This week marks a turning point in web analytics, a sort of un-anniversary: one year from now, Google will retire Universal Analytics, which for years now has been synonymous with “Google Analytics” (and for a lot of folks, let’s be honest, with web analytics in general). It’s being replaced with a shiny, new, barely-out-of-beta Google Analytics 4.
A year might seem a long way away, but if you want year-over-year data available in GA4 when you start using it primarily, you need to have it set up and collecting data now. Literally, ASAP. Preferably yesterday.
A ton has been written about the nitty-gritty details by people who specialize in web analytics (check out this GA4 FAQ from Krista Seiden for a good rundown on what’s changing), and I’m not going to attempt to replicate them here. What I am going to do is break down, in the simplest possible terms, what this means for the typical small-to-medium nonprofit digital team. Specifically, for those of you who need to figure this out and don’t have an entire team of analytics folks and web developers or a big agency on retainer to take care of it.
Here we go.
What is Google Analytics 4? Why something new?
The important thing to know is that GA4 is not an updated version of the old Google Analytics. It’s got some similarities, but it’s been totally rebuilt from the ground up. The general consensus seems to be that GA4 is Google’s answer to the big changes happening in the web these days, from GDPR and new privacy laws to the increasing pushback against 3rd-party cookies. It should give more reliable insights in a future where the old Google Analytics would be increasingly unreliable.
The other most important thing is to note: this is not optional. If you’re using Google Analytics today, what you have will be going away in a year. Whether you move to GA4 or to another platform entirely, don’t let your web analytics disappear!
But websites are so 1998. All my engagement comes from TikTok now. Why should I care about my website?
Fine, fine, no one has ever actually asked me this question, but it’s implied by the lack of attention many of our orgs give their websites. They’re not cool, I know. They are, however, still the doorway to your organization. Social media analytics have always been a black box, and even email open rates are skewed now that Apple has stopped using tracking pixels. Your website is where people come when they click on content elsewhere, it’s where you recruit them onto your email list, and it’s the only place you really have full visibility into your data.
Okay, I’m sold. What does my organization need to do?
There’s some good news and bad news here. The good news is that the most basic setup of GA4 is super easy. Some features that required custom code in the old UA are now built in. But on the flip side, customizing it to your needs and goals has a non-trivial learning curve.
I’d suggest three steps to rolling out GA4, to make sure you’re not losing valuable time and data.
Step 1 (ASAP): Flip it on.
Depending on how your current analytics is set up, Google has made it easy to do a basic migration to GA4 (emphasis on basic—this is just a starting point). Follow these instructions to create a new GA4 data stream within your analytics account. If you’re lucky, it’ll be as easy as flipping a switch. Or, you may have to add a new code snippet to your site. Also check out this guide to the settings it’s a good idea to review with your new account.
Go do that now. Seriously, now. I’ll wait.
Step 2 (Next few months): Fire it up.
Out of the box, GA4 tracks a lot, including page scrolls, file downloads, and more handy basics that were missing in the past. But if you’ve got goals set up in GA to track donations on your website, email signups, advocacy actions, etc, you’re going to need to rebuild those, and you may want to add other tracking, too. Whether you learn the new system or bring in outside help depends on your comfort level with data and code, but don’t delay too long! This should be a priority, because most of this data can’t be tracked retroactively.
If you never had customizations like Goals set up in GA before, there’s no time like the present! Tracking conversions is absolutely key to analyzing your website performance. If you can’t tell who’s doing the most important activities on your site, how can you improve it? Take the time to figure out what you should be tracking, and then set that tracking up in GA4.
Step 3 (Over the next year): Build it out and get analyzing.
One of the big benefits of GA4 is that its custom reporting and data exploration features are so much better than in the old GA. As a consequence, however, the built-in reporting is very general and, frankly, not that useful. You’re going to want to build some custom reports to show off all that strategic, actionable data you’re now collecting.
The good news is, there’s no urgency on this part. Now that the data is flowing in, it’ll be there for you whenever you’re ready to report on it. That said, taking the time to set up some dashboards and key reports now will save you time and headaches down the road. This free, on-demand training on the basics of GA4 can help you get oriented.