Google Sunsets Universal Analytics and replaces it with Google Analytics 4 in 2023

Shermy Mohan
DMCA.com by - 4/21/2022 881 Views

Google has announced that the previous version of Google Analytics, called Universal Analytics, will be phased out in July 2023.

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Universal Analytics, which was the starter edition of Google Analytics prior to GA4, is set to be discontinued by Google in mid-2023. Universal Analytics will cease to process new data on July 1, 2023, to be precise.

The data processing for Universal Analytics 360 properties will be prolonged by three months till October 1, 2023. Google Analytics 4 would be the new standard for tracking website activity after those dates.

Reasons for this move:

Universal Analytics is phased down by Google due to the limitations in its ability to provide cross-platform information. GA4, on the other hand, can track data across several websites and apps.

An overview of Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics is a Google Analytics edition that established a new standard for the collection and organization of user data. Universal Analytics, which has been launched in the fall of 2012, provides new tracking codes for sites as well as tools that can more effectively evaluate user behaviour.

Users can use both Google Analytics (GA) and Universal Analytics (UA). Till now, however, Universal Analytics was the only version that was officially supported. All users were encouraged to migrate their properties to Universal.

Users can get similar information from Universal and Google Analytics, but UA gives the account owner additional in-depth information about user behaviour:

In Google Analytics, a user who accesses a website on numerous browsers and devices appears as several users. When Universal Analytics introduced user ID, it allowed all activity to be reported as originating from a single person. Businesses could more accurately estimate their user count, track the signed-in user experience, and obtain Cross-Device statistics.

Despite these wonderful features why Google felt that Universal Analytics is obsolete.

Google's Recent take on Universal Analytics

Google says about Universal Analytics that it was made for a time period of online measurement that was grounded in the independent sessions, desktop web and more easily detectable data from cookies and thus the system of measurement of it is fast becoming obsolete in nature.

The advantage of Google Analytics 4 is that it is able to work across different platforms because it doesn't rely on cookies but uses an event-based data model. As a result, it is more future-proof. The new version is also believed to provide increased privacy, which is becoming increasingly crucial to people.

It enables businesses to address changing needs and requirements of the users by providing more extensive and granular data collection as well as user controls. Also, here the IP addresses will no longer be stored in Google Analytics 4 which enhances the security features. These approaches and controls are particularly important in today's worldwide data privacy market, as customers are increasingly demanding more privacy safeguards and data control.

Google Analytics 4 becomes The New Standard

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Google Analytics 4 is built to achieve a variety of essential business goals, including increasing sales or application installs, lead generation, and bridging the gap between online and offline consumer engagement.

Google Analytics 4 is built to help you achieve your most important goals, such as increasing sales or app installs, generating leads, and linking offline and online consumer engagement.

Here are a few examples of how Google Analytics 4 can help your company.

  1. Understanding your clients across touchpoints

With just an event-based measurement methodology that isn't divided by platform or separated into separate sessions, you can get a complete picture of the client lifecycle.

Gymshark, a UK-based fitness gear, and accessories manufacturer utilized Google Analytics 4 to track user behaviour across its app and website, helping the company to better understand how consumers progressed through the sales funnel. As a result, they were able to decrease customer dropoff by 9%, boost product page clickthrough rate by 5%, and reduce their own hours spent on customer journey analysis by 30%.

  1. Enhance ROI with data-driven attribution

Evaluate the full impact of your advertising across the customer lifecycle with data-driven attribution. Using your Analytics data grants attribution credits to more than just the latest click, and it helps you to understand how your marketing efforts as a whole influence your conversions. To optimize campaigns, you can export the information to Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform media applications.

  1. Measure conversions and engagement with business and compliance requirements in mind

You can regulate and minimize the gathering of user-level data — such as cookies and metadata — while keeping important measurement functions with new country-level protection restrictions.

  1. Get greater values from the datasets

Machine learning generates complex predictive insights regarding user behaviour and conversions, builds new audiences of users who are likely to buy or churn, and surfaces crucial data instantly to optimize your marketing.

  1. Easily activating the insights

Expanded connections with other Google products, such as Google Ads, work across your integrated web and app data, making it simple to optimize your campaigns using Analytics information.

McDonald's Hong Kong exceeded its target of increasing mobile orders by more than six times by creating a predictive audience of "likely seven-day purchasers" and transferring it to Google Ads. The team observed a 2.3-fold boost in ROI, a 5.6-fold gain in revenues, and a 63% decrease in cost per activity.

According to Tina Chao, McDonald's Chief Marketing and Digital Customer Experience Officer in Hong Kong they have a solid measurement basis thanks to Google Analytics 4 and there is the possibility to use machine learning to extract useful insights from our first data and apply them to our marketing, resulting in spectacular results that help us future-proof our firm.

All customers can now use the Search Ads 360 and Display & Video 360 integrations. This means that any Google Analytics 4 property, whether standard or 360, can use its Analytics data, such as conversions and audiences, to improve campaign effectiveness in Google Marketing Platform buying tools.

Address the enterprise measurement requirements

Analytics 360's new sub and roll-up properties will allow you to change the structure of your Google Analytics 4 properties for fulfilling data governance needs. This ensures that other teams or partners, such as advertising agencies, have access to the data they require while adhering to your regulations.

To keep up with rising demand, Analytics 360 now supports up to 125 custom dimensions, 400 audiences, and 50 conversion types per property. With service legal agreements (SLAs) covering most essential functionality, such as the collection of data, processing, monitoring, and attribution, you'll have peace of mind.

As a major enterprise company with a diverse product portfolio, the new Analytics 360 has provided our teams with fresh insights to help them make data-driven choices while also allowing us to meet our complicated data governance requirements with ease and flexibility - as per Rashi Kacker, Constellation Brands' Director of Marketing Technology Innovation

Note the important dates

All the standard Universal Analytics properties will cease the processing of new hits on July 1, 2023, and all the 360 Universal Analytics properties will cease processing new hits on October 1, 2023. After the above dates, previously processed data in Universal Analytics will be available for at least six months.

To keep up with these kinds of updates it is essential to get hold of a white label digital marketing service provider who can update you with frequent information and help you keep up.

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About Shermy Mohan

Shermy Mohan I, Shermy have been a lead Technical News Writer since 2018. I’m good at doing research and conveying it into writing. I write on Marketing trending topics, fresh Search Engine & Social Media updates and News. .... more info about the author