Google Analytics is a powerful tool that helps businesses track website traffic and user behavior. In October 2020, Google introduced the latest version of Google Analytics, called Google Analytics 4.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform. It’s a complete overhaul of the previous version, Universal Analytics, and includes new features and capabilities that are designed to help businesses better understand their customer’s behavior across multiple devices and platforms.

What are the key differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics?

There are several key differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics:

• Event-driven data model: Google Analytics 4 uses an event-driven data model, which means that all user interactions on your website or app are tracked as events. This includes pageviews, clicks, form submissions, and more. This makes it easier to track and analyze user behavior across multiple devices and platforms.

• Machine learning: Google Analytics 4 uses machine learning to provide more accurate and insightful data. This includes automatic insights, which provide recommendations based on your data, and predictive metrics, which anticipate future outcomes based on your data.

• Cross-device tracking: Google Analytics 4 includes improved cross-device tracking, which means that you can track user behavior across multiple devices and platforms, including mobile apps and web browsers.

• Privacy: Google Analytics 4 is designed with privacy in mind. It includes features such as data deletion on request and a new consent mode, which allows businesses to collect user consent for tracking.

Why should businesses upgrade to Google Analytics 4?

There are several reasons why businesses should consider upgrading to Google Analytics 4:

• Future-proofing: Google Analytics 4 is designed to be more flexible and adaptable to changing technology and user behavior. By upgrading to this new version, businesses can future-proof their analytics data and stay ahead of the curve.

• Improved insights: With machine learning and event-driven tracking, Google Analytics 4 provides more accurate and insightful data that can help businesses make better decisions.

• Cross-device tracking: With improved cross-device tracking, businesses can get a better understanding of how users interact with their brand across multiple devices and platforms.

• Privacy compliance: Google Analytics 4 includes new features that are designed to help businesses comply with privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA.

How to upgrade to Google Analytics 4?

To upgrade to Google Analytics 4, businesses need to create a new Google Analytics 4 property in their Google Analytics account. This property will run alongside their existing Universal Analytics property, allowing them to compare data between the two versions. Businesses can also use Google’s data stream feature to collect data from mobile apps and other digital platforms.

Google Analytics 4 is a powerful analytics tool that provides businesses with more accurate and insightful data, improved cross-device tracking, and better privacy compliance. By upgrading to this new version, businesses can future-proof their analytics data and gain a deeper understanding of their customer’s behavior across multiple devices and platforms.