GA4
Google analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic
It is used to measure the success and effectiveness of acquisition, marketing and customer journeys.
Google Analytics acquires user data from each website visitor using page tags. A JavaScript page tag is inserted into the code of each page. This tag runs in the web browser of each visitor, collecting data and sending it to one of Google's data collection servers. Google Analytics can then generate customizable reports to track and visualize data such as the number of users, bounce rates, average session durations, sessions by channel, page views, goal completions and more.
Industry & Regulatory Landscapes are changing and user expectations are rising. Regulatory changes such as GDPR, CCPA impact how data can be collected and used. Browsers are being updated that will also impact traditional data collection, 3rd party cookies and device identifiers. Users are demanding more privacy and control. As such, Google has launched it’s new Beta version of Analytics called GA-4.
GA4 timeline
What are the benefits of GA4?
Fundamental change in the way data is collected.
More agnostic event driven data model provides greater flexibility in tracking. (Event
Category/Action/Label not built into GA4 event model.)
Meaningful integration between web and native app data streams provides more user centric reporting and analysis.
Cross platform insights powered by User ID that you provide for authenticated users and by Google Signals
Provides more durable measurement solution to address cookie restrictions and other technological developments in a privacy safe world
Reporting enhancements include robust path reporting , step level trended funnel reports and elapsed time between funnel steps
Rich Real Time reports.
GTM preview mode connecting directly to detailed DebugView in GA4.
Machine learning built in to predict churn and conversion for enhanced insights and audience targeting
Difference between current Google Analytics (GA) and GA4
The Retail analytics team is working closely with other departments to implement GA4 and start collecting data. Longer data windows will make our models robust and reliable when the switch to cookie-less tracking happens. We will run dual tagging of our web properties.