Like many marketers, the discontinuation of Universal Analytics and the integration of GA4 has been looming over our heads since Google’s announcement early last year. Now that we will be fully committed to using Google Analytics 4 come this July, we’ve broken down the most important changes that will affect the way you read and analyze GA4.
By fully committing to GA4, Google has promised to deliver several changes to make the new analytics more ‘user-centric’. GA4 will be able to provide businesses with a clearer understanding of how users interact with their website. With some help from our data analyst and partner, Steve Lamar at Really Good Data, we’ve gathered the following takeaways.
Perhaps one of the more exciting updates to the platform includes is customizable reporting templates. Custom reports allow you to build out exact views of the data you are looking for, which you can easily access when you need them. This reporting integration allows you to go deeper in customization, funnel exploration, and pathing analysis, as you create reports on specific products and analyze how they are performing.
Step 1: Click the edit button in the upper-right-hand corner
Step 2: Click the dimensions tab on the right-hand side
Step 3: In this example, we want to analyze a report that shows us how different devices are attributing to our traffic. From here, we would select “set as default” under the device model.
Step 4: Now, all you have to do is click the Save button and choose “Save as new report”. Give it a name like “Device Category” and you’re all set!
Putting it all together, a customized report in GA4 takes about 30 seconds or less. Plus, you can easily copy GA4 reporting links and share them with team members.
Above all, GA4 is built to be more user-friendly and more intuitive when it comes to your reporting needs. To make sure you have GA4 set up like a pro, take a look at these free tools to utilize:
As we dive deeper into learning how to navigate Google Analytics 4, we are all about leveraging educational resources. Check out Steve Lamar’s upcoming training session on GA4 Implementation, on Wednesday 3/1 at 11 am ET. You can also watch Steve’s most recent training on navigating GA4 here.