Google Analytics 4 – Everything You Need to Know Before Upgrading

What are the 5 main differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics?

1. Account structure

In previous versions of Google Analytics, we got used to working with Account> Property> View.

The account was a kind of umbrella term that consolidated all the company or organization’s assets. Under that there were separate properties for each site or App.

Under property, we could create different views, in which different information would be displayed using filters, different time zones, etc.

In Google Analytics 4, the account structure is Account> Property> Data Stream.

The role of account and property remain the same, but the novelty is that it is possible to connect several different data streams to the same property.

In other words, it means that you can display both the information from your site, as well as the information from your applications (iOS and/or Android) in one place.

What is the disadvantage?

It is currently not possible to create filters to create a view for landing pages only, or a separate view for data from a particular country (if your site operates in a variety of countries), or a different view depending on the user’s permission level.

2. Types of Hits

With Universal Analytics, we got used to going through pageviews to send information regarding page views, events and actions like scrolling, watching a video, and purchase transactions.

In Google Analytics 4, the data is sent differently: all interactions are sent through events, with each event being accompanied by parameters that contain information about the event.

Some parameters are sent automatically (page title or URL, for example), but you can add up to 25 of your own parameters to each event (as opposed to the four that were in Universal Analytics – category, action, label, and value).

For example – if nowadays I send a Form Name’s custom dimension every time someone views a form on my site, then with Google Analytics 4 I will send the Form Name as a parameter of the event.

3. User properties

Getting information about the user who performed any action on our site as well as any other data, including their age/gender, which country they are in, and what device they are using were all analyzed up till now with Audience reports.

This information would be collected automatically, but you could also send another 25 parameters to each property.

For example, a member to identify users who are registered as members of your site, or big_spender to identify users who buy more than others.

4. Automated events 

Unlike with Universal Analytics, where we needed to send events manually, with Google Analytics 4 we can tell Analytics to collect upgraded events as well.

What does this mean?

Apart from the automatic events of page_view, session_start, etc. we can also track actions like scrolling, watching a video, clicking outside the site, downloading a file, or searching the site.

To measure these actions all we need to do is go to the settings of the relevant Data Stream: