Grappling with Google Analytics 4.

When Google officially replaced Universal Analytics with GA4 on July 1st 2023 many of us were left with the same question - what is the difference? According to Google, GA4 is designed to address evolving measurement standards and help businesses succeed. In short, GA4 responds to the growing importance of GDPR and online user privacy.

The change is part of a larger shift away from non-GDPR compliant third-party data and towards ethically collected first-party data.

While users may notice a change in segmentation reporting (an area very much reliant on third-party ‘cookie’ data), GA4 offers greater insight overall and signals a positive step-forward in terms of quality data analysis.