What is Google Analytics 4? Plus How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 for Your Website : A Detailed Guide

Google has announced that on July 1, 2023 they will be retiring Universal Analytics, the current version of Google Analytics, and it will stop processing new data on that date. A new version of Google Analytics, Google Analytics 4, will replace Universal Analytics as the next generation Google analytics tool to collect website and app data.

You should set up Google Analytics 4 now to begin collecting data from your website before Universal Analytics is shut down in July. During this transition period, it is best to set up Google Analytics 4 to run in parallel with Universal Analytics until it is retired.

The transition to Google Analytics 4 has raised a lot of questions. In this post, I explain GA4 and provide a detailed step-by-step guide to help you with setting up Google Analytics 4 for both new and existing Analytics accounts.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newest version of Google Analytics. It is a completely event-driven analytics tool that enables you to collect data to measure the traffic and performance of your websites and apps. These data insights help you to make improvements to your marketing strategy and website performance.

Google Analytics 4 was introduced in October 2020. Google continues to add new features to it.

Why do I need to set up Google Analytics 4?

Google is soon retiring the current version of Analytics which is called Universal Analytics (UA) or Google Analytics 3. Universal Analytics will stop processing new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023.

Here is the Google Announcement from the Analytics dashboard:

Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023. Prepare now by setting up and switching over to a Google Analytics 4 property.

If you have an existing Universal Analytics account, you should set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in your account without delay to begin collecting data in parallel with Universal Analytics.

When Universal Analytics stops processing data on July 1, 2023, you will have Google Analytics 4 set up and running. You will also have access to a year’s worth of data for a year over year comparison of data for your website or app on GA4.

If you are setting up a new Google Analytics account, Google Analytics 4 is the only option available for new accounts. Universal Analytics is no longer available to set up in new accounts.

Google announced in February 2023, Google has announced that they will start automatically setting up a basic GA4 account in your Google Analytics account unless you opt out.

Google is strongly recommending that you manually migrate your Universal Analytics settings to GA4 because all UA configurations do not map directly to GA4.

How is GA4 different from Universal Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is focused on privacy and it works differently from Universal Analytics. In Universal Analytics (UA), screen views were tracked separately for websites and apps. In Google Analytics 4, both website and app data are tracked using data streams in a single property.

Here are some of the changes in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) compared to Universal Analytics (UA):

GA4 is built for privacy. No IP addresses are collected or stored in GA4, unlike UA. It has more privacy controls like cookie-less measurement.
GA4 uses data streams to track the customer journey. It can collect both website and app data across the customer journey in a single property. In UA, screen views were tracked separately for websites and apps.
GA4 is completely event-driven. In UA, all data collected was session-based. Each session consisted of “hits” which had a category, action and label. In GA4, all “hits” and all actions are considered events.
Goals are replaced by Events in GA4. In GA4, you specify a conversion event for actions that you want to count as conversions. In UA, you had to define goals that you wanted to consider as conversions.
GA4 has better cross-device tracking than UA. You will need to turn on Signals to track users across different devices and browsers.
Advanced analysis is available in GA4 with Explorations. You can create pre-built or custom reports. Funnel visualization analysis is improved. It uses a funnel analysis tool that was previously available only to enterprise users.
New reports and metrics. In GA4, several reports are new and renamed. Behavior reports in UA are under Engagement in GA4. Conversions reports in UA are under Monetization in GA4. Read more in Comparing Metrics: GA4 vs UA.
Advanced users can import all GA4 data to the cloud using BigQuery.

How do I set up Google Analytics 4 on my Website?

In this GA4 guide, we walk you through the steps for setting up Google Analytics 4 for both existing Analytics accounts and new accounts.

Section I. To begin setting up GA4 in a brand new Analytics account

If you are setting up a brand new Google Analytics account for the first time (you never had a Universal Analytics account), you will have to set up Google Analytics 4.

>Go to analytics.google.com
1. log in with a gmail account
2. Click on “Start Measuring”
3. Under Account setup, enter your Account name.
4. Select the Account data-sharing settings.
5. Click Next.
6. Then follow the steps listed under Section III – GA4 Property Setup for new and existing accounts.

Google Analytics Account Setup Page

Section II. To begin setting up GA4 in an existing Universal Analytics Account

If you had an existing Google Analytics account with Universal Analytics installed, follow these steps to add a Google Analytics 4 property to your existing account.

>Go to analytics.google.com
1. log in with a gmail account
2. You will see your existing analytics data from Universal Analytics.

