Google Universal Analytics (UA) has been the industry standard since 2005, for tracking website and marketing performance. Whilst Google has introduced updates, additions, and improvements to Google Analytics, it recently announced that UA will be superseded by Google Analytics 4 (GA4) from 1^st July 2023.

In their official announcement, Google states “Google Analytics 4 has the flexibility to measure many different kinds of data, delivering a strong analytics experience that’s designed for the future. It allows businesses to see unified user journeys across their websites and apps, use Google’s machine learning technology to surface and predict new insights, and most importantly, it’s built to keep up with a changing ecosystem.”

Google goes on to say “Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies. This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete. Meanwhile, Google Analytics 4 operates across platforms, does not rely exclusively on cookies and uses an event-based data model to deliver user-centric measurement.

And though Universal Analytics offers a variety of privacy controls, Google Analytics 4 is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for both our customers and their users. It helps businesses meet evolving needs and user expectations, with more comprehensive and granular controls for data collection and usage. Importantly, Google Analytics 4 will also no longer store IP addresses. These solutions and controls are especially necessary in today’s international data privacy landscape, where users are increasingly expecting more privacy protections and control over their data.”

What’s the difference between UA and GA4?

GA4 doesn’t just offer more of what UA offers, it’s architecture and functionality are different to align with current and future needs for reporting and privacy. Here are some of the differences and benefits.

• Event-based: Universal Analytics is session based, while GA4 is event based. In other words, it has the ability to track events like button clicks, video plays, and more is built in with GA4, while this requires advanced setups in UA. This comes from the premise that page views aren’t the most important or only metric.
• Cross-device tracking: UA was built around desktop web traffic, while GA4 gives businesses visibility into the customer journeys across all websites and apps.
• Machine learning: GA4 uses machine learning technology to share insights and make predictions.
• Privacy-friendly: UA data relies heavily on cookies, GA4 does not.

You can also read Google’s explanation of the differences between UA vs GA4 here.

What do I need to do?

Make the move over to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible to build the necessary historical data before Universal Analytics stops processing new hits.

If you would like advice on how to do this then please contact Web Agency UK to arrange a free consultation with one of their experts.

How do I know if I’m using Universal Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 came out in October 2020 so if you created your UA account after this date, you’re likely using GA4 already. If you were using Google Analytics prior to that date, you’re likely using UA.

If you’re not sure and you would like advice on how to check which version you are using then please arrange a free consultation with one of the experts at Web Agency UK..

Web Agency UK and GA4

We ran this by our contact at Web Agency UK and she conformed that they have been adding both UA and GA4 to all their websites since early November 2020 and they will be upgrading all the websites and UA accounts they have created for clients, from UA to GA4 within the next few months.