GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 – IT’S TIME TO MAKE THE SWITCH

GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 IS ALMOST UPON US. ON THE 1ST OF JULY 2023, UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS (THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF GA) WILL NO LONGER PROCESS DATA, SO ADVERTISERS MUST SWITCH TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 TO KEEP TRACK OF THEIR ADVERTISING EFFORTS. TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE LATEST ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES AND HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THE SETUP, ADVERTISERS SHOULD SWITCH TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 NOW AND CUSTOMISE IT TO MEET THEIR SPECIFIC NEEDS. WHAT’S INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS WE HEAR YOU ASK? IN THIS BLOG WE’LL TALK YOU THROUGH THE STEPS OF WHAT’S INVOLVED AND GIVE YOU INSIGHTS INTO HOW WE TAKE CARE OF THIS VERY IMPORTANT PROCESS.

AUDIT

We  first need to understand the current Google Analytics setup. We’ll run an audit to get a better understanding of the current infrastructure. This will help us understand what (if any) events are tracked and what sort of Goals are currently set up.

PLANNING

We will create a comprehensive plan for each website that will clearly map out what events will fire on which website, what Goals will will be captured, which audiences will be built / segmented and what traffic will be grouped into channels. The point of the planning phase is to help us clearly know what work needs to be done once we reach the implementation stage.

The tagging plan will cover any events that we want to track on the website (e.g. phone, email clicks), form completions, videos viewed and any other actions you want tracked.

IMPLEMENTATION

Once the plan has been approved by your team, we’ll begin the implementation. We will use Google Tag Manager to implement any tags on the website. GTM gives you the ability to add and update your own tags for conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing and more without the need for developers – which means your team will easily be able to manage things moving forwards.

The implementation will also include any settings that need to be applied to GA4 such as building audience segments and channel groups.

TESTING

Once the tagging plan has been implemented using Google Tag Manager we’ll need to run a series of tests to make sure that all events and all Goals are firing as they should.

BUG FIX

It’s inevitable that there will be a few bugs with the implementation, so we’ll spend some time troubleshooting issues and fixing any bugs that arise as a result of the testing phase.

Testing and Bug Fix may repeat a number of times until we are satisfied that everything is tracking perfectly.

TEST & LAUNCH

Once we’re satisfied that the GA4 implementation is set up correctly and working as it should, we’ll run one final round of testing and publish all changes in Google Tag Manager. Once we publish the Google Tag Manager container, data will begin seamlessly flowing into your GA4 property within 24 hours.

We will also offer support for 2 weeks post-launch should any issues arise with tracking or attribution.

DATA STUDIO DASHBOARD

FINALLY, WE’LL BUILD A CUSTOM DASHBOARD TO DISPLAY YOUR GA4 DATA

Hopefully this article has explained everything you need to know. Still have questions? Need help setting up GA4? Speak to our team at TIDAL Digital, we’re the Google Analytics 4 Setup experts you can trust.