You Ask, I Answer: Moving to GA4 Daunting?

In today's episode, Kate asks, curious how everyone is feeling about the Google Analytics deadline to move to Google Analytics 4. Does it seem like ample time to migrate from Universal? Is it at all daunting? My perspective is going to be a little bit biased because I spend a lot of time in Google Analytics, including Google Analytics 4. And my perspective is that yes, it is ample time because you've had two years to more than two years to get used to this new system.

Google Analytics 4 used to be called Web Plus app. And that was available for I think a good 18 months while Google was beta testing it and making sure that the thing worked and stuff like that. But it did exist. Google Analytics 4 became publicly available in production in October of 2020. And so now, a year and a half later, we've had 18 months to get up and running on this piece of software and start using it, start collecting data.

And all these organizations that have delayed even just getting started with the implementation, yes, they now feel some pressure. If you think about it, it's going to be what in 15 months from the day being recorded, April of 2022 is when I'm recording this. You have 15 months to get it installed, uh, get up and running, and and get fluent in it. That's a good amount of time, even for larger companies, even for larger enterprises. Where people are going to feel the pain is the lack of historical data.

The lack of historical data is going to bite because your data doesn't make it over, right? When you move from Google Analytics 3, also known as Universal Analytics, to Google Analytics 4, your data doesn't go with you. It's a brand new piece of software. And as a result, people are going to find very quickly that it is a it is a challenge to get historical data. And so the sooner that you turn it on and get it collecting data, the sooner you're going to be able to look back and at month over month and year over year and see what has happened.

So I would strongly encourage people to not wait about at least getting data collection set up. You don't have to get it perfect, right? You don't have to do a mass, uh a huge mass committee meeting just to get the thing turned on and collecting data and port your goals over. You can go back later on and fine-tune it and adjust filters and all the things that you're used to doing in Universal Analytics, but you've got to get used to it sooner rather than later. One of the things that we were talking about on the Trust Insights podcast on Google Analytics 4 was getting people to make the behavioral changes they need to make.

So one thing I did very early on was I deleted all my universal analytics bookmarks. I just hit delete and I replaced them all with GA4 bookmarks to force myself to use that to make that my go-to, my default. This is the first place I'm going to look for analytics data instead of the old system. Even though I'm much more comfortable with the old system, if I didn't, I knew if I didn't force myself to switch over, I was going to have a hard time. I would keep finding excuses, keep finding reasons not to use the new software.

And I knew at some point, sooner rather than later, Google was gonna say, look, we're turning the old thing off. We gave you this brand new shiny object. Uh you've had a year, you know, 18 months to to get used to it and start using it. At some point, we're gonna turn the old thing off. And they have, they've made that declaration.

So I feel fine about that. It I've been using Google Analytics for almost exclusively for my stuff now for probably about six months. Right? It's my the first place I go. Um you have to learn how the new system works and how some measurements are different and stuff like that.

Um, there are differences in how Google Analytics scopes certain things and big differences in how it handles conversions. But if you're used to it, it's like anything else, right? Over time it becomes natural, and after a while, you're like, okay, I don't even remember how I used to do things in the old software. Um, let's let's just keep using the new software. So it becomes more daunting the longer you wait.

That's the short answer. If you're already on it, there's no nothing daunting about it at all because you're already on it. The longer you wait, the worse it's gonna get. The more painful it will be to make that transition. The more pressure you will feel when you're trying to use the new software and get things done that you're used to doing, and because you didn't have time to do the immersion, you will be frustrated.

You'll you'll feel unnecessarily challenged by the software to struggle through it. So I again I can't emphasize enough. You've got to get yourself switched over and get using it sooner rather than later. I promise you, it's not as bad as it seems once you start using it. Yes, there are things that are different, um, but it is not like you've totally thrown out everything you knew and nothing makes sense anymore.

You are still doing the same basic fundamental things. You're still measuring traffic, measuring conversions and stuff. Um, there are differences, but it's it's like you you learned how to cook Japanese cuisine, and now you're being asked to learn how to cook Korean, right? There are differences for sure, but there are also a lot of similarities, and there are only a certain number of logical ways you can do things that both cuisines share. And the same is true of Google Analytics.

So it's a good question. Again, I can't emphasize strongly enough. Get started sooner rather than later. Thanks for the question.