Observed Signal · Jul 21, 2023 · Other · Source: CMSWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
GA4 Is Live: Essential Next Steps for Smart Marketers
Following the mandatory migration from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), this article provides practical guidance for marketers. It emphasizes evaluating how metrics differ in GA4, particularly the new "active users" metric, and suggests using historical data for comparison. It advises checking GA4 filter settings to ensure data accuracy, as poorly configured filters can skew metrics. Extending data retention from two months to 14 months is recommended for deeper analysis. The article also stresses the importance of reviewing consent management practices to comply with GDPR and ePrivacy regulations, and auditing social media pixel data. Finally, it suggests exploring advanced analytics by exporting GA4 data to R or Python for forecasting.
Provides practical post-migration advice for GA4, a major analytics platform, but is not breaking news or a significant industry shift.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- GA4 introduces a third user metric called 'active users' that identifies users with engaged sessions.
- Google recommends extending GA4 data retention from 2 months to 14 months for longer-term analysis.
- GA4 treats every hit as an event, eliminating the categories (Category, Action, Label) used in Universal Analytics.
- Marketers should maintain an unfiltered data stream to accurately diagnose and optimize GA4 filter settings.
- The article advises reviewing consent management and pixel data to ensure compliance with GDPR/ePrivacy Directive.
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