I’m not too assured in Google Analytics 4 regardless of the excitement being handed by the Google Analytics staff. Firms have spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} to boost and combine their websites, platforms, campaigns, occasions, and different measurement information inside Common Analytics solely to seek out that it doesn’t robotically work inside Google Analytics 4. Occasions aren’t any totally different…
It’s disappointing that Google continues to advertise the deadline for migration, with out really offering any technique of automating the migration. Our purchasers didn’t finances for this work, so it’s an added expense in migration, coaching, and troubleshooting.
That stated, that is the place the group is available in and makes a distinction. As my digital transformation agency works emigrate our purchasers over, we’ll be sharing the work right here on Martech Zone. As all the time, be at liberty to remark, right us, or present us with a greater resolution when you don’t consider we’re hitting the mark… we’re studying, too!
Common Analytics Occasions Versus Google Analytics 4 Occasions
Your complete idea of occasions has modified between Common Analytics (UA) versus Google Analytics 4 (GA4). In Common Analytics, an occasion was a guide document that needed to be triggered in your website, and the data handed into Google Analytics. There are 4 variables:
- Occasion Class – A required variable that should be handed. Eg. Type
- Occasion Motion – A required variable that should be handed. Eg. Submitted
- Occasion Label – An non-obligatory variable that may be handed. Eg. /landingpage/demorequest
- Occasion Worth – An non-obligatory variable that may be handed for the worth of the occasion. Eg. 77
Google Analytics 4 takes extra of a data-agnostic view of occasions… that means there are each system-defined occasions in addition to occasions you’ll be able to add and customise. Google Analytics 4 even offers suggestions on what these occasions must be. All of them cross information in the identical format:
- Occasion Title – A required variable that should be handed. Eg. generate_lead
- Parameters – Three non-obligatory parameters (parameter_x, parameter_y, parameter_z) that you could cross. For those who customise these, they should be added as customized dimensions in your GA4 occasion. You’re allowed as much as 50 event-scoped customized dimensions. You possibly can archive unused ones as properly. (For those who use Analytics 360, the restrict is 125).
- Worth, Foreign money – An non-obligatory worth and the forex it’s measured in. Eg. 77, USD
So… the best implementation of occasions in Google Analytics 4 is to plan forward and unify your naming conventions so that you simply don’t run out of customized dimensions. It additionally implies that it’s not advisable emigrate your current occasions. It is best to deal with a Google Analytics 4 implementation as a brand new platform. Listed here are the steps that I’d suggest you’re taking:
Step 1: Allow Google Analytics 4 Enhanced Measurement
One factor to bear in mind as you’re implementing Google Analytics 4 is that a few of the tagging we needed to manually implement previously for UA may be robotically enabled in GA4. In Admin > Property > Information Streams > [Your Stream], you’ll be able to allow scroll occasions, outbound click on occasions, website search occasions, kind interactions, video engagement, and file downloads!
Step 2: Doc Your Common Analytics Occasions to GA4 Really helpful Occasions
Export your present occasions from Common Analytics right into a spreadsheet after which manually evaluation the advisable occasions from GA4 that you simply wish to migrate them to. This can decrease the necessity to construct out customized dimensions to your implementation. Google recommends the next occasions for all properties:
For e-commerce and on-line gross sales, these occasions will robotically populate an Ecommerce Purchases report.
Step 3: Add Customized Dimensions for Your Customized Occasions
For any occasions that aren’t mapped to advisable occasions in Google Analytics 4, you’ll have to create them as customized dimensions. That is achieved in GA4 > Configure > Customized definitions > Create customized definition:
An instance of this can be monitoring a chat bot getting clicked open. Title your dimension, set the Scope as an occasion, present an outline, after which select a parameter or property from the listing… or enter the identify of a parameter or property you’ll gather sooner or later.
Step 4: Implement Google Tag Supervisor And Add GA4 Occasions
For those who haven’t already, you’ll completely wish to implement Google Tag Supervisor to handle all of the tags and occasions that you simply’re presently recording utilizing Common Analytics. Tag Supervisor allows you to set off occasions seamlessly with out having to code occasions all through your website… which is crucial as you migrate occasions to GA4.
With GA4, you’ll be able to add the precise occasions that you simply wish to document throughout your website. For example, now we have a set off for a shopper that we constructed when somebody submitted a Hubspot Type in Common Analytics. We have been in a position to repurpose that actual set off to additionally document the GA4 Occasion generate_lead, passing the Hubspot Type GUID that we are able to later monitor again to the shape identify.
In Step 2, you mapped all your previous occasions to GA4 occasions in a spreadsheet. For any occasions that aren’t robotically captured utilizing enhanced measurement, you’ll wish to create GA4 Occasion Tags for every of the Occasion Names that you simply selected after which cross the non-obligatory parameters, worth, and forex. For the customized dimensions you added in Step 3, you’ll wish to create customized GA4 occasions with the Occasion Title the identical.
Be sure you check your Google Tag Supervisor configuration and manually fireplace utilizing the preview software to make sure the info is being correctly despatched to GA 4. GA4, as with Common Analytics, isn’t all the time real-time in its information assortment.
Want Assist Migrating To Google Analytics 4?
Watch a Tutorial Video On Migrating UA Occasions to GA4
I wish to give a shout-out to Analytics mania, who offered an amazing walk-through on migrating UA occasions to GA4. That is the place I discovered most of this data… it’s well worth the watch and I’m positive his course would supply all of the coaching you want:
