GA360 vs GA4 Differences Clearly Explained

Are you wondering if you need to get on board with the new updates in google and what they mean for your analytics? Switching to Google Analytics 4 might seem like a significant upheaval, thanks in part to the many differences between GA 360 and GA4 (Google Analytics 4).

This article will delve into the differences, what this means for web developers and website owners, and the best practices for GA4 training.

As you may heard, GA4 is a different platform than Universal Analytics, and its method and approach to data collection are entirely different. GA4 aims to provide a harmonised view of users on both web and mobile. GA4 allows businesses to streamline their process based on events and parameters instead of users or sessions, giving a more comprehensive look at the data collected.

Should I be switching to Google Analytics 4?
In short, as of July 2023 (October 2023 for 360 accounts), Google will no longer support universal analytics. GA4 will be their only reporting platform.

You must make the switch as soon as possible to get to grips with the new methods and processes involved.

What are the differences in GA4?
There are some critical differences between GA4 and GA360. Many people will find they need to take the time to explore all of the changes fully. Looking into GA4 training ahead of the switch over can give you time to delve into the changes and understand how they will affect the reports you get.

Events
Events are your previous sessions or users and are grouped into 4 different categories.

● Automatic Events - these are your baseline events automatically tracked when you set up GA4.
● Enhanced Measurement Events - can be manually controlled and include things like video engagement, outbound clicks and site search.
● Recommended Events - these are industry-specific events Google recommends you track
● Custom Events - these are events you can set up and track yourself based on your website.

To put this into context, every single hit on your website is an event. The events replace categories, actions or labels, and everything goes into an event as detailed above. However, there are parameters in each event if you choose to set them.

Free connection to Big Query
GA4 comes with an automatic free connection for Big Query - previously, this was available to GA360 customers, but it comes standard with GA4. Big Query data allows you to interrogate the data without sampling.

Conversions
Similar to goals in GA360, conversions are events you set as conversions. You can have up to 30 events per property as conversions in addition to your default conversions (which are first_open, in_app_purchase, app_store_subscription_convert, app_store_subscription_renew and purchase).

Information is collected when you enable it, so you must focus on setting it up correctly from the start. You can modify events (see below), but starting as you mean to go on is best.

No monthly hit limits
Another notable difference is the removal of monthly hit limits. There is a cap on the number of events you can collect; however, there is no limit on the data you can collect within these events.

Modify event
In the Modify Event section, there is the option to modify an event on different platforms. For example, if you have the same event on both desktop and app and your desktop event is called "purchase", but your app is called "purchase_event", you can modify them so they are both the same, giving you more accurate results.

Reporting
Some reports and features in GUA properties rely heavily on Device ID. When user-ID functionality is enabled, the data is reported separately and doesn't combine with other identity spaces. Because those identities function independently, it's tough to gauge user journeys across devices and de-duplicate users in UA properties.

GA4 provides all of the available identity spaces to process the data. It looks for user-ID first, then Google Signals. It looks for device ID (apps) or client ID (websites). If no match is found, it creates a single user journey from all the data associated with a single identity. This allows you to de-duplicate users and gets a more realistic view of their journey with your company.

Conclusion
There is no avoiding switching to Google analytics 4 from GA360. Changing over as soon as possible will give you time to fully understand the data and how best to control what you collect, so you are ready for when GA360 is discontinued. If you want to preserve your data, you can work with web developers such as iCentric's to facilitate the switch and ensure you are set up correctly.

iCentric is a digital marketing Agency in London and Sharnbrook (Bedfordshire) with the GA4 course taking place in Sharnbrook. For more information please contact us now on https://ga4.consulting/