5 Essential Tips for a Seamless GA4 Migration
Google Analytics is fast approaching. At Tag Digital we understand that migrating from Universal Analytics to GA4 may be daunting and we want the migration to be as smooth as possible for our clients and other event professionals.
Stewart, Paid Media Manager at Tag Digital, hosted a 30 minute live session sharing how to ensure your GA4 properties are set up correctly and understand what you need to measure for a seamless migration from Universal Analytics.
The live session included a detailed breakdown of how to utilise GA4 reports and familiarise yourself with the new interface before you migrate from Universal Analytics.
Here is a quick overview of our 5 top tips for a seamless GA4 migration.
Tip #1: Define Your Measurement Goals
This will allow you to focus on what is important to your business before getting started on GA4.
What are the benefits to creating a measurement plan?
- Clear scope of works for all team members to drive towards.
- Allows you to create a constant measurement of success that can guide your business objectives.
- Monitor GA4 metrics which directly impact your business objectives.
Your GA4 script must be installed on all pages of your website.
This will allow Google Analytics to track users through every stage of their journey.
GA4 wizard helps you migrate from a Universal Analytics property to a Google Analytics 4 property. However, there are some potential drawbacks to consider:
- UA and GA4 use different scripts to track website traffic.
- The wizard is privacy-first and does not meet our best practice standards.
Tip #2: Use Google Tag Assistant
Google Tag Assistant lets you validate, diagnose, and troubleshoot issues with your Analytics implementation in real time.
- It is an industry-standard diagnostics tool.
- It can be used to check whether GA4 is installed correctly.
- It can also be deployed for other platforms (Google Ads etc).
Tip #3: Follow Our Best Practices
The Tag Digital GA4 team has formulated a 26-point optimisation plan to help our clients get started on Google Analytics 4.
A common issue we see across the accounts we have audited is the data retention being set to 2 months as standard on GA4.
At Tag Digital we would recommend maximising this retention period to 14 months.
Why? Data retention allows better insights into your data and reporting and remarketing audiences can exceed the standard 2 month period.
Ensure you updating your data retention setting
Go To ‘Configure’ > ‘Admin’ > ‘Data Settings’ > ‘Data Retention’ then change to ‘14 Months’.
Tip #4: Get Hands On With GA4 Migration
GA4 utilises two main types of reporting templates; One is the reporting snapshot, and the other is a free-form table report.
Once you feel familiar with both of these reporting formats, you’ll be able to pick up all sections within the life cycle report with ease.
Don’t leave the migration to Google otherwise you risk losing historical data, customisation challenges and compatibility issues.
Tip #5: Start Measuring Now
It’s more important than ever to kickstart your transition over to GA4. There are less than 40 days until Google sunsets Universal Analytics, you don’t want to risk losing your valuable data.
GA4 offers improved reporting abilities with machine learning and predictive analytics.
100% of the GA4 accounts we have audited, have had errors, it is important that you ensure your analytics is fit for purpose before Universal Analytics sunsets in July.
Do you need help with your GA4 migration? Tag Digital can help you get sorted, we offer a full set up service or an account audit to make sure everything is set up correctly for your business objectives. Book a call and get started today!
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