Google has announced that Google Analytics 4 will be their next-generation measurement solution tool. It will replace the current Universal Analytics.
Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits from the 1st of July 2023. You’ll be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for a period of time after July 1, 2023. However, new data will only flow into Google Analytics 4 properties.
Advantages of Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (formerly known as “App + Web”) is a new kind of property, with several advantages over Universal Analytics:
1) Smarter insights
Google Analytics 4 property will use advanced machine learning models. It will automatically alert you on significant trends in your data-like products seeing rising demand because of new customer needs.
It even helps you anticipate future actions your customers may take. For example, it calculates churn probability so you can more efficiently invest in retaining customers at a time when marketing budgets are under pressure. These smarter insights will eventually improve marketing decisions and produce better ROI.
With new integrations across Google’s marketing products, it will be easy to use analytics to improve the ROI of your marketing.
2) Deeper engagement analysis
The new Analytics gives you customer-centric measurement instead of measurement fragmented by device or by platform. Google Analytics 4 uses multiple identity spaces like marketer-provided User IDs and unique Google signals from users opted into ads personalization. This will give users a more complete view of how your customers interact with their business. For example, you can see if customers first discover your business from an ad on the web, then later install your app and make purchases there.
Businesses will also get a better understanding of their customers across their entire lifecycle from acquisition to conversion and retention. This is critical when people’s needs are rapidly changing and you have to make real-time decisions in order to win – and keep – new customers.
Additionally, Google Analytics 4 is Privacy-focused and durable for the future.
Other Changes
Google My Business app will soon no longer be available. Google announced on April 4th, 2022 that the GMB app will be replaced with Google Maps & Search. Businesses will manage their Google Business profile(s) directly from the Google Maps app.
