Google Analytics 4: The future of Analytics

Over the past few years, major changes in the digital environment meant it was time for an overhaul of Google Analytics. Step in GA4. Developed for the business landscape of the future, GA4 offers a more robust solution to the legislation pivots and changing consumer behaviors that the digital market has undergone over the past few years. 

If you’re already working with the Analytics team at Jellyfish, you’ll likely be au fait with GA4, as we’ve been evolving along with it right by Google’s side. We’ve been talking about GA4 for just about as long as Google has, completing over 100 Google-funded GA4 implementations, and supporting 90% of our EMEA clients with their adoption and understanding of the tool, so you know you’re in safe hands.

What does GA4 provide?

Both consumer demand and legislative changes have meant we’re having to say goodbye to the cookie, an increase in private user behavior (walled gardens) and the resulting challenges in collection of vital business intel. Not only does the platform offer the most comprehensive collection and analysis of data that Google’s ever been able to provide, GA4 bridges these gaps by addressing a number of issues:

1. It widens the scope of data collection.

Natively integrating metrics from multiple platforms means that with GA4, users can gain a unified view of both collection and performance. With automatic standardized naming and pre-built reports based on machine learning, integrated insights can be gathered with a few clicks of a mouse. 

2. It offers more agile exploration of data. 

While GA 4 has to integrate pre-built reports, it stands out from its predecessors in that it does so in order to build new ones on the fly. This new data exploration functionality will make data analysis and discovery more readily comprehensible, and reporting more responsive to inquiry. Meanwhile, Data Studio organizes GA4 outputs as a dashboard and sharing tool, and BigQuery layers over the top as an advanced analysis engine.

3. It has robust integration capabilities

Beyond the data and reporting capabilities it provides, GA4  serves as a hub between data and activation tools. Already linked with Data Studio, BigQuery, DV360 and other tools, additional integrations are also on the roadmap as the platform evolves further. 

4. It allows for privacy data filtration.

GA4 has streamlined the elimination of unwarranted data collection and was built to address the needs of a cookieless future by centering the role of User ID, essential in the privacy-conscious consumer era.

5. It centralizes the role of audiences

Whilst rethinking the audience system, Google has restructured the integration with its other tools to be even more activation-centric. The audience creation system, a cornerstone and direct link with Google’s advertising tools, is now more adjustable, as GA4 was designed for more flexible, media-centric use.

6. It offers a new collection framework

The GA4 collection framework is event-centric, allowing multi-contextual feedback on user behavior, far beyond simply analyzing basic web or app behavioral data.

So what’s next?

GA4 is now Google’s primary analytics platform, and we advise anyone that’s interested in their consumer base’s behavior to shift over from Universal Analytics as soon as they can. Jellyfish have developed proprietary tools to provide a seamless experience when migrating your tracking to GA4, increasing efficiency and reducing manual errors with our automated processes.

Your partners at Jellyfish will be more than happy to guide you through the migration process, helping you get to grips with all the possibilities that GA4 offers and taking you along on the journey with us as the digital world continues to evolve. Learn more about our Google Analytics Solutions.

Train your team to start using GA4 and make the most of this platform. Our analytics training facilitators all have a wealth of hands-on experience in implementation, reporting and dashboarding using Google Analytics 4.