From the 1 July 2023, Google’s Universal Analytics properties will stop collecting data from your website. Every website owner will need to upgrade to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) so that you don’t lose valuable reporting data from your website.
You don’t need to wait until the 1st July 2023 to make the switch, in fact, we strongly recommend installing it now so that you can ensure reporting is seamless. It also gives you plenty of time to get to grips with the new interface.
We’ve been getting all our clients switched over the new GA4 and building new Custom Reports to help them track which data is important to their business.
If you’ve been panicking about how to upgrade to GA4 and what this will mean for your website reporting, this article will offer step-by-step instructions to help you upgrade to the latest version so that your reporting data will be seamless.
First off, in order to upgrade, you will need:
- To be Admin on your Google Analytics Account
- Have Google Tag Manager Set up
Head over to Google Analytics, go to Admin at the bottom left (you may need to click on the Cog icon – bottom left – first).
In the Account column, make sure that your UA account is selected – if you only have one Google Analytics account, it’s already selected.
Click on the GA4 set up within the ‘Property’ column.
Click the ‘Get Started’ button within the I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property section.
Here, Google Analytics will now automatically create a new property.
Your existing Universal Analytics property will remain in tact so you should now see 2 properties in the drop down under ‘Property’.
NOTE: Your GA4 will only start collecting data once you have updated the code within your website.
ADDING THE GA4 tag to your website
Click the ‘See Your GA4 Property’ button to view your new property. You can then start adjusting and customizing it.
Look for Tag Installation or ‘View tag instructions’
Now you will need to select the data stream. This opens the ‘Web Stream Details’ window. On the top right corner of this window, you will see the Measurement ID.
Copy the Measurement ID for your data stream.
Now Head over to Google Tag Manager and select “Add a new tag.”
Now, click on “Tag Configuration” to see the options for various types of tags. Select Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.
Find the field to enter your Measurement ID and paste it here.
Save your tag and publish your GTM container to push it live.
Head back to Google Analytics 4 property, open up your website in your browser and check you can see your Active Users in the ‘Real Time’ section. Now you know that GA4 is tracking data for you.
GA4 comes with a whole host of new features, giving you greater flexibility in the way you collect and analyse data about your website visitors. It uses intelligence to piece together data from different sources and channels, giving you a more complete picture of your website users and their behaviour. If you’re running a campaign on both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, GA4 can match up the data from those two campaigns to give you a single view of how they’re performing.
If you need help making the switch over to GA4, we can do the switch for you and explain which data is going to most useful for your business.
Book a Consultation with us using the link here >>