Get to Know Google Analytics 4: A Beginner’s Setup Guide

Prepare and get started with Google Analytics 4 like a pro following this GA4 setup checklist covering Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics differences.

More than a year after introducing Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google announced in March 2022 that Universal Analytics (UA) will cease processing new hits beginning July 2023. This change means everyone who will continue using Google Analytics (GA) must set up their websites on GA4 before UA’s official exit.

Switching to GA4 aligns with the tech giant’s mission to provide businesses with an efficient way of understanding complex and multi-platform customer journeys without neglecting nor compromising user privacy. Based on the Google App + Web Analytics launched in 2019, Google Analytics 4 helps businesses improve ROI through a more intelligent and intuitive service designed for different devices and platforms.

Table of Contents

6 ways how Google Analytics 4 stands out from the older Universal Analytics:

GA4 Data Streams vs. UA Views

GA4 Event-based Data Model vs. UA Session-based Data Model

GA4 Parameters vs. UA Dimensions vs. Events

GA4 Conversions vs. UA Goals

Prioritization of User Privacy

Absence of Monthly Hit Limits

GA4 Setup Checklist

Need Help With GA4?

Here are six ways how Google Analytics 4 stands out from the older Universal Analytics:

GA4 Data Streams vs. UA Views

Google Analytics 4 data streams are in; Universal Analytics views are out. This change is the best advantage GA4 brings to the users as it allows users to consolidate and integrate all user interactions/behaviors or events from a website, an iOS app, and an Android app.

Unlike GA4, the Universal Analytics account structure prevents users from efficiently analyzing audiences across platforms. Users would need to create a dedicated property for each source and switch back and forth between those properties to analyze data when using UA.

GA4 Event-based Data Model vs. UA Session-based Data Model

Instead of relying on sessions and pageviews, which define the measurement model used by Universal Analytics, GA4 uses an event-driven data model to measure all user interactions. With Google Analytics 4, every interaction or hit is recorded as an event.

Events fall into four categories:

Automatically Collected Events – These events are any basic interactions tracked on your site. Page_view and first_visit are examples of events automatically collected by the GA4 base code.

Enhanced Measurement Events – These events share the same characteristics as automatically collected events, except they can be controlled, specifically disabled or enabled. Examples of these are scroll tracking, file download, and video views.

Recommended Events – These events require a manual setup upon the recommendation of Google and are grouped into specific industries.

Custom Events – These events are manually created and implemented based on user-defined website requirements. At the time of writing, GA4 allows the creation of up to 500 named custom events.

GA4 Parameters vs. UA Dimensions vs. Events

On top of the fact that every hit is considered an event, GA4 has introduced new event names and replaced UA dimensions with GA4 parameters.

For instance, your GA4 property should now use remove_from_cart instead of removeFromCart and must replace the UA dimension currencyCode with the GA4 event parameter currency.

Here are more examples:

UA event names	UA dimensions	GA4 event names	GA4 parameters
purchase	id	purchase	transaction_id
removeFromCart	currencyCode	remove_from_cart	currency
addToCart	revenue	add_to_cart	value
pageview	list	View_item_list	item_list_name
promotionClick	name	select_promotion	promotion_name

In GA4, events determine how a product, list, and promotion data is interpreted, while parameters provide specific details about the event. For ecommerce-specific events, the event parameter items is required, along with items array parameters like item_brand, item, brand, and affiliation.

Take note of these changes because using the correct event names and parameters is crucial to record complete ecommerce event data and reporting for your GA4 property.

GA4 Conversions vs. UA Goals

Setting up conversions in GA4 is different from UA. In Universal Analytics, you can create up to 20 goals for each View. In Google Analytics 4, you can use Google Tag Manager (GTM) or GA4 to set up conversions with a limitation of up to 30 custom conversions.

How to create custom conversions on GA4? Here’s how:

1. Create a custom event through GTM or within GA4 using your preferred event names and setting the correct conditions to trigger the conversion.

2. In GA4, view all your existing events upon clicking Configure > Events. From the list of events, set the new custom event you’ve created as a conversion by toggling its corresponding switch. Doing this step enables conversion data to appear in your reports.

Prioritization of User Privacy

GA4 gives a big emphasis on the privacy of both businesses and their customers. It expands on the variety of existing privacy controls in Universal Analytics and provides more controls on collecting and using data. Unlike UA, Google Analytics 4 no longer stores IP addresses. This change further strengthens Google’s efforts to protect and prioritize user and data privacy.

Absence of Monthly Hit Limits

Businesses not subscribed to GA360 must comply with the monthly limit of 10 million hits available in the free version of Universal Analytics. This limitation is non-existent in GA4, thereby eliminating the challenges previously faced by businesses in gathering all the needed data. As mentioned earlier, GA4, instead of imposing monthly limits, allows up to 500 different events to be created and implemented.

GA4 Setup Checklist

Refer to this checklist to know the initial steps needed to take when setting up Google Analytics 4 on your website:

1. Install the GA4 code directly on the website or through Google Tag Manager.
2. Identify and list down the events to be tracked on the website.
3. Implement the event codes on the website following Google’s Developer guide.
4. Create necessary custom events based on the website.
5. Test the events via GA4’s DebugView to ensure that your data are recording correctly.
6. Link to Google Ads, Google Search Console, and other Google services available.
7. Activate Google Signals under Data Collection if you are using Google Ads.

Need Help With GA4?

Setting up GA4’s event codes can be challenging. This part is where Lumenvo comes in.

Our team is well versed in web analytics and has superior skills and knowledge that have helped clients in various industries reach their set goals. We can help you smoothly switch from UA to GA4 and help your team manage the new Google Analytics effectively.

Reach out to Lumenvo so we can get started preparing your website for the future of web analytics.