In Digital Marketing, it is of utmost importance to keep track of your website traffic and user behaviour. Web Developers or Digital Marketers have predominantly used Universal Analytics (UA) for this task. UA is a Google Analytics tool that accurately measures user behaviour. It was introduced in 2012 and provided new tracking codes for websites. However, with the introduction of GA4 in 2022, the analytics have gotten even better. GA4 provides its users with the tools to accurately measure the user behaviour across their websites and apps. 

If you’re about to switch from UA to GA4, it’s best to make an informed decision by observing these key insights:

Custom Reports Favoured over Ready-Made Reports

With UA, you have over 100 reports available to you, while GA4 has less than 20. This discrepancy is because GA4 wants you to think about what works best for you and provides an intuitive, easy-to-use report builder in the Explore section rather than a bunch of ready-made reports.

View Function Has Been Dispersed to Other Areas

A view in Universal Analytics is like a lens into your data. You can create multiple views of the same data set and configure each to show a different subset of data. This is useful if you want to segment your data or have multiple people looking at the data which need to see different things.

In contrast, in Google Analytics 4, you can use segmentation and filtering to create different reports for different groups of users or departments. For example, you can create a report for the Tech Department that only shows that department's data.

Event-Based Hit Types over Itemised Hit Types

Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 data differ because Universal Analytics hit types are page-based, while Google Analytics 4 data is event-based. Any interaction can be recorded as an event in Google Analytics 4, while Universal Analytics hit types must be translated to events.

Events Have Structurally Different Models

In Universal Analytics, events are defined as user interactions with specific content on your site that can be tracked unassisted on a web page or a screen load. Events have a category, action, and label. They may also have value.

In Google Analytics 4, events are based on the same underlying data model as web page views. That is, an event has a URL, page title, and other optional parameters that describe the content on the page. Events also have an event category and action. However, there are no labels in GA4.

Sessions Are Now Event-Centric

A session is when a user interacts with your website design. Universal Analytics sessions can have multiple page views, events, social interactions, and ecommerce transactions. A session typically ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or after another qualifying reset event has occurred.

Google Analytics 4 session metrics are based on the 'session_start' event, which is an event that is automatically collected. The session duration is based on the period with the first and last event in the session. This, and a few other differences, can lead to varying results between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4.

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  Active user computation: In Google Analytics 4, user activity is automatically detected, while in Universal Analytics, users must manually trigger an event for their activity to be tracked. This may lead to more accurate active user counts in Google Analytics 4.
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  Session computation: In Google Analytics 4, a new campaign does not automatically start a new session. This may lead to lower counts in your Google Analytics 4 property than with Universal Analytics. Hits that occur late in the day may not be processed until the following day, which could cause discrepancies in your data.

If users lose service while browsing your website on mobile devices but regain it 48 hours later, Google Analytics 4 will process the late hit and produce a higher session count than Universal Analytics. 

Google Analytics 4 events are automatically uploaded to Google Analytics when an iOS app is backgrounded. However, this is not the case for Universal Analytics. As a result, metrics related to iOS apps may be significantly increased in your Google Analytics 4 reports.

Content Grouping Is also Event-Based

Content grouping in Universal Analytics lets you group similar content so you can see how it performs more easily. This is especially useful for sites with a lot of content, as it can be difficult to get a clear overview of how everything is performing without grouping it first.

On the other hand, Google Analytics 4 properties have a content group dimension that is populated by a predefined event parameter. More Universal Analytics content group dimensions may be implemented as event-scoped custom dimensions.

Omni-Platform User ID Access

The User ID is a feature in both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 that allows you to track a user's activity across devices and sessions. In Universal Analytics, the User ID is set as a custom dimension, while in Google Analytics 4, it is a user property. From a data collection perspective, there is no need for specific changes to map user IDs in Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

User ID in Google Analytics 4 properties refers to a multi-platform, cross-device view of how users interact with an app or website design. To use this feature, businesses and brands must be able to generate their unique, persistent IDs and then consistently assign those IDs to their users. They'll also need to include the IDs and the data sent to Analytics. 

Analytics will use the IDs to create a single user journey from all the data associated with the same user ID. Universal Analytics does not have this feature built-in - you would need to create a separate User-ID reporting view.

Conclusion

While there are several more differences between GA and UA, some of the most impactful ones are listed above. GA4 is still relatively new and needs to be perfected for all reporting needs, but the good news is that Google continues to work on it.

One certain thing is that UA will no longer be supported at some point, and you will only be left with GA4. While you have UA turned on, having a GA4 implementation running parallel would be beneficial so you can better understand how to read the GA4 reports. Comparing the GA4 and UA reports while you still have access to both will be key in this transition.

Get Ready for the Shift with DSIGNS

At DSIGNS, we stay ahead of the curve to make sure your digital marketing is prepared for the future. With the transition from UA to GA4, we will make sure your website is accurately measuring user behaviour. We are a digital marketing agency in Sydney specialising in Google SEO, Google Ads, Social Media Marketing and more!