As you might already know, Universal Google Analytics services cease to function starting today (July 1st). Google Analytics 4 will replace them.
I spent a significant amount of my professional (and personal) time on Google Analytics (UA). I will definitely miss them, since they were my partner in many (if not all) problems that required data to be solved.
Before I switched to Product Manager, as a professional Performance Marketer, there was no chance to get hired in the efood Marketing team without having professional knowledge of Analytics and understanding their importance for both Customer experience and Marketing performance.
Even in the Product team, for many years, especially the early ones, one of the mandatory skills for EVERY Product Manager that was about to be hired for our Consumer team was the grasp and knowledge of how GA works (technically), why it matters, and how a PM can utilize GA as a tool to create a plan of action.
We ditched that approach now because: i) we are using an internal tool for measurement and optimization, and ii) I missed the chance to hire some very good PMs simply because they were not proficient in Google Analytics.
What is changing with Google Analytics 4:
I’m still learning how GA4 works, so I’ll try to describe what I have understood so far. The main difference is the change in the data model measurement regarding sessions and events. GA4 is an event-based tracking service, while UA was a session-based model. One of my assumptions for this change is that it is correlated with the pricing change of AdWords that changed significantly throughout the years, from CPM (cost per mille) to CPC (cost per click) to CPA (cost per action).
On the good side, GA4 supports cross-platform tracking, with better integration between web and app tracking. Moreover, it comes with cookieless tracking capabilities and enhanced user privacy. It also supports BigQuery export for all customers (not only paid), which gives you better flexibility in reporting (but it is more complex).
Guide from Google regarding changes between GA4 and UA
I’m still waiting to understand the difference between data-driven attribution (GA4 default) and last-click attribution (UA default) and if it is better on behavioral flow and multi-channel funnels reports. (relevant old article, regarding attributional models)
One thing I know for sure is that re-learning as a skill is the new black, and GA4 is a very good candidate for all data-driven PMs out there. Sorry, AI tools re-learning is the new black, but still, GA4 is super important.
Relevant posts:
