For years, marketers have relied on Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) tool as their go-to data management setup for measuring website traffic and behavior.
Pretty soon, we’ll have to say goodbye.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is now becoming the new tool within just a couple of weeks, which means the time to switch to the new tool is right now last year.
Learn more about the switch over to GA4 from the trusted UA tool and what you need to do to get your business ready to continue tracking audience behavior on your website.
The Final Switch is Happening This Month
That’s right––if you don’t set up your new Google Analytics 4 property this month, you could start July with a gap in your data.
Google has stated, “All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023.” If you have a Universal Analytics 360 property, then you have more time, with new hit processing ending on July 1, 2024, instead.
You may have noticed a warning in your current Universal Analytics account already, with a countdown to the end of life for the UA tool.
Google’s warning notice about the end of Universal Analytics is currently featured in many UA properties.
You Don’t Have to Do Anything (But You Should)
Google is doing its part to make the switch to GA4 seamless. In fact, you might already have a GA4 property set up and tracking behavior on your site. Unless you disabled the automatic GA4 property creation, Google likely created a new property connected to your former UA property.
If you don’t already have this new GA4 property automatically set up by Google, we’d recommend creating one yourself. Why? The foundational data set that GA4 is built upon differs from Universal Analytics, which means some of your trackings may be improperly set up. It’s much better to handle the migration yourself or with a trusted agency partner so your crucial data is clean and accurate.
Set Up Google Analytics 4 Yourself Right Now
Luckily, making the switch to Google Analytics 4 is simple. You can likely complete the task within a few minutes or reach out to a digital marketing agency to help you complete it.
To create a new Google Analytics 4 property, simply:
- Create a GA4 Property within your UA admin settings
- Add a Configuration Tag to the Site from GTM
- 3. Test Your New GA4 Property in GA4’s Realtime Report
Say Goodbye to Google’s Universal Analytics
Goodbyes are hard. Saying so long to tool marketers and businesses have been using to measure website traffic and audience behavior for decades is even harder. Still, there’s a bright side.
GA4 is a tracking tool built for the future of the internet, with more robust privacy protections for website users and better mapped to the customer lifecycle. This makes it easier for marketers to understand how their website works and what they need to do to improve it. The time to say hello to Google Analytics 4 is right now. Are you ready?