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 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 now 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, that they will set up a GA4 account with basic settings in March for anyone who does not set up a GA4 account before then. Since the basic settings they use may not match what you want to track in your account, it is better to set up a GA4 account yourself with the correct settings.
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, the only option available to you is Google Analytics 4.
Go to analytics.google.com to set up your account
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
Go to analytics.google.com
1. log in with a gmail account
2. You will see your existing analytics data from Universal Analytics.
Google Analytics Home page for existing accounts
3. Click on Admin in the left dashboard at the bottom.
4. Click on “Create Account”
Create account screen in Google Analytics
5. Under Account setup, enter the Account name.
Since you already have a UA account, set up your new account name with GA4 in the title to 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. Continue with GA4 Property Setup for both new and existing Analytics accounts
Once you get to the Property setup in the new and existing Analytics accounts, these steps are common to both new and existing accounts.
1. Property setup
GA4 allows you to set up both web and app data in property settings.
Under Property Settings,
> enter Property name (your website URL or business name)
> enter Industry category
> enter Reporting time zone
> enter Currency
> Click Next
GA4 Property Settings Page
2. Business Information.
In “About your Business”,
> Enter your business information
- Industry category
- Business size
- How you intend to use Google Analytics for your business
> Click Create
> Accept Google Analytics Terms of service
> Click Accept
GA4 Business Information Page
3. Data stream setup.
Setup the data stream to start collecting data.
You have 3 options here
> Web
> Android App
> IOS APP
GA4 datastream selection page
4. 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”
GA4 data stream setup page
5. Web stream details
You will now get the Web Stream Details page with the Stream Name, Stream URL, measurement ID and tagging instructions.
GA4 web stream details page with site tags
Your GA4 account has been created 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 2 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.
Then go to Data Streams> Web > Enhanced Measurement and ensure it is set to On.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 your 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.
Then go to Data Settings and ensure you set it to 14 months.
Installing the Google Analytics 4 Code on your website
For Google Analytics to begin collecting analytics data from your site, the GA4 tag code 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:
1. Manually add the GA4 site tag to site code
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 GA4 tag is installed on your web page
1. Copy your GA4 measurement ID from web stream details, this is the number that begins with a G-.
2. After you add the GA4 tag code to all your web pages, 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- ‘.
- If you see your measurement ID in the page code, your GA4 tag is on your page.
3. 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
2. Use Google Tag Manager to add the GA4 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- ” from the GA4 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 tag
1) Tag type: select GA4 configuration
2) Measurement ID: enter your measurement ID G-.
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) 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- “.
- If you see your measurement ID, your GA4 tag is on your page.
Conclusion
Google Analytics 4 should be 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. When Universal Analytics is shut down in July 2023, you will have a year’s worth of data in GA4 to use for a year over year comparison.
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: March 10, 2023.
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