Google Analytics 4: The Update Marketers Are Thankful For

3 minute read by Jenny Haskins Advertising, SEO

It’s November: the leaves have fallen (here in New England, at least) and it’s officially that time of year to reflect on and be thankful for what we have. And for those of us in the digital marketing industry, we’re specifically thankful for the various tools that help us measure data and gather insights on our efforts. And the behemoth of those tools? I’d argue Google Analytics.

This holiday season, the developers at Google got in the spirit of giving and offered us a whopper (not the Burger King kind, unfortunately) of an update to be thankful for. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a GA Suite extension that pulls more calculated metrics from a website’s overall performance. According to Google, GA4 “has machine learning at its core to automatically surface helpful insights and give you a complete understanding of your customers across devices and platforms.”

TL;DR, we’re all about to make some seriously smart marketing decisions.

Who Needs to Know?

Well, in short, we marketers do. The new predictive insights will help SEO and content marketers determine their audience’s intent, the integration with Google Ads will help paid advertisers spark greater ROI, the conversion metrics from YouTube video views will affect how film creators make content, and much more. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.

So, who’s going to benefit the most? The eCommerce industry. Why? Commerce is moving more online every day because of the current state of the pandemic (in addition to the impending holidays). It’s more crucial than ever for business owners to understand their customers’ online behavior. And GA4 does just that — it maps your customer’s digital journey. Consider this update your personal Sacagawea. 

Stay with me, because I’m taking a page from Google’s book and I’m about to get even more granular. Google based this update on “customer-centric measurement, instead of measurement fragmented by device or platform.” You can now see how the sales cycle started, how long it ran, and how it ended. It also offers retention reports.

Inspires me to rewrite The Police’s famous song: 🎶 Every step they take, every move they make — you’ll be watching them. 🎶 (I know you sang-read that.)

And quickly going back to paid advertising: with the deeper integration between GA4 and Google Ads, the update offers greater customization when creating campaigns. Familiar with AB testing? This is like ABCDEF…XYZ testing. Ok, maybe not, but kinda. Essentially, more tailored ad experience = more ad combinations = higher conversion rates.

Who’s Excited?

Paid advertising experts and platform users far and wide are gung ho about Google Analytics 4. 

Quick, unrelated note from the content marketing side of me (and our copy director Julie Curtis): never use “awesome” in the context written above. By dictionary definition, “awesome” means causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear. Unless, Matti Schroder really is in awe of GA4…

Reeling it back in, industry professionals like Schroder are not only sharing their praises for the new update, but are creating and posting all-encompassing GA4 guides.

Businesses are ready to amp up their digital marketing efforts for the holidays and Google came in hot with Google Analytics 4. Give the people what they want, right?

Who Am I To Disagree?

There’s no doubt this update will offer strong, supportive data for businesses’ holiday initiatives and beyond, and I can’t help but join the celebratory conversation on Twitter (shameless “follow me” plug: @jennyleehaskins). 

Google Analytics 4 will be an incredible tool that paid advertisers, SEOs, content strategists, video creators, and developers (did I miss anyone?) will be thankful for. Teams, get ready to break down silos and collaborate to increase your website’s traffic and overall performance. 

I know — there’s a lot to gobble up here. But luckily, Rebel Interactive Group’s team ain’t a bunch of turkeys. Call us for reporting help and get the most ROI possible for your next campaign.

Authored by:

Jenny Haskins

Senior Content & SEO Strategist

Senior content & SEO strategist Jenny Haskins is certainly special: she writes and edits content for social media, email campaigns, display ads, text ads and more, and tailors her writing...Read More

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