Are you ready to shift from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)? Wondering how to prepare and what to expect when the change comes?
In this article, you’ll discover exactly how Google Analytics is changing, what GA4 is, how to prepare, and how to set proper expectations with your boss or clients for the future of their data.
Why Google Is Making the Push to GA4
The current version of Google Analytics, referred to as Universal Analytics, was built for a very different time. It was designed in an era when people had hit counters on their websites. If you’re old enough to remember, you might recall the excitement of refreshing your web page just to see that hit counter go up by one.
Since that time, the way people use the internet and the data that businesses need to track has changed so drastically that Universal Analytics can’t support it anymore. Today, people are using multiple devices every day to access the internet. They’re logging in on their phones, tablets, home computers, and work computers and taking advantage of various apps, all of which are completely different ways to access the internet.
Not to mention the new privacy and data laws that are being implemented around the world. People are opting to block data tracking pixels and software either by directly telling apps not to track them or by using a third-party blocker to stop being tracked.
As a result of all of these changes, Universal Analytics is finally at the point where it can’t keep up with everything that businesses need it to do. And that’s why Google has created GA4.
Of course, no other platform has a better understanding than Google of how people use the internet now and over the next 10-20 years. And what Google has determined is that instead of simply adding on to Universal Analytics, it was time to build an entirely new platform from the ground up.
So now, GA4 is running and ready for businesses to move over. However, unlike the last update to Universal Analytics, it’s not a simple migration. It’s not as easy as simply changing out the code and then carrying on with business as usual. There are fundamental changes in features and how you access reports and view the data that GA4 is collecting. So many businesses have been slow to adopt GA4.
But that’s about to change, as Google has announced a sunset date for Universal Analytics: July 1, 2023. At that time, Universal Analytics will stop collecting data. Marketers and business owners will still be able to log into their Universal Analytics and view historical data for the next 6 months but any new data will only be collected on GA4.
At the end of 2023, Universal Analytics will be completely shut down and the historical data it was storing will be gone.
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