Are you ready for Google Analytics 4?

Do not lose your important data.

In March 2022, Google announced that their Google Analytics version “Universal Analytics” will be withdrawn and replaced with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The change means that companies’ data only can be accessed in Google Analytics for at least 6 months after July 1st, 2023. There is therefore a risk of losing valuable data, which has an impact on the effect of a company’s success online.

The reports with data that Google Analytics obtain, show, among other things, the effect on target groups, revenue, traffic, and product. This data may be lost if you and your company do not change to GA4. A final date for when data from Universal Analytics will no longer be accessible has not yet been determined. Therefore, Google strongly encourages to change to GA4 as quickly as possible.

The shift to the new Analytics versions has several benefits. For example, greater insight into the user’s costumer journey across different platforms, a long-term solution for the protection of personal data, as well as a better interplay between Google Analytics and Google’s advertising platforms, so that your campaigns can be more efficient and give a better return of investments.

 

What can design concern do for you and your business?

design concern can help you ease the transition phase to GA4. For example, we can check if exactly your Google Analytics version will be affected, and we will help you upgrade to the latest Google Analytics version GA4.

How the transition works.

Check if your Google Analytics property is being affected.

If your Google Analytics property was created before October 14th, 2020, you are most likely using Universal Analytics. If you created your property after October 14th, 2020, you are probably already using GA4.

If in doubt, check your property ID. Universal Analytics property IDs start with UA and end with a number e.g. UA-XXXXXXXXX. GA4 property IDs only have numbers e.g. XXXXXXXXX.

Export historical data.

If you want to make sure that your data are not suddenly lost, you can currently export your individual reports to the following formats

  • CSV
  • TSV
  • TSV to Excel
  • Excel (XLSX)
  • Google Sheets
  • PDF

However, Google expects to come up with a solution that makes it easier and more efficient to export data. So we recommend that you wait.

Shift to Google Analytics 4.

We recommend that you shift from Universal Analytics to GA4 as soon as possible. The sooner you shift, the faster you adjust to GA4, and the more data you get work within the new interface.

You can change to the new version by following some steps, or you can contact us – then we will help you.

The work effort will vary depending on how detailed your Universal Analytics has been in relation to goals, target groups etc.

After you shift, you can still access your Universal Analytics and find your historical data – expectedly until the end of 2023.

Connect your Google Analytics 4 property to your Google Ads user.

You can take advantage of the data you get from Google Analytics in your Google Ads campaigns.

If your Universal Analytics property is linked to your Google Ads user, then the data flow will also end on July 1st, 2023. You should therefore transfer your Universal Analytics property’s Google Ads links your GA4 property.

Next, you should import your GA4 conversions into Google Ads and subsequently add your GA4 target groups to Google Ads.