Its July 1st, 2023… do you know where your analytics are?
By now, if you follow any Google industry news, marketing & SEO channels, blogging platforms, or a variety of other industries… then you have likely seen the continual reminders that Universal Analytics is going away. And if you’ve had a UA account for a website then you’ve definitely seen the reminders every time you log in with a countdown clock – or at least gotten a plethora of emails that you need to get everything ready by the first of July.
So yes, Google’s Universal Analytics has stopped processing data and has been replaced by GA4. For many people out there, this is a big change. Universal Analytics has been around since October 2012 (though Google Analytics in some form has existed since 2005). We had more than a decade of getting used to all the metrics, dimensions, reports, and idiosyncrasies. And now UA will stop collecting data and start collecting dust.
Despite Google giving everyone ample warning for more than a year now concerning this cut-off date… there are still a wide range of people who haven’t set up their accounts, don’t know what they should be doing to save their data, and have been scrambling to get ready for the final days of Universal Analytics.
Why is Google getting rid of Universal Analytics?
Change is good… Even if sometimes change is tough. And Google Analytics needed to change with the times and the needs of the users. While that may sound like a bit of a non-answer, the truth is that a wide range of things have changed with respect to user interaction, tracking technology, and what data is important. The move to GA4 has been highlighted as a change concerning “Event-based” actions vs. “Hit-based” actions.
What do we mean when we say “Event-based” vs. “Hit-based”? There is a lot of confusion when it comes to what this change means. If you search around online for explanations of what the differences are then you’ve likely seen a lot of answers that sound like someone used the thesaurus to say the same thing in a different way. You’ll see answers that say things like “a hit is an interaction like a pageview or conversion event” followed by “an event can be any interaction, like a conversion or a view.” And then your brain starts rattling because too many people have given a flowery non-answer.
The use of “Events” instead of “Hits” is a step back to allow for a bigger picture and broader range of customization. Where it used to be that someone entering your site would trigger an entrance hit and a pageview hit that had specific category, action, and/or label associated with it… now those are all events which are then broken down by related attribute. But events can be turned on or off in a much more flexible and independent manner. Yes, it can sound like Google is just complicating an existing system. But what’s happening is a broadening of available data and an easier ability to customize things to your needs.
Is GA4 better than Universal Analytics?
That remains to be seen. There are definitely aspects of Google Analytics 4 that are more robust and provide better customization to your specific needs that UA just wouldn’t be able to do in its current form. Over time, you may come to find that GA4 is far better for your website/business because of the level to which you can track and separate a wider variety of events.
Where I personally am uncertain about GA4 is with small businesses. Universal Analytics may not have been the best thing for people with little to no experience when trying to set up proper goals… we’ve run across a handful of people who were artificially inflating their goal completions thanks to things like automatically set up Smart Goals and improperly setting up their own goals. GA4’s use of events, needing to understand how to set up new or custom events, whether or not you’re using the tags and triggers in Google Tag Manager to serve those events to GA4, remembering to review and tag events as a conversion, and some of the places where extra steps and unnecessary layers were added… those can all create major headaches for small businesses that aren’t reaching out to marketing professionals to aid them.
At the end of the day though… I think during the next few years that we’ll all be comfortable with GA4, enjoy the range of options, and love that we can create and track events that may not have been possible with how UA worked.
Can I Switch Back to Universal Analytics?
We understand that change is tough… but the answer is a firm “No.” After the cut-off date, you cannot switch back to using Universal Analytics.
All basic Universal Analytics accounts will stop processing new data on July 1st, 2023, while GA4 will continue to collect data. If you have Universal Analytics 360 then you should have an extension to switch by July 1st, 2024, instead. Even if you are using UA 360, Google has said you’ll see a decrease in its performance after July 1st, 2023.
If you haven’t set up your GA4 accounts for your website(s) by the cut-off date, then Google has expressed one will be automatically created for you. This doesn’t mean that everything will be set up perfectly and collecting all the exact information you need without having to personally set up or change anything. You’re far better off going in there, checking everything personally, and reaching out to a data and marketing specialist to check for you.
What Can I Do About My Analytics Now?
By the time this post goes live, Universal Analytics will likely be done collecting information (unless you have UA 360). If you didn’t already have GA4 accounts set up for all your websites and/or businesses, then you have probably been given a barebones GA4 setup from Google.
Now you need to figure out what is or isn’t tracking correctly, what events need to be created, if any connections need implementing, any internal traffic that you want excluded. And our suggestion to you is to reach out to your local internet marketing specialists to help you get on the right track quickly.
If you have everything set up and ready to go months in advance – and you’re certain that absolutely nothing could be wrong – we suggest giving everything another look to make sure that your data and tracking are happy and healthy going forward. Even when we’re certain we’ve done a perfect job, it’s our policy to get a second or third set of eyes to look things over and give approval. You’d be amazed how often people miss the tiniest of mistakes that could one day snowball into a real problem.
Efferent Media can help you collect & assess your Analytics Data
At Efferent Media, we have years of experience and knowledge in the digital marketing sphere. We ensure our clients’ website data is being collected properly, work with them on necessary event and conversion tracking, design and develop sites and landing pages, and much more. If you’re concerned about your data collection and analytics, give us a call. Our team can help you expand your presence online, create unique content, and improve your leads. Give us a call or book a meeting online to get started.