Google made an announcement in May 2022, regarding its Universal Analytics (UA) tool, which is set to sail into the sunset on July 1, 2023. This change will affect your marketing. This is how Google’s GA4 will impact your marketing efforts.
What is the Universal Analytics Tool?
The Google UA tool is a free service that enables a website owner (that would be you) and/or your web support person or team to view data (metrics) about how the website performs: essentially, how users found your site and what they did while they were there. These metrics include the exact pages that were visited; the length of time per page (called “stickiness”); the browser used; whether visitors viewed the site via desktop or mobile device; and the site previously visited prior to arriving at your site (referral site; could be Facebook, a search engine or another social media site like Instagram or Twitter).
Why is the Universal Analytics Tool Changing?
In the ten years since the most recent version of UA was introduced in 2012, the internet world has changed dramatically. Mobile apps have become widespread, complex, and powerful. Furthermore, considerable and ever-increasing alarms about user privacy have prompted change in data collection. Under the Universal Analytics Tool, Google collected all types of data, including telephone numbers, names, and cities and states of consumers. These resulted in lawsuits brought not just by US individuals and companies but by those in the EU with the objective to terminate Google’s use of cookies in their online ads.
How is the Universal Analytics Changing?
While UA offered a variety of different types of tracking hits, in GA4 these hits are fused into one, called an event. You can still track most of the data you tracked in UA, but GA4 will offer more flexibility, since it works across platforms. Imagine a prospective patient who views your FB page on their iPhone during lunch hour and later visits your website on their home laptop. UA would show these 2 actions as separate data points. GA4 will show these actions as one event.
How Google’s GA4 Will Impact Your Marketing Efforts
PUMC has developed an early approach strategy for our clients and suggests working with the new GA4 capabilities as soon as possible. Feel free to contact us for more details about GA4 on your business website. We’re always here to help you!