What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a tool that is used to inform you about your web site traffic. What is driving it, how much there is and how engaged the traffic or people visiting your site are with what you have on your site. You can measure clicks, views, page sessions, length of sessions, exit pages and so much more with a Google Analytics account. It is free to use. Google is upgrading to Google Analytic 4 in July of 2023. They are sunsetting the current version, so that means your data will eventually go away. On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. You’ll be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for a period of time after July 1, 2023. However, new data will only flow into Google Analytics 4 properties. Learn more
Here is more background information on the move to GA4.
Things to Think About
If you are new to using Google Analytics for web site metrics, you will need to decide, for each site, what you want to track – Contact us form completes would be a standard thing for you to measure. The power of Google Analytics is seeing what your visitors do once they arrive on your site – and tagging allow you see measure specific actions like form completes, purchase of a product, a newsletter sign up, etc. This allow you to see what type of traffic, i.e. direct, social media, referral, etc. is giving you the most traction on your goals. Many don’t realize for example Social Media traffic can drive higher quality traffic then Google ads, because the engagement is deeper before they get to the site. This is the type of thing a Tag allows you to track.
Tagging gets you beyond measuring traffic volume per source, to the actual actions being taken on the site by the visitor. Google Analytics 4 is a new release, that has new tagging features and other changes. Google is not going to support Google Analytics 3 after July of 2023, so we are moving clients now so their data can build in the new system.
The services we intend to provide to our clients around this migration:
Audit UA and GTM
Our team will audit your existing GTM and UA properties to determine what data will be essential to continue tracking in GA4 and which tags, triggers, and variables in GTM are needed.
Migration Strategy
Once we have a clear picture of the existing Google Analytics and Tag Manager setup, and have noted your requested and/or existing conversion points on the website, we can begin mapping each site’s ideal setup for GA4.
Deployment
We will set up the new GTM container(s) and GA4 properties for each or your sites. We will also test and debug all new tracking that we set up. All work will be reviewed by your team for sign-off before deployment.
Have questions? Reach out to Beyond Brand Collective, by calling or filling out the contact us form.