Google Analytics 3 (UA/GA3) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) - everything the charity sector needs to know
Google has decided to build a new version of its Analytics system, moving from Google Analytics 3 (GA3, or Universal Analytics/UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). As a charity organisation, it’s essential to understand the crucial information surrounding this development to ensure you can continue to gather the data you need in order to gain the key insights that matter.
If you’ve recently seen the big countdown banner on your Google Analytics account and are unsure of the steps to take before time runs out, don’t panic! In this article, we clearly outline the need-to-know information to get you started.
What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?
GA4 has been the response to the adoption of GDPR across Europe – and CCPA in the USA – along with the general concern that consumers have regarding the transparency around data collection.
Google has therefore designed this upgraded analytics platform to:
- Empower users to better understand how their customers interact with their websites
- Offer greater privacy controls and out-the-box predictive capabilities
- Focus on ‘Events’ rather than ‘Sessions’
In short, customer desires and regulatory changes have encouraged Google to modernise their approach to analytics tracking – placing a focus on the users’ patterned behaviours and how their user experience can be improved.
What changes have been made?
Whereas GA3 uses measurements based on ‘Sessions’ and ‘Pageviews’, the main difference is that GA4 has been developed to focus on ‘Events’ and ‘Conversions’.
For this reason, every activity that is taken by a user will be classed as an ‘Event’ in GA4, leading to refined detail on how users are engaged with your website. Such an increase in relevant details – alongside a cleaner, more streamlined platform – allows you to gain a better understanding of your users and apply informed actions to drive interaction with supporters, donors, volunteers, and service users.
Additional key functionality GA4 offers includes:
- Simplified interface and more customisable reporting
- Increased flexibility around event tracking
- Ability to filter your data
- Additional reporting options such as ‘Life Time Value’ and ‘Predictive Analysis’
- A range of ‘Event’ metrics
- Ability to create customisable dashboards
How do you add Google Analytics 4 to your Access website?
You can add Google Analytics 4 to your Access website by following the steps below:
- Create your Google Analytics 4 account
- Locate your new ‘GA Property’ and click into it
- Click ‘Admin’ located in the lower left
- In the property column, check that you have your new GA4 property selected, then click ‘Data Streams’
- Select ‘Web’ from the tabbed menu along the top of the screen – then clickthrough to the highlighted content
- Click the clipboard icon to take a copy of your ID
- Log into your website manager
- Navigate ‘Settings’ in the LH menu and then click the red ‘Set-up’ menu item
- Within ‘Settings’/’Set-up’, click into the ‘General’ dropdown
- Paste your ‘Measurement ID’ into the ‘Google Analytics 4’ field
- Scroll to the bottom and select ‘Update settings’
When should you create a G4 account?
Google 3 will stop taking in new information and be phased out by 1st July 2023. Without a new Google Analytics 4 account, you will miss out on new user data. We therefore strongly recommend you create the account at your earliest convenience.
Can you access your GA3 data on your GA4 account?
You should be aware that while this process doesn’t push the data into GA4, it will technically be on record. Importing this data is a complicated process, some of which won’t align from UA/GA3 to GA4 and therefore can’t be imported.
For further information, you should refer to Google’s documentation.
