ging reporting expectations from UA to GA4

Let’s be honest. Google Analytics 4 is a headache for agencies and businesses.

It will only get worse over the next couple of weeks.

Universal Analytics will be sunsetting tomorrow, on July 1. (This may already have happened by the time you read this).

If they haven’t done so already, many businesses will be in for a rude awakening when they begin to use their GA4 reports to determine the truth. Spoiler: Most haven’t!

GA4 provides many new reports, insights and data that UA either couldn’t or didn’t have (like user funnel reporting). ).

Those who have been using UA reports for many years will need to adapt quickly.

Where have my reports gone?

You can explore Google Ads campaign data once you are comfortable with it, but you will need to do more custom reporting than you would if you were exploring the same data in UA.

There is a Google Ads section in the Acquisition Reporting section of UA. It is easily accessible. In GA4, there’s more of a solution, with similar reports that are hidden in the acquisition card.

To take advantage of the advanced GA4 Google Ads Reporting, you will need to navigate to the new Discover section. It’s not a difficult thing to understand, but it could be confusing for users who don’t use the platform every day.

We’ve seen some issues with the Looker Studio dashboards for PPC data analysts and marketers who are more advanced.

The data on ecommerce conversion rates, source/medium, and other metrics are not available in the standard package. You will need to create custom fields if you want to sync them.

Many advertisers will ignore these metrics.

The scheduled reports have also been removed (as I type this), so businesses who used to receive their daily/weekly/monthly report straight into their inboxes each morning will need to find an alternative solution.

Google is listening to the concerns of users and has responded by releasing more reporting that goes beyond what was expected.

Custom reports can be a great solution if you’re still having trouble replicating dashboards and reports.

PPC professionals who work freelance or for agencies can take advantage of the extra skills they have in creating new reports, which previously were taken for granted by marketing departments.

The new GA4 reporting suite is a great tool, but it will require some learning.

There is always opportunity where there is disruption.

Not so fast

We are all in for disappointment if we spend too much time in Google Analytics and stare at the real-time report for long periods of the day.

All other reports are delayed by 24 to 48 hours without BigQuery’s intervention.

This is a result of the shift from last-click attribution to data driven attribution.

This issue is also present in the Google Ads interface, with its delayed reporting of conversions.

Marketing executives, however, who are eager to know the impact of their Black Friday sales or 24-hour flash sales (and how much fun it will be to watch the results on the first day), will need to wait.

Even when the reports begin to arrive, there will be a time lag before we can see all of the data.

This could be a blessing for PPC marketers, whose clients enjoy a good 24-hour or next-day report.

Distraction tactics that work include focusing on the new features of the real-time report such as snapshots and comparisons.

If the client wants reporting that is more immediate, the solution lies in using the streaming export feature within BigQuery.

Looker Studio dashboards can be used to populate the data with near-real-time accuracy during key sales periods and events.

One big event

GA4 is about the event, as I’m certain you know.

We bid farewell to UA page hits, ecommerce, social interaction hits, etc. Say hello to a world based on events.

The data models of UA and GA4 are fundamentally different. We’ll be missing a key UA metric, pageviews. Here, sessions are the king.

Other key UA metrics such as bounce rate will be calculated differently.

The UA bounce rate refers to a session that only contains one page, while the GA4 bounce is the inverse engagement rate.

Comparing year-on-year results is a waste of time, as they are calculated in a completely different way (which most people will not know).

Many businesses rely on these metrics. Focus on GA4’s unique metrics (e.g. engagement rate) to get the most out of the platform.

You can change the goals in your favor by aligning these metrics to your objectives and identifying their importance.

You can use GA4 as a tool to help you achieve your goals, rather than let it be a hindrance.

Drive That Data

Data driven attribution has become the default attribution model in GA4.

This can cause channel reporting discrepancies and disruptions due to the slower generation of standard reports.

In the big picture, this is the most accurate way to give credit for conversions.

The data-driven attribution method is not perfect. It is still too “black box”, and relies on Google to my liking.

It is still a better representation of the user’s complex journey, which spans multiple digital touchpoints, than the last click.

Google Analytics is not the first to use data-driven attribution.

Google Ads has used this model as the default for the last year, and it has existed for many years.

Google Ads data-driven attribute differs from GA4 because Google Ads only attributes across different Google channel, whereas GA4 expands across all channels.

Businesses will at least be aware of how it works and why the odd conversion comes through. I still get this question regularly.

Accepting the learning curve

It’s a fact that we will all be better off once we get used to GA4 as well as UA and its new role of ghostly data from the past.

It’s been a long time coming, but GA4 is a more sophisticated tool, based on data, that puts privacy first.

The pain points and learning curves are more exaggerated because the leap from Google’s third to its fourth iteration of web analytics was larger than its previous migrations.

It will take patience and the business must rise above their inertia to embrace this new dawning of data analysis.

PPC marketers must guide and educate these people along the way. Continue to answer emails from executives asking why page views have decreased and bounce rates are increasing.

As you would show your parents how to use their smartphone for the very first time, and explain to them that the 5G network does not control the minds of people, go ahead and show them GA4. You will be rewarded for your efforts and they won’t look back.

The first time Search Engine Land published the post From UA To GA4: Managing Your Reporting Expectations.