Home Page for existing Google Analytics accounts

Google Analytics Home page for existing accounts

3. Click on Admin in the left dashboard at the bottom (gear icon).
4. Click on “Create Account”

Create new account screen in Google Analytics

Create account screen in Google Analytics

5. Under Account setup, enter the Account name.
Since you already have a Universal Analytics account, set up your new account name with GA4 in the title so you can tell which account you are viewing. For example as “business name – GA4”
6. Select your Account data-sharing settings.
7. Click Next.
8. Then follow the steps listed under Section III – GA4 Property Setup for new and existing accounts.

Section III. GA4 Property Setup for both new and existing Analytics accounts

Once you get to the GA4 Property setup in the new and existing Analytics accounts, these steps are common to both new and existing accounts.

Step 1. Setup Your GA4 Property

GA4 allows you to set up both web and app data in property settings.

Under Property Settings,

> enter Property name (its best to use your website URL or business name)
> enter Industry category
> enter Reporting time zone (make sure to select the right time zone)
> enter Currency
> Click Next

Google Analytics 4 Property Settings page

GA4 Property Settings Page

Step 2. Add Your Business Information.

In “About your Business”,

> Enter your business information

Enter Industry category
Enter Business size
How you intend to use Google Analytics for your business

> Click Create
> Read and Accept Google Analytics Terms of service
> Click Accept

Google Analytics 4 Business Information Page

GA4 Business Information Page

Step 3. Setup A Data stream

Setup the data stream to start collecting data from your website.

You have 3 options here
> Web
> Android App
> IOS APP

GA4 datastream selection page

We will set up a data stream for a website.

Web data stream setup

To set up a data stream for a website, select “Web”,
> enter the website URL
> enter stream name
> set enhanced measurement to Yes.
> Click “Create Stream”

Google Analytics 4 data stream setup page

GA4 data stream setup page

In this step, it is important to set Enhanced Measurement to Yes. GA4 will then begin automatically recording certain events such as page views, clicks, site search, form interactions and more.

Step 4. Enter Your Web stream details

You will now get the Web Stream Details screen with your Stream Name, Stream URL, measurement ID and tagging instructions.

GA4 web stream details page with site tags

Note down your Measurement ID for the next few steps.

Your basic GA4 account is now set up in Analytics! (But your work is not done. You will now have to add the GA4 tags to your website for Analytics to work).

To install Google Analytics 4 on your website, the GA4 tag provided in the tagging instructions of the web stream details page needs to be installed on every page of your website for Google Analytics to begin collecting data. Without the GA4 tag on your website, Google Analytics 4 will not be able to collect data.

Important Items to Check When You Set Up Google Analytics 4

There are 3 important items to check when you set up a GA4 property for your website.

Enhanced Measurement is On
Verify that Enhanced Measurement is set to On when you set up your GA4 account. This ensures that GA4 will automatically record page views, clicks, site search, form interactions and more.
To verify this setting:
Select your GA4 property in the property column.
From the Admin page,
Go to Data Streams> Web> Select your Data Stream> Turn on Enhanced Measurement.

Enable GA4 Enhanced Measurement Setting

Data Retention is set to 14 months
Verify that Data Retention is set to 14 months. Data retention is the amount of time before Google Analytics will automatically delete event data from Google Analytics servers. It is therefore very important.
By default, data retention is set to 2 months in new GA4 installs. It is important to change this setting to 14 months when you set up your GA4 account.
To access this setting:
Select your GA4 property in the property column.
From the Admin page,
Go to Data Settings> Data Retention and set event data retention to 14 months. >Save.

GA4 Data Retention Setting

Turn on Google Signals in Data Collection
For Google Ads, or to collect visitor demographics, you need to turn on Google Signals.
From the Admin page,
Go to Data Settings> Data collection and activate “Google signals data collection”.

Installing the Google Analytics 4 Tag on your website

For Google Analytics to begin collecting analytics data from your site, the GA4 google tag provided on the web stream details page has to be added to every page of your website in the head section of the html code to begin tracking.

There are a few options to add the tag to your site:

Option 1. Manually add the Global site tag

To manually add the site tag to your website, you will need to have access to the html code on your site. This method will work for a smaller site with few pages.

A. Copy and Paste the code on all web pages

1. Click on “Add new on-page tag” on the Web stream details page.
2. Click on Global site tag (gtag.js).
3. Copy all the code for the global site tag.
4. Paste the code into the html head section of every page of your website.

GA4 global site tag

B. Test to see if the Global site tag is installed on your web page

1. Copy your GA4 measurement ID from Admin>data streams>web stream details, this is the number that begins with a G-XXXXXXXXXX.

2. After your GA4 tag is added, visit your site and then check under Realtime reports in the GA4 dashboard

See if your visit is spotted. This may take a few minutes to show.
If you see your visit in Realtime, your website is successfully connected to Google Analytics 4 and will begin tracking site visitors.

