Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics and offers a number of interesting new features that allow you to track user behavior in even more detail than before. If you want to understand Google Analytics and its basics and benefits in general, we have another blog post here.
In this blog post, you will learn about the new functions and benefits of GA4 and can then assess its relevance for your company’s online marketing.
The next generation of Google Analytics
With GA4, Google Analytics now analyzes event-based data instead of session-based data. With this, Google wants to offer a more in-depth platform for analyzing user behavior.
Event-based vs. session-based
With event-based data collection, each user action is considered an independent event. An event could be a click, a page view, playing a video or another specific interaction. Session-based data collection focuses on the duration and activities of users within a single session. A session begins when a user visits a website or webshop and ends after a certain period of inactivity or when the browser is closed.
Advantages and disadvantages
Event-based data provides a detailed analysis of each user action, which leads to deeper insights into user behavior. However, they are complex to set up and can lead to a flood of data, which makes analysis more difficult. A cautious approach and technical expertise is therefore required here – which is what we as an agency are here to provide.
Session-based data is easier to handle and provides a clear overview of user behavior within individual sessions, but captures behavior across multiple sessions less accurately and provides less detail on specific actions.
However, since GA4 has now been forcibly introduced and only analyzes event-based, you can no longer select this manually anyway. Event-based offers more options, but also requires more know-how.
Customizable reports and dashboards
The event-based analyses also mean that GA4 enables users to create reports and dashboards tailored to their specific needs. This increases the flexibility and relevance of data analysis for the business.
More detailed user engagement tracking
GA4 measures engagement at a deeper level, including scroll depth, video views and file downloads, providing a more comprehensive picture of user behavior. GA4 also provides you with data on how users found and navigated your website or webshop. This information can give you strategies for optimizing your content.
AI-supported insights and forecasts
GA4 uses machine learning to gain valuable insights into the data. For example, it can automatically recognize trends and predict how certain metrics might develop.
Integration with Google Ads
GA4 can be linked to Google Ads. When you use GA4 and Google Ads together, you can see exactly what users do on your website or webshop after they click on your ad. With this information, you can make your content more user-friendly and take a strategic approach to achieve more conversions (such as sales and sign-ups) and increase your overall ROAS (return on advertising spend).
Conclusion
Google tools always aim to maximize effectiveness and therefore offer you more and more possibilities to achieve your online marketing goals. The new extensions allow you to adapt analyses to your needs and obtain more detailed results. GA4 may be a little more complex, but in theory it also offers better results.
If you are not sure whether Google Analytics can help you, we will be happy to advise you free of charge.
