Google Analytics 4 | CXL Review

Google Analytics 4 course is part of the CXL mini-degree conversion course and is presented by Charles Farina a certified web analyst.

The reason why it's called Google Analytics 4 is that it's the 4th version of Google Analytics.

The different version of Google Analytics:

• Google Analytics Urchin
• Google Analytics Classic
• Google Analytics Universal
• Google Analytics 4

The lesson aims to make you aware of the new features in GA 4 and the differences between the two Googles Analytics versions. 

The course has 8 lessons and 4 hours long. The first lesson is merely an introduction to Google Analytics 4. Lesson 2 onwards explains the setup, things to watch out for and what is no longer available as we did in the earlier version of Google analytics. The final lessons are more about reporting with GA4.

This is a valuable course if you are looking to become a professional in Google Analytics 4 and Charles will explain everything you need to about the platform.

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 has some serious new features which can be useful to many businesses as it serves the following purposes:

• Collect Website Data
• APP Data
• Website & APP data combined

Previously the earlier versions could only collect website data and you had to install firebase to collect APP data.

The reason why I love Google Analytics 4 is that you can track users across different devices, so this essentially means that you can see what your users' journey are like across different devices.

What's different between Universal & Google Analytics 4? 

The main difference for me is the way that Google Analytics 4 collects and processes data. The way that GA4 collects data is by using an event-based model which means that a users interaction a standalone. The universal version was a session-based model as user interactions were grouped within a certain time frame.

When should you use Google Analytics 4?

If you are making use of APP and Website data then it would be best to start Google Analytics 4, but bear in mind that not all features available and new features are being added as they improve the new version.

It would be best to keep both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 running together for some time. Remember that Google Analytics 4 will only collect your data moving forward and to view historical data you would have to revert to your universal version to view old data from the past.

Advanced Google Analytics must first restructure their data to match the Google Analytics data model to extract the data correctly.

The advantage for firebase users is that firebase is now Google Analytics 4 and you can access all your previous data collected with firebase.

Moving forward any users installing Google Analytics for the first time will by default have GA 4 installed by default and should they want to install the Universal version then they have to do so via the advanced options.

BigQuery Export is now Available

Previously BigQuery export was a feature only available to 360 users but is not available in the latest version.

Why is this such an important feature?

• You can run data queries across your different data types.
• Combine with different data sources.
• Import your data to any other system of your choice.
• Your data can be exported to Bigquery to save in cloud space.

There are more awesome features that were added to the new version and one of those awesome features is the analysis which can do a couple of smart things like understanding your data better.

The analysis allows you to add in different dimensions and metrics that you are interested in. With that, you can filter your data, sort and segment the things that you find are important to you and your business.

You can do the following with analysis:

• Funnel Analysis
• Path Analysis
• Exploration
• Cohort Analysis
• User explorer
• Segment overlap

You can search for reports which by the way is supported in all languages, your recent suggestions will pop up and previous reports you viewed.

Upgrading to Google Analytics 4

Remember to add your Google Analytics 4 account alongside your universal account.

GA4 Setup Assistant wizard

Follow the instructions below to create your Google Analytics 4 property. The instructions are the same regardless of whether your website pages have the Analytics tag or whether you use Google Tag Manager.

1. In Google Analytics, click Admin.
2. In the Account column, make sure that your desired account is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it will already be selected.)
3. In the Property column, select the Universal Analytics property that currently collects data for your website.
4. In the Property column, click GA4 Setup Assistant. It is the first option in the Property column (directly above "Property Settings", which is second.)
5. Click Get started under "I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property".
6. If your site uses the gtag.js, tag, you have the option to Enable data collection using your existing tags. However, if you use a website builder/CMS (e.g. Squarespace, etc), Google Tag Manager or your website is tagged with analytics.js, the wizard can't reuse your existing tagging and you'll need to add the tag yourself (instructions).

How to set up and manage conversion events

Mark an event as a conversion

You need Edit permission to mark an event as a conversion. You can mark an existing event as a conversion, or you can create or modify an event and mark that as a conversion.

Mark an existing event as a conversion

To mark any of your existing events as a conversion:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics.
2. Select your property.
3. In the left pane, select Events.
4. Locate the event, then on the right, turn on Mark as conversion.

Once you mark an event as a conversion, it appears in the Conversion Events table. New conversions may take up to 24 hours to appear in your reports. If you don't see conversion data within this timeframe, you may want to confirm that your data is being collected.

Note: Marking an event as a conversion doesn't affect data you've already collected, including attribution information associated with that event. It only applies to new data.

I honestly loved this course and Charles has presented some cool things about Google Analytics 4.