GA4 realtime report

3. After you add the GA4 tag code to all your web pages, you can also check the page source of your web page for the GA4 measurement id.

To view the source code of a web page, you can use a developer tool like Chrome dev tools to view the source code of your web page.
Go to networks.
Search for your measurement id ‘G-XXXXXXXXXX ‘.
If you see your measurement ID in the page code, your GA4 tag is on your page.

Option 2. Use Google Tag Manager to add the Global site tag (recommended method)

This is the recommended method of implementing the GA4 tag. GA4 tags are built into Google Tag Manager and this makes it easier to add the GA4 tags to your website.

If you already have Google Tag Manager set up for your website, this is the easier method especially for large sites.
If you need to set up and install Google Tag Manager, read this post.

A. Copy the GA4 measurement ID “G-XXXXXXXXXX ” from Admin>Data streams>web stream details page.

B. Go to Google Tag Manager at tagmanager.google.com

1) Sign in
2) Select the container for your website
3) Click on “Add a New Tag”

Global Tag manager screen to add new tag

C. Enter the details for the new GA4 tag

1) Tag type: select GA4 configuration
2) Measurement ID: enter your measurement ID G-XXXXXXXXXX.
3) Triggering: Select “All Pages”
4) Name the tag: GA4 Base Tag
5) Save
6) Submit and publish it to your site

Global Tag Manager GA4 configuration tag

D. Test if the GA4 tag is on your site.

There are a couple of different options to test if the tag is on your site.
Visit a page on your site and scroll down,
1) Open a new browser window, go to your Google Analytics 4 dashboard,

Go to Reports > Realtime
Check if your visit is spotted on Realtime reports, this may take a few minutes.

The image will be similar to the GA4 Realtime Report Image shown above.

2) On GTM, you can test the tag with Preview and Debug mode.
This article from Google provides more information on how to use preview and debug mode.

3) You can also check the page source of your web page for the GA4 measurement id.

Use a developer tool like Chrome Dev tools to view the source code of your web page.
Go to networks.
Search for your measurement id “G-XXXXXXXXXX “.
If you see your measurement ID, your GA4 tag is on your page.

Connecting your GA4 property to Search Console and Google Ads

Connect your GA4 property to your Google Search Console account

Integrating your Google Analytics account with Google Search Console lets you see your organic search performance in your Google Analytics account. You can view your search rankings, clicks, search queries and conversions.

To link to Google Search Console,

In Google Analytics, Go to Admin
Make sure you are in your GA4 property
In the Property column on the left, scroll down to Product Links
Click on Search Console Links
Click Link
In the row for Link to Search Console Properties I manage, click Choose accounts and Select your Search Console account
Click Confirm
Click Next
Click Submit

Linking to Search Console on Google Analytics 4

Search Console Links on GA4

Connect your GA4 property to your Google Ads account

If you are running Google Ads campaigns, you should integrate your GA4 account with Google Ads. This lets you view your Google Ads campaigns in GA4 in the Google Ads campaigns report and in the Advertising section.

You can also use Google Ads dimensions in the GA4 User Acquisition reports. Additionally, you can import Analytics audience data into Google Ads to enhance your Google Ads remarketing campaigns.

To link to Google Ads,

In Google Analytics, Go to Admin
Make sure you are in your GA4 property
In the Property column on the left, scroll down to Product Links
Click on Google Ads Links
Click Link
Click Choose Google Ads accounts and Select your Google Ads account
Click Confirm
Click Next
Enable Personalized advertising option is a default option that will be on
Expand Enable Auto-Tagging option and select whether to enable it or not
Click Next
Click Submit

Adding Events and Conversions to Your GA4 Property

The goals in Universal Analytics do not migrate to Google Analytics 4. Since GA4 is event-based, goals are replaced by events and conversions that will need to be set up.

For details on how to set up Events and Conversions in your GA4 property, refer to our post on How to Set Up Events and Conversions in GA4.

Using GA4 Reports

Once GA4 is set up on your website, it will take 24 to 48 hours to begin collecting data. GA4 reports are different from the reports in Universal Analytics.

More details on GA4 reports are available in our post on Top GA4 Reports for Tracking Website, SEO and Marketing Performance.

Conclusion

Google Analytics 4 is set up now on your website so that you can begin collecting website and app data before Universal Analytics is retired in July 2023.

You should continue to run Universal Analytics to collect data in parallel with GA4 until it is retired.

Google is continuing to add new features and functionality to GA4. Since GA4 reports are different from Universal Analytics, it is best to get started with collecting data and getting familiar with the new GA4 platform and reports.

We hope you found this article helpful to set up GA4. Check back soon for follow-up articles on Google Analytics 4.

Article first published: July 26, 2022. Updated: May 31, 2023.

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