You Ask, I Answer: When to Switch to Google Analytics 4?

In today's episode, Brian asks, when should a company really consider shifting over to Google Analytics 4? That's a really good question because initially I was saying that you know give yourself a lot of time to get used to it and things like that. Um but over on Reddit in the uh uh Reddit Analytics subreddit uh people are setting up new properties, uh are not being given an option for GA3, and uh agencies are saying clients, big clients are asking for asking for asking uh to switch over. I guess having heard of the the presumed benefits of Google Analytics 4. So we're already seeing an adoption push for the technology for Google Analytics 4.

And funny enough, when I went over to um my Google Analytics account here today, when I went to go here and go to create a property, guess what? It's now Google Analytics 4. So anyone creating new Google Analytics accounts uh is being shown this and getting set up by default in Google Analytics 4. Um, which uh if you've watched other videos in this series, uh can present a bit of a challenge, right? Um if you're not familiar with it.

Now uh Google Analytics 3, aka Universal Analytics is still available. Uh it's under the advanced options here, so you can also uh create an older uh legacy uh account as well. But clearly Google has decided uh that uh GA4 is what people should be using. There's even an upgrade uh option here to convert uh a universal analytics account. Do not do this.

Um do not upgrade your universal account just yet. Um create a new property for GA4 and have them run in parallel for a little while. And here's why. We've talked about this uh a bunch of times already, but the the measurement philosophy in Google Analytics 4 is very different, very different from Google Analytics 3. Um, in the sense that uh things are measured differently, configuration is done differently, and if you're not proficient in uh that philosophy, Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio, uh, then moving to Google Analytics 4 could be a bit of a learning curve, and by that a bit I mean a greased wall uh made of marble.

Um so when should you be doing this? When should you be making the leap? Well, you should be deploying Google Analytics 4 as soon as reasonably possible, uh, given any challenges you have in your culture and organization. Um because as with everything with Google, nothing is retroactive. So the sooner that you can deploy it and get it collecting data, the better.

Um even if you don't fully configure it, just get it out there and get it listening and gathering up information, right? So that's one. Um it should be done ideally in parallel with your existing accounts. Don't touch that upgrade button, just don't do it. Um you probably should also set up a training uh property as well.

You're allowed, you know, 80 or 100 properties per Google Analytics account. So set up a Google Analytics for core account and then label one, you know, training GA4 account, and that can be the one that you mess around with and blow up and uh and you know accidentally uh create all sorts of chaos hunt. But have those two set up in parallel. That's a a good practice to get into is have a training ground if as in this case you're not resource constrained, so that you have a place for you and your team to be experimenting, and nobody's gonna feel bad, like, oh dang, we just nuked all of our company's data by accident. That will necessitate, because it's a property and operates at the property level, that will necessitate duplicate tags in Tag Manager for your training in your live account.

So just keep that in mind that you're gonna need uh those those duplicate sets of tags. So that's the deployment side. The bigger question, the one I think you're really getting at, Ryan, is you should begin using Google Analytics for as a standard of measurement, as like this is the now the the system of record. Once you can replicate everything in GA4 that mattered to you in GA3, this will take some time uh because the configuration and the setup uh requires tag manager proficiency, requires data studio proficiency, requires organizational change in behavior proficiency, because you are talking about going around and interviewing stakeholders and saying, hey, what did you used to use in GA3 that was really important to you? Um of the uh most important things you can do if you've been using Google Data Studio for a while is embed a Google Analytics tracking tag in there to see just how you know how often are people using it, right?

If people remember that it even exists, um if you've got a um really important dashboard for marketing purposes, I would uh you know, I would suggest uh one of the best practices there is have it be people's homepage tab, right? When they open a new browser tab, boom, there's their dashboard, just pops up, that's their starting page, and they remember, oh, it exists. Um certainly better than plugging it up like in the the lobby of an office and having it be on the the big screen TV, you know, back when we went to offices. Um having it in someone's browser makes it very apparent that oh, this is this is the important stuff. Um so I would say that's when you should start using it as a standard of measurement.

Once you are getting the data and you feel confident that everything is set up right and you're you've been able to replicate all the the custom values and the parameters and everything in GA4 that you used to rely on in GA3, that's when you can say, okay, now from this day forward, we are now a GA4 shop. Um you should also make sure that people go uh anyone on your analytics team goes through and takes the free course from Google, the next generation of Google Analytics for course. It's if it takes about an hour to get through it, um, and you get you know a cute little award at the end. But it helps make sure that everybody understands the differences between the systems and understands how they're designed to work. Um I don't think personally the course does a great job of explaining the measurement philosophy.

You kind of have to figure that out yourself, but at least it gets you the nuts and bolts of like what used to be this is now this. For example, what used to be sessions and users and and pages is now all events up and down. Um you'll see some other changes in the measurement philosophy too. For example, uh channel groupings and uh are completely gone. Google has decided that the medium is effectively the new channel grouping.

So part of that standard of measurement when about when to switch over and not is when you have really good governance around source medium control, uh, when you're doing tagging and tracking. Because now more than ever, uh you need to have that be pristine because if people are I I you know I've seen ad agencies like do you know social media as the source and Facebook as the medium, like no, that's totally backwards. Um the medium is the broadest category of UTM tracking code, the source gives detail about the medium. Um so a consideration for that standard of measurement is is everyone on board with governance about tracking codes and tags and syntax and um and structure, all your partners on board with it, you know, agencies and contractors and and software tools. Because if everybody's not on board and you still got people just kind of doing their own thing, in GA4, that means your data is going to be even more of a hot mess than it already is, because now you don't have the channel groupings to roll things up nicely.

You will want to, for example, if you if people have come to rely on channel groupings uh as a form of reporting, like you know, social and referral and email in Data Studio, you've gotta build that yourself now to uh replicate it so that you have clear ideas of of what you want uh to report on. So these are a lot of the considerations that go into you know when are we ready to make the switch? Replicating everything that's important to you also means knowing what's important to you. Um so auditing your own reports. What take a look at the reports you publish uh for your stakeholders every you know week, every month, every quarter.

Have you replicated all those things in GA4 so that you can produce that report again? Um because even if you yourself have made the transition to GA4 and how it's thinking, chances are your stakeholders have not, and they want to see something that looks more or less like an apples to apples to the previous report, so that they can say, Hey, um, X went up this month. So if you um if you were reporting on sessions and now you know you're looking at page visits, you're gonna get a very different number. Um, even though page visit is kind of one of the the core events in GA4. So there's a lot of not only what has become what, but can we make it as close to apples to apples so that when people do comparisons um they know what they're looking at.

And finally, from a process perspective, you know, making sure that you've got everything documented as much as it sucks. I don't like it either. Um, but document everything in GA3 account so that uh when you're working in GA4, you've got it all clear. So there's a lot to do, but that's when you should switch, when you can do all that stuff. Got follow-up questions?

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