with Measurelab

At Measurelab we have developed our own five-step framework for migrating to GA4, which you can read more about on our blog here: PIVOT framework, and/or listen to us talk about it on our podcast here: The Measure Pod: The GA4 PIVOT framework). The PIVOT framework (standing for Plan, Implement, Validate, Onboard, Transform) can help you regardless of what stage you are at currently in your adoption of GA4.

GA4 and BigQuery

Export your GA4 data with BigQuery

For all existing GA4 properties you have, we strongly recommend setting up the free connector to Google BigQuery right away as there is no backfill option if you do this further down the line (unlike with the BigQuery connector for GA360, which backfilled 13 months). If you are not already aware of the benefits, you can read our article 10 reasons to export your GA4 data to BigQuery.

Aside from the free BigQuery connector for all GA4 accounts, there is a goody bag of new features introduced with GA4 that we believe should get you as excited as we are. These include:

  • Automatic event tracking (enhanced measurement) and event editing and creation (customized events), all of which we will cover in the next post 
  • Machine learning models, which you can learn more about from Measurelab’s Daniel Perry-Reed: GA4 machine learning made easy?
    • These models both supplement the observed data collected by GA and also predict future behavior. 
    • A particularly impressive use of this is for modeling non-consenting users, with behavior modeling for consent mode. We covered this topic in more detail on our podcast: The Measure Pod: Consent Mode and behavioral modeling in GA4.  
  • A customizable UI, which we will touch on in a later post
  • You can build custom funnels with up to 10 steps, and even see the average time elapsed between steps
  • Free connectors to SA360, DV360, CM360 (which was previously for GA360 only)

However, you will also have to say goodbye to some of the features you may be familiar with from Universal Analytics, including

  • Site speed metrics (not a big loss in our view, as there are better tools for this)
  • Some of the basic/standard e-commerce reports and funnels
  • Session-level custom dimensions and also custom metrics
  • And of course, Views! (which is a pain but not a dealbreaker)

Let’s do this together! 

Track your GA4 data with Swydo 

Track your GA4 data with Swydo. Once you’ve connected your Google Analytics 4 account to Swydo, you can include essential GA4 metrics with data from 30+ other marketing channels to get a comprehensive look at your marketing efforts in one automated report or dashboard. Set up your free 14-day trial, and start building your first GA4 report today! Need help? Visit Swydo’s help center, contact them through in-app text, or email support@swydo.com. Or schedule a walkthrough.

Dara is CEO of Measurelab. He has specialized in Google Analytics for the last 15 years; consulting clients, running training courses and speaking at industry events. His mission now is to make Measurelab the world’s favorite digital analytics consultancy and the all-time greatest place to work (for analytics types).

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Why should you start migrating to GA4 now?

Find out more from Sam Thomas, Analytics Lead at Embryo. In our run-up to brightonSEO 2022, we are launching a spotlight series with speakers. In our first interview, we spoke to Sam about Google Analytics 4 migration and more. Find the GA4 slide deck here.

Unlike many, you seem to love GA4. What are your key talking points for the presentation GA4 – from migration to measurement – the key to success at brightonSEO’s MeasureFest. How have you applied them at Embryo?

At first, I didn’t love it either, and took a lot of time and resources to better understand it, and then I started to love it. It’s a big change, and in my opinion, Google could have done a better job at helping businesses migrate over. My confidence in GA4 and implementation of it solely comes from working with it over time. My talk will cover a broad range of topics including:

  • The migration from UA to GA4
  • The measurement/reporting elements of the tool
  • And why it’s worth investing business resources in getting it set up sooner rather than later.

Overall, the talk will allow the visitors to gain a broader understanding of GA4 as a whole.

Your go-to advice for folks struggling with GA4 migration? 

Really, your first step here would be to have a chat with your agency. If you’re with an agency for a multi-channel strategy they should have an idea of what the setup you need will look like.  If your agency doesn’t have an analytics specialist, seek one. If you’re using Google Analytics as your primary reporting data, making sure it’s correctly implemented is critical to the success of the decisions you make off the back of it. At Embryo, I’ve helped businesses that have been clients of ours for other services, but we’ve also helped a lot of businesses that just needed help with GA4 migration.

What tips do you have for attendees to maximize their time on-site at brightonSEO?

Use the app! brightonSEO has a fantastic app that allows you to view the schedules, but also plan in a personalized timeline so you don’t miss any talks you want to attend. The talks in the smaller rooms will often fill up quickly, so get to those early if you don’t want to miss them. 

Finally, if you’ve got some downtime, check out the exhibitors and you’ll find lots of people full of knowledge presenting the latest and greatest features of the tools you could use. You’ll learn so much from the talks, but don’t forget you’re at an event with thousands of people from the industry, network with them.

You’ll learn so much from the talks, but don’t forget you’re at an event with thousands of people from the industry, network with them.

SAM THOMAS, ANALYTICS LEAD, EMBRYO

What presentations are you most interested in attending/speakers you are most interested to hear and why?

There are so many this year. I’m going to have to make some tough decisions. I’ll be talking at MeasureFest which is the day before brightonSEO and that entire day looks incredible. I’m a real data-head so I tend to naturally gravitate towards talks where data plays a direct role. Specifically, at the brightonSEO event, I’ve got my must-attend list:

And I know I’ve already got clashes there! Thankfully, we’ll have the replays so I can watch any I missed online. 

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Embryo works with a lot of clients across a lot of different industries and we’re very focused on how the ‘messy middle’ (MOFU) impacts their conversion funnels. By focusing on the entire customer journey, we’ve pushed results that far exceed initial expectations. We also have some custom-built in-house tools that we use for deeper analysis and applying the findings to campaigns from these achieves the same. That investment in ongoing R&D internally has been crucial for growing the business.

What do you think is the most exciting trend in digital marketing now?

The switch in consumer behavior post-pandemic has been an exciting learning curve. People convert differently from how they did before COVID. For example, many consumers now work in a hybrid model, public transport use is still down, footfall in town/city centers the same, so there’s a larger audience online searching for your products whether they know about them or not yet. Adapting campaigns to support that, allows you to look at the data from them and when comparing it to now, understand how that change in behavior has affected your metrics, both negatively and positively.

What are some mistakes you have made while scaling organic and what did you learn from them? 

Not focusing enough on how other channels impact organic and vice-versa. So often in agencies, you find siloed teams that aren’t working together to understand that ‘messy middle’ I mentioned earlier. Scaling organic should be alongside other channels to make sure you’re getting in front of the entire audience.

What are the top 5 tools or apps you use almost every day and why? 

  • GA4 – My number one and the focus of my talk. 
  • Google Tag Manager – This naturally sits alongside GA4 for more advanced implementation of event, conversion, and visitor behavior reporting. 
  • Notion – The ultimate time and project management tool. I’d never used it before working with Embryo and within days I wished I had it since I first started in SEO all those years ago. 
  • BigQuery – An essential tool for working with bigger datasets and being able to efficiently extract trends. 
  • Screaming Frog – The ultimate tool in any SEO arsenal. Despite not directly working in SEO anymore, I use this for analysis through API integrations.

What was your worst job and what did you learn from it?

Now, I won’t call it out directly because that would be unprofessional of me, haha! However, I learned that for a business to really thrive, it’s crucial to have a leadership team that understands the value that employees bring to the table. A leader is only as good as the team’s desire to be led by them. The second the trust starts to crumble, you’ve lost them.

What advice would you give yourself when you first started digital advertising?

I’ve learned a lot over the years from a lot of great people. My biggest lesson was that I’m not a robot. You can’t be at full speed 24/7, you can switch off without feeling guilty, and ultimately make sure that your worth to a business is understood. We’re human, we make mistakes, and we learn from them, and that’s absolutely fine.

Sam Thomas Embryo

Sam Thomas is the Analytics Lead at Embryo and handles a multitude of things at a qualitative and quantitative level. Not only do Sam’s crucial insights create effective, month-long strategies for clients, but his proactive approach also helps forecast, discover unexpected issues, and find opportunities within the data. Follow him on LinkedIn and learn new things about GA4 almost every other day.

With Swydo’s GA4 integration you can now make your weekly, monthly and on-the-fly GA4 reports in just minutes. 

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