We’ve seen a lot of news and posts about Google Analytics 4 (GA4) since it was first introduced. But, as Search Engine Journal says, one of things that seems to be overlooked are the expectations you should be looking at when it GA4 finally becomes the only thing to use.
Adam Proehl was able to talk with three GA4 professionals, all of which gave him some great information. They gave Adam 12 pieces GA4 insights Some of the biggest expectations you should focus on, according to these professionals:
- GA4 isn’t plug and play like Universal Analytics was
- Everything is an event
- Don’t expect reliable apples to apples comparisons of YoY data
- Although you can do more with GA4, there’ll always be a catch
- Annotations are missing from the GA4 interface
- If you have a website, you’ll need to know all about “thresholding”
- You won’t have as much free stuff from Google
- Bounce rate is available, but does that mean you should always focus on it?
- Get comfy with BigQuery and SQL
- You’ll want to really increase your analyst skills, or utilize somebody who’s already there
- You will want to learn all about Data Modeling
- Set the proper expectations with your stakeholders
This was a simple list of the expectations – if you want to read more details on them, check out Adam’s post over on SEJ over here.