GA4 - Key Implications and Actions
Google’s recent announcement that Universal Analytics will be phased out in July 2023 was long expected - but it has a bigger implication for road maps around analytics and marketing data
By Kinase Analytics team
The new version of Google’s analytics platform, GA4, was released in October 2020. It has a new architecture that requires a new set up - it isn’t just an update to the existing Universal Analytics.
Good old UA has been around since 2012, itself replacing the original Google Analytics Classic. Universal Analytics was designed for a different time in digital marketing. At the heart of its set up are areas now superseded: it is centred on desktop browsing not mobile; it's primarily dependent on cookie tracking; it records data points such as people’s IP addresses; and it is based on observable site tracking data identifying user’s journeys. That’s why GA4’s new architecture for a privacy centred, multi-device and channel is a big step forward into a privacy centred web.
July 2023 is the end date for new data being collected in UA (Sept 2023 for GA 360 customers moving to Analytics 360) - but the implications are immediate.
Implication for Year on Year data
Firstly, to preserve crucial Year on Year comparisons in the new platform, businesses should implement GA4 before June this year. Otherwise, a disrupted view in GA4 will need to be stitched to UA data for a whole year before a smooth return to YoY comparisons in-platform is possible again.
2023 will be the transition year for Google
The deprecation of third party cookies in Chrome is an important date all digital businesses have pencilled into their diaries. Originally it was 2021, then it was delayed until 2023, partly due to Covid pressure and partly from consultation with conflicting government functions: competition authorities trying to ensure that the end of third party tracking doesn’t consolidate Google’s power on the one hand, and privacy regulators concerned with user rights on the other.
The GA4 announcement makes 2023 more likely as the transition date for Chrome, as GA4 contains the tools and structures necessary for advertisers to bridge the gap left behind by Chrome’s cookies being sunsetted.
Google describes GA4 as ‘durable for the future’, and we should believe them given that Google themselves will choose how to evolve search, maps and the Chrome browser, and those choices will inevitably structure the future of the web. Meanwhile, Analytics 360 - based on the same update in architecture - will push Google’s enterprise analytics offering beyond their competitors’ current road maps.
GA4 has multiple selling points
Businesses should set up GA4 as soon as possible - and not just to preserve year on year data. GA4 has multiple advantages to convince dev teams and decision makers to implement it immediately. The updates bring new features and whole new views of website and marketing effectiveness.
GA4 doesn’t just introduce new features. When fully implemented, it brings whole new views of website and marketing effectiveness.
The core of this functionality is threefold:
AI modelling
True cross platform data
Dynamic use of user consent signals
AI driven tracking and attribution offers enhanced modelling and predictive insights which are fully cross-platform. Effectively, smart bidding can be powered by smart analytics which identifies trends and surfaces them, while modelling data which is no longer directly observable due to the industry’s move away from cookies.
Privacy is at the heart of GA4’s design. Google’s Consent Mode enables tracking based on site visitor’s opt-in to tracking, surfacing only the specific level of tracking they choose. GA4’s AI modelling can then model data across the site, using the baseline of opted-in, tracked data.
Clear timelines emerge
Privacy has been an urgent but a confusing reality for digital marketing since March 2020 when Apple phased out third party tracking on Safari, and the end of old tracking methods became inevitable.
Since then we’ve been in a long interim period. We know that Google would follow suit, while also appreciating that Google’s business is founded on trackable marketing spend, so any changes would have to be more carefully considered than Apple's disruptions to Safari and iOS.
On top of this, varying regional policies and timelines (GDPR, CCAP etc.), with a lack of associated financial penalties to follow, has led to a 'wait and see' approach from many businesses.
Google’s July 2023 date should be seen as that kind of moment - business plans need to incorporate a timeline for web privacy and modelled analytics becoming fully operational going into 2023.
Dual Observation and Server Side Tagging
Of course, GA rarely stands alone - plugging into other databases and platforms, an update to GA is critical to the data flows of many businesses. Add in the different privacy timelines of Apple, Facebook and many other third party apps and plugins, some of which are dependent on Google releasing new API information to sync with GA4’s functionality to come, and the need for ongoing analytics support becomes clear. It’s no longer a case of ‘set up GA and go’.
The crucial element is setting up GA4 in time to run a dual set-up with UA running in parallel.
Part of this dual set up needs to be a plan for server-side tagging. Moving away from browser-side tracking code - with all of its privacy implications - enables security of data to be more complete, and reduces the burden of tracking code to run on site. Code no longer runs on the user’s browser or phone directly, but instead on the server you designate, allowing increased data control while also following a user’s tracking consent options.
Google Tag Manager can be set up in a server side container - which will have a GA4 client pre-installed. It can also then be used to run other server-side solutions such as Facebook’s Conversions API. This server-side container step is potentially simple and could be part of the scope of setting up GA4; however, many server configurations will make this set up complex and potentially disruptive. In these cases, development timelines will need to separate an initial GA4 set up, for observation and continuity of tracking, from a long term server-side shift of Tag Manager itself.
Analytics at Kinase
Kinase offers a full Analytics service provided by a dedicated in-house team. View our Analytics Director James Monaghan taking part in a Google Partners fireside chat on digital privacy, smart bidding and priorities for 2022.
We are experts in privacy, incrementality testing, global strategy and GA. We are able to provide ongoing support, manage one-off projects, and offer training. Please get in touch to find out more.
