I’m not too assured in Google Analytics 4 regardless of the excitement being handed by the Google Analytics crew. Corporations have spent tens of millions of {dollars} to boost and combine their websites, platforms, campaigns, occasions, and different measurement information inside Common Analytics solely to search out that it doesn’t mechanically work inside Google Analytics 4. Occasions are not any completely different…
It’s disappointing that Google continues to advertise the deadline for migration, with out really offering any technique of automating the migration. Our purchasers didn’t finances for this work, so it’s an added expense in migration, coaching, and troubleshooting.
That mentioned, that is the place the group is available in and makes a distinction. As my digital transformation agency works emigrate our purchasers over, we’ll be sharing the work right here on Martech Zone. As at all times, be happy to remark, right us, or present us with a greater answer for those who don’t consider we’re hitting the mark… we’re studying, too!
Common Analytics Occasions Versus Google Analytics 4 Occasions
All the idea of occasions has modified between Common Analytics (UA) versus Google Analytics 4 (GA4). In Common Analytics, an occasion was a handbook report that needed to be triggered in your web site, and the data handed into Google Analytics. There are 4 variables:
- Occasion Class – A required variable that have to be handed. Eg. Kind
- Occasion Motion – A required variable that have to be handed. Eg. Submitted
- Occasion Label – An elective variable that may be handed. Eg. /landingpage/demorequest
- Occasion Worth – An elective variable that may be handed for the worth of the occasion. Eg. 77
Google Analytics 4 takes extra of a data-agnostic view of occasions… which means there are each system-defined occasions in addition to occasions you may add and customise. Google Analytics 4 even offers suggestions on what these occasions ought to be. All of them cross information in the identical format:
- Occasion Identify – A required variable that have to be handed. Eg. generate_lead
- Parameters – Three elective parameters (parameter_x, parameter_y, parameter_z) that you would be able to cross. In case you customise these, they have to be added as customized dimensions in your GA4 occasion. You’re allowed as much as 50 event-scoped customized dimensions. You may archive unused ones as properly. (In case you use Analytics 360, the restrict is 125).
- Worth, Foreign money – An elective worth and the foreign money it’s measured in. Eg. 77, USD
So… the best implementation of occasions in Google Analytics 4 is to plan forward and unify your naming conventions so that you simply don’t run out of customized dimensions. It additionally implies that it’s not advisable emigrate your current occasions. It is best to deal with a Google Analytics 4 implementation as a brand new platform. Listed below are the steps that I might suggest you’re taking:
Step 1: Allow Google Analytics 4 Enhanced Measurement
One factor to bear in mind as you’re implementing Google Analytics 4 is that a few of the tagging we needed to manually implement up to now for UA may be mechanically enabled in GA4. In Admin > Property > Information Streams > [Your Stream], you may allow scroll occasions, outbound click on occasions, web site search occasions, type interactions, video engagement, and file downloads!
Step 2: Doc Your Common Analytics Occasions to GA4 Really useful Occasions
Export your present occasions from Common Analytics right into a spreadsheet after which manually evaluate the advisable occasions from GA4 that you simply need to migrate them to. This can decrease the necessity to construct out customized dimensions on your implementation. Google recommends the next occasions for all properties:
For e-commerce and on-line gross sales, these occasions will mechanically populate an Ecommerce Purchases report.
Step 3: Add Customized Dimensions for Your Customized Occasions
For any occasions that aren’t mapped to advisable occasions in Google Analytics 4, you’ll must create them as customized dimensions. That is achieved in GA4 > Configure > Customized definitions > Create customized definition:
An instance of this can be monitoring a chat bot getting clicked open. Identify your dimension, set the Scope as an occasion, present an outline, after which select a parameter or property from the checklist… or enter the title of a parameter or property you’ll gather sooner or later.
Step 4: Implement Google Tag Supervisor And Add GA4 Occasions
In case you haven’t already, you’ll completely need to implement Google Tag Supervisor to handle all of the tags and occasions that you simply’re at present recording utilizing Common Analytics. Tag Supervisor lets you set off occasions seamlessly with out having to code occasions all through your web site… which is vital as you migrate occasions to GA4.
With GA4, you may add the particular occasions that you simply need to report throughout your web site. For example, now we have a set off for a consumer that we constructed when somebody submitted a Hubspot Kind in Common Analytics. We have been in a position to repurpose that precise set off to additionally report the GA4 Occasion generate_lead, passing the Hubspot Kind GUID that we will later observe again to the shape title.
In Step 2, you mapped your whole previous occasions to GA4 occasions in a spreadsheet. For any occasions that aren’t mechanically captured utilizing enhanced measurement, you’ll need to create GA4 Occasion Tags for every of the Occasion Names that you simply selected after which cross the elective parameters, worth, and foreign money. For the customized dimensions you added in Step 3, you’ll need to create customized GA4 occasions with the Occasion Identify the identical.
Remember to take a look at your Google Tag Supervisor configuration and manually fireplace utilizing the preview software to make sure the info is being correctly despatched to GA 4. GA4, as with Common Analytics, isn’t at all times real-time in its information assortment.
Want Assist Migrating To Google Analytics 4?
Watch a Tutorial Video On Migrating UA Occasions to GA4
I need to give a shout-out to Analytics mania, who supplied an ideal walk-through on migrating UA occasions to GA4. That is the place I realized most of this info… it’s definitely worth the watch and I’m positive his course would supply all of the coaching you want:
