Getting The Most Out Of Migration To GA4
Kinase Analytics Specialist Maya Saffron Hanoomansingh outlines how Kinase can help you get the most of GA4 migration
As the end of Universal Analytics (UA) looms, there is now a rush to get all UA properties upgraded to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). No new data will pass into UA from July 2023 - but to ensure that your new GA4 profile has as much data in it as possible, setting it up asap is of paramount importance. However, there’s a bigger picture which shouldnt get lost in the rush: migration to GA4 is a great chance to update analytics assumptions, take maximum advantage of genuinely new features, and bring your GA into line with both modern consumers behaviour online.
Starting Points
If only it was as easy as selecting ‘upgrade to GA4’ in the Analytics interface; or as easy as copying your Google Tag Manager set up, and your views and events into a new GA4 workspace. But GA4 is a new way of doing analytics, so neither of these would work.
The first stage is to make sure that you build a map of your current UA tracking set up in Google Tag Manager so that as you rebuild and extend it for GA4, you can see the migration pathway clearly laid out. The upside of this work is that you will be better able to take advantage of the new functionality of GA4, as outlined in our article on its implications and functionality.
Four Key Stages
In order for your analytics team to implement GA4 on your site, there are four basic stages to plan for. Kinase offers support for all four, which will get you running properly with GA4 while maximising its potential:
Audit your current set up and advise you of any changes that we recommend should be made
Create a data layer guide with the event names and parameters that need to be pushed into the data layer. Hand this guide over to your dev team
After being given access to your site Google Tag Manager workspace, we will create the necessary tags and triggers (corresponding to the data layer guide)
After we have confirmation from your dev team that the data layer pushes have been created, we will QA and report back on any next steps
GA Migration Is About Transformation
The initial analytics auditing process is crucial for making the most of this migration - not only overhauling your KPIs and data modelling, but also preparing your analytics strategy for the new functionality of GA4.
The enhanced modelling and predictive insights which GA4 offers across platforms moves away from diminishing data surfacing in cookie tracking, and towards ‘smart analytics’. Essentially, AI driven tracking and attribution powers both insights and trends and data modelling based on the level of Consent Mode opt-in visitors choose, giving you a smart, modelled view of site performance and marketing effectiveness.
For example, GA4’s Funnel Exploration provides a powerful tool for analysing user pathways to your end goals in a way that isn’t possible in UA. In GA4, you can segment multiple funnels and visualise the steps users take to reach your conversion actions - enabling you to create specific remarketing lists, measure channel mix in a meaningful way, and improve conversion rates on your site, all from one piece of GA4 functionality.
Setting up this new GA4 infrastructure properly is the goal that migration from UA should mark out as a strong reason to properly transform and not just replicate your analytics set up.
Kinase can work with you through every element of what is and isn’t tracked in your data, always from the view of your final marketing and business objectives.
Three key questions to ask from audit to set up
Have you reviewed the standard event parameters in the ecommerce object vs the custom parameters, which could track data that is unique and specific to your site?
Have you checked that all of the custom tags and triggers are working as expected?
Is the data that should be appearing in the payload, as a number, appearing as a string? Does this have ramifications elsewhere in the data?
An audit provides us the opportunity to ask these questions and many more when looking at your current UA set up.
Don’t Replicate - Push Forwards!
The tags and triggers and the way events are being captured on UA will have been shaped by the limitations of UA itself. UA setups will often have been built up incrementally over the last decade - so this migration is an opportunity to update assumptions and align your data with consumer behaviour. For example, as the way page views are measured changes between platforms, focus needs to move from bounce rates to engagement rates.
In summary, whilst an audit may seem unnecessary because you are happy with the data you are getting and how it is surfaced in UA, trying to painstakingly replicate it as closely as possible in GA4 will actually take you backwards, missing out on the opportunity to refresh and push forward your analytics.
