need to understand the key differences between GA4 and UA metrics.

If you haven’t been on a deserted island for the past 18 months, then you know that Google Analytics 4 took the spotlight on July 1, as the source of our web metrics. Universal Analytics (UA), a friend of many marketers, has been retired.

Marketing teams will face a challenge when comparing the data from a given period to historical figures to determine growth.

Comparing data between GA4 and UA is not an apples to apples comparison.

Many people wanted to have GA4 up and running by July 1, 2020, so that they could make a YOY comparison. This would allow a true comparison.

What happens if you are one of those procrastinators? (Don’t worry, there are many!) Who will be able make an apples-to-apples comparision? Here’s what you should know.

Data models that are fundamentally different

GA4 is based on events and parameters. GA4 relies on parameters and events. Both methods are capable of collecting and tallying data. However, the report output will be different.

What does this mean?

You can report different metrics by using different numbers

In some cases, the same metric will be used. You may think that the numbers should match (or come close). You may still find some differences.

As an example:

User counts

This is the UA new user/user count for a small site over a period of one month.

Here is the GA4 new user count on that same website for the exact same time period.

The reports snapshot shows that GA4 round the numbers. However, you can still see that the number of users reported by GA4 is around 8% less than the UA.

If you round the number, it is even more obvious that there has been a change in users. The actual number in GA4 is 10,443 when you drill down – this is a difference just under 10%.

Sessions

GA4 counts more accurately because of a few key differences in the way it counts sessions.

Both platforms have a session timeout of 30 minutes by default. However, UA will restart the session at midnight . will generate a new session when a UTM promotional code is clicked.

You’ll see that the “session count” you’ve reported on for years isn’t an exact number.

GA4 does but not re-start at midnight, and but not creates a new session when a UTM promotional code is clicked.

Some websites, for example, have a promotional UTM code placed on the link to an internal webpage (a bad idea, and it’s unnecessary).

This causes a session to start in UA and overwrites the UTM promo codes that may have driven traffic.

Conversions

The two platforms have different conversion methods.

UA only counts one conversion for each goal per session. For example, the user may click on “Click to Call” multiple times.

The user cancels the call before it is completed the first time. For each goal, only one conversion is counted.

Click to Call goal setup is an example in UA.

GA4 counts a conversion each time, even if the same conversion event has been recorded more than once during a single session (Same User, Same Site, Same Visit):

It is important to understand the context.

You could say that GA4 is inflating the number of conversions because the same person clicks on the “call link” multiple times.

You could also argue that you only care about whether or not the user converts on the call-to-action, and not how many times it was done in a given session. The GA4 method, regardless of which you think is the better method, is the future.

If you’re talking about a “Add to Cart” conversion, where the user added one pair of shoe to a cart and then went on to add socks, GA4 will count this as a two conversion event.

You can argue that GA4 counts two conversion events (depending on your perspective).

Rethinking web performance metrics

GA4 gives us a fresh way of thinking about what matters and how to measure success. Here are some examples:

The following are some of the most popular sessions

The differences between the two platforms in calculating sessions have already been discussed, but GA4 encourages us to think about sessions that result in meaningful engagement with the site.

You’ll see “Engaged Sessions” as the first thing you notice. This is a simple count of all the sessions in which the user did something.

A “engaged session”, however, can only be defined as one that lasts more than 10 seconds and has at least two page/screen views or conversion events.

It’s the standard that GA4 uses. You may agree or disagree. The UA standard does not include a canned metric called “engaged session”.

Bounce rate

Marketers used to love reporting a low bounce as a way to measure success. It’s not always the best metric. Context is key with any success measure.

A simple recipe page, for example, could be doing its job perfectly yet show a high rate of bounce.

The user received what they wanted (the recipe), and then left happily. Is it bad?

No, actually. It’s good for the user.

The Bounce Rate is no longer a standalone metric within GA4. You can now refer to the engagement percentage to see the percentage of high-quality site visits. Again, this is according to the definition for quality.

The bounce rate is similar to the engagement rate if you subtract 100 from it.

The following are some examples of the events that you can attend

It would be easy to write a separate piece on how GA4 handles events. For more information, see Google Analytics 4 Event Tracking: What Marketers Need to Know.

In this article, let’s just quickly review the main differences:

Events are used in UA to track actions on the site that do not necessarily result in a success page.

You can, for example, have a video playing on your homepage. The video plays all the way.

There is no standard “Thank You Page” that you can set up after completing the video. Here’s where events can help.

UA allows you to give “events”, a description, an action and a label. When an action is performed, it counts as an event. You can track the completion of a video that you place on your home page.

There’s no reason to learn GA4 now. With GA4, everything becomes an event. You can, for example:

• Pageview = event
• Session Start = Event
• First Visit = event
• Scroll = Event
• Click = event
• Video Start = event
• File Download = Events
• Video progression = event
• Video complete = event
• Subscribe to our Newsletter = Event
• Contact Submission = event
• View search results = Event

You get the picture.

Every event that is worth measuring can be considered a measurement.

Views vs. Data streams

You can create a simple website with a staggering number of views in UA. It was worthwhile to understand that you can see different numbers depending which view you are looking at.

In GA4, there are no views anymore. There are now data streams. These can be viewed in Admin > Data streams:

You can use the Data Stream settings to ensure you are measuring what is important to your business.

GA4 allows you to see the actual number of users.

A data stream could be, for example, an website or app. It’s a bonus if your company has its own native mobile app.

From UA to GA4

You will not be able to compare July 2023 data apples-to-apples, if you did not have GA4 up and running on July 1, 2022. Be careful when reporting the numbers.

You can include a large asterisk and an explanation if you are forced to present UA data from the previous year. This article will hopefully provide some context and information to back up your answer when asked why.

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