Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was launched on July 2023. GA4 provides small businesses with information on how users find websites, what they do when they're there and, critically, what they're buying
So, what is GA4 and what do you need to know?
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is the latest iteration of Google's Analytics platform. It's an update on the previous Universal Analytics platform (GA3).
At the heart of the shift is a greater degree of machine learning (also known as artificial intelligence or AI) which Google says gives all businesses "a complete understanding of your customers across devices and platforms".
Google claims "analytics can automatically alert you to significant trends in your data - like products seeing rising demand because of new customer needs."
The system doesn't just report on trends; it predicts them, according to Google. GA4 has processes that can anticipate your customers' actions, enabling you to prepare. This could ensure you have enough stock or operators on hand for a busy period to deal with increased customer queries, for example.
The purpose of all this is to increase ROI for businesses, says Google. And who stands to benefit most from this? Google, of course – with UK businesses spending an incredible £29.6bn on digital advertising in 2023, a rise of 11% over the previous year.
GA4 provides the search engine giant with better customer information, which it can use to create more personalised ads. Better targeted ads mean greater ad revenue for Google, and higher sales for you.
Using GA4
Setting up GA4 for your small business is a specialist task. Most small businesses will have to work with a specialist to install and configure it. Before starting, you'll need to:
- Create a Google Analytics 4 account and property (to store data)
- Create a web data stream for your website
- Place the Google tag on your website
If you are familiar with Google Analytics, GA4 may be confusing at first. When you login for the first time you'll see that the GA4 screen looks completely different. Don't worry; you'll still be able to get the data you need; it is there – as well as much more!
"GA4 can work with both websites and Apps, which is useful for many, and you can also track many more user engagements, but many SEO experts find it much harder to use and much harder to find the basic information we're used to," says seo expert Ian Spencer.
Our favourite GA4 features
Google Analytics isn't a static piece of software, but an ever changing and ever improving tool that can help your business.
Google provides details of every new feature added to GA4, on its support pages. It's worth checking to see what's new. Here are some of the features you may find useful:
- Use the transfer feature to recreate universal analytics audiences in GA4.
- Analyse landing pages – and identify opportunities to improve them.
- Advanced metrics to optimise your Ecommerce site performance.
These are just a few of the new features, and Google is always adding more. If you manage your Google Analytics accounts, it's important to regularly check-in to see what's changed – and how it can benefit your business!
"The sooner you start to work with GA4, the quicker you will learn and understand what it can and can't do," says Spencer. And he should know, he has done it for clients and his own small business which sells luxury wax melts.
For the technically minded, Google has created a guide for beginners that can help you through the process. Others will want to work with a digital marketing agency with a proven expertise in GA4.
You will need to get used to the analytics screen and, more importantly, understand the difference between page views and events.
GA4 can grow your business
GA4 offers tremendous opportunities for small businesses. They get access to much greater detail on where users are coming from, how they're using sites and conversion behaviours, all for free.
This can be used to accelerate business growth and target investments, says Spencer. "Getting the highest return on ad spend is critical for SMEs, and GA4 can help this. We'll see Google PPC ads become more targeted, more selective where they're shown and more successful in creating conversions."
By introducing GA4 as soon as possible, you can unlock the benefits in the system, potentially gaining a competitive advantage over those who are slower to make a move.