Our Blog Take Advantage of GA4’s New Metrics Posted on 07.27.2023 Marketing Universal Analytics is out, and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is in! If you’re like many users, you’re probably wondering, “What’s the difference? How can I take advantage of it?” The first step is understanding GA4 and its focus on user engagement. Now, even the simplest interactions with your website can be tracked. Instead of UA’s ecommerce-aligned metrics, GA4 opens new insights into how people engage with your website. GA4 recognizes that not all interactions have to be conversions. It can see microevents that aren’t the traditional conversions, and it has unlimited capacity to track events. While GA4 automatically tracks many interactions between site visitors and your content, other Recommended Events require definition and code additions to the website. Let’s consider the following question: How can I take advantage of GA4 on my website? Jump to Section Events to Track in GA4 Events to Track in GA4 Pros and Cons of GA4 Events to Track in GA4 While Universal Analytics focuses on conversion events, GA4 has no limit on the events you can track, and it is much broader in its interpretation of “events.” You can now track detailed visitor behaviors, keeping an eye on the features they look at and seeing how they move through the pages and calls to action on your website. The first thing you need to know is that GA4 automatically collects certain events by default. Automatically Collected Events include actions people might take on ecommerce, consumer, or B2B websites. From page views and form submissions to video start, video progress, and video completion, Google will now capture many useful metrics. Learn more about Automatically Collected Events, which also include newsletter subscriptions and file downloads. GA4’s approach considers that a high bounce rate doesn’t necessarily mean your website lacks engaging content. For example, it knows that patients of a doctor’s office will find the contact information they need quickly. Patients don’t need to spend a lot of time on the website to get value out of it. With the update, GA4 has introduced Recommended Events, which allows you to add and implement other engagements on your website using Google Tag Manager. It can get very granular, allowing you to further optimize your website design for usability and the quality content your audience craves. GA4 offers Recommended Events designed for anyone, as well as those for online sales and games. Watch a video tutorial on adding recommended events. Pros and Cons of GA4 If you were familiar with Universal Analytics, GA4 is different, and clients like Ashley Arend of Sudenga warn that there is a learning curve. “I’ve found GA4 to be more cumbersome and not as easy to work with compared to Universal Analytics,” she said, noting that setting up reports and seeing old data have been more difficult. To get the most out of GA4, you may benefit from outsourcing to digital marketing professionals who will set it up based on your strategy and business model. Contact Metro Studios to learn more about digital marketing solutions like organic search and conversion rate optimization that save time by optimizing your web presence for the highest ROI. And watch for our upcoming post about optimizing websites for GA4!