FAQ - Google Analytics

In 2020, Google launched their updated version of Universal Analytics; Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The update contains a lot of new features, which among other things focus on reducing the difficulties that have arisen in the collection of data, due to the cookie invasion in the digital world.

The essential thing you should know about the update is that while Universal Analytics was based on objectives, GA4 is an event-based tool, where everything from purchases, page views, menu clicks, etc., are considered events.

Key areas for improvement include:

Smart Insight
The new smart insight feature provides deeper insights into user behaviour across both website and app. Indeed, with the Purchase/Churn Probability feature, GA4 is able to perceive trends and patterns in users' searches, which means it can make predictions about future purchase behaviour as well as increased or decreased demand for goods and services. This gives you the chance to develop a specific campaign or ensure you have a product in stock before demand arises.

In addition, the new feature presents a function that allows you to search for specific requests in your data. This way, you can search for 'bestselling products', for example, and easily get answers to which product is selling the best!

Data analytics in a cookie-based future
Although most of us have gotten used to working with Cookies and GDPR, there is no denying that it has caused some difficulties in data collection as well as decrease in traffic. GA4 has tried to reduce the difficulties by using algorithms that analyse pre-existing data, which is then incorporated into your data base.

Google Ads integration
If you already advertise on Google, you've got something to look forward to. The update offers better integration between Google Ads and GA4. This means you can now define your audiences in GA4 based on general user behaviour, which can then be used to advertise on Google Ads.

Event tracking
As mentioned earlier, the new update is based on events and their tracking. In Universal Analytics it was necessary to set up goals and conversions manually, but with events the functions are automatically available. It's a super efficient and relevant feature, which I elaborate below!

Read more about how to set up Google Analytics (GA4) on your website.

Event tracking is the big separation point that makes GA4 a functional and more efficient update to Universal Analytics. It is still possible to set other metrics and KPIs, but you will find that some conversions are already defined that cannot be opted out of in GA4. These are:

For mobile apps:

• First_open
• App_store_subscription_convert
• App_store_subscription_renew
• In_app_purchase.

For website and mobile apps:

• Purchase.

Setting up events

Setting up a new conversion event is not really the invention of the deep dish. It could be, for example, that you wanted to set up a conversion of signing up for your newsletter. You do this under the menu item conversion > create conversion, after which you follow the four steps:

1. Navigate your event.
2. Choose which event type you want to set up.
3. Select the 'page location' field and enter the URL of your confirmation page.
4. Finally, you can make adjustments in the bottom field. If you don't want to, just leave the checkbox checked.

It is also relevant to note that by default events are only registered as one event. This means that if you want to measure on an event, you have to select it as conversion under conversion. You can do this from within Google Tag Manager, which is an even easier way to set up a new conversion event (!). Both Google Analytics and GA4 work extremely well with Google Tag Manager, which is a tool that makes it easy for you to specify how the different events should be triggered. You can read more about working with Google Tag Manager right here.

There are a good handful of benefits to using Google Analytics as the primary tool for tracking your digital marketing activities. For example, GA provides insight into which channels are working and which aren't. It measures KPIs of your online presence, which pages visitors spend the most time on, and which pages are most visited. That data allows you to create a more visible website as well as improve your company's overall online presence.

It is possible to add and share content on your GA account with other users. When adding a new user to your account, you can choose to grant access to three different roles; account, property or view level.

If you give a user access to your GA account at account level, they will have access to all properties and views in the account with the current permissions that you have shared. If you grant a user access at view level, they will only have access to the current view with the permissions you have assigned.

Users are identified by their email, which must be a registered Google account. Of course, you can always change a user's permissions and access level.

To add a new user to your GA account, follow 8 steps:

1. Log in to Google Analytics.
2. Click on Administrator and go to the relevant account/property/view.
3. In the Account, Property or View column (depending on whether you want to add users at account, property or view level), click Access management.
4. In the Account permissions list, click "+", then click "Add users".
5. Enter the email address of the user's Google Account.
6. Select "Notify new users by email" to send a message to the user.
7. Select the permissions you want. Get more information about permissions.
8. Click on "Add".

All the effort and hours you have put into GA finally pay off when you get the collected data in your hands. The data is roughly comparable to a good piece of feedback, which can help you gauge how effective your campaigns and ad groups have been. When you can see what users have done after clicking on your ad and landing on your landing page, you have a basis on which to base future budgets, landing pages and ad copy.

The data collected that you can keep an eye on includes:

• Rejection rate: If a person sees only one page or activates only one event, it is considered a "bounce" in Analytics. Your website's bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that are recorded as bounces. The aim is therefore to have the lowest possible bounce rate.
• Average session duration (seconds): The average time users have spent on your website.
• Pages per session: The average number of pages viewed per session.
• New sessions in percent: The estimated percentage of first-time sessions.

Does it seem overwhelming to dive into the deep hole that is Google Analytics or GA4? Don't worry - there's no need to spend late nights watching 'How To' YouTube videos or reading cumbersome guides. At Webamp we are experts in both Google Analytics, SEO, Google Ads and GA4.
Contact me or one of my colleagues at Webamp on tel. 70 60 50 28 or by email at info@webamp.dk.