1.2 What Sets Google Analytics 4 Properties Apart

Question 1

How do GA4 properties differ from UA properties?

Question 2

How do GA4 properties collect and process data?

Question 3

How do you identity spaces work in UA properties vs. GA4 properties?

Question 4

What is different between UA and GA4 when it comes to Measurement?

Answer 4

UA uses a Session-based data model and GA4 uses a Flexible event-based data model.

Question 5

What is different between UA and GA4 when it comes to Reporting?

Answer 5

UA has limited cross-device and cross-platform reporting and GA4 has full cross-device and cross-platform reporting.

Question 6

What is different between UA and GA4 when it comes to Automation?

Answer 6

UA has Limited automation and GA4 uses Machine learning throughout to improve and simplify insight discovery.

Question 7

What is an Audience?

Answer 7

An audience is a set of users you define based on different attributes that are important to your business — for example, fans of sports and travel, people shopping for cars, or users who have already engaged with your company’s products or services.

Question 8

How does GA4 work with signed-in users?

Answer 8

If your business creates IDs for signed-in users, GA4 properties allow you to use this data when building audiences. You can now define your audiences based on IDs sent to Analytics to create audiences based on signed-in users.

Question 9

What is Explorations?

Answer 9

Interpret your data with greater freedom using the Explorations tool. Use a variety of techniques, like funnel exploration, path exploration, and free form exploration to uncover insights.

Question 10

BigQuery Export?

Answer 10

Export your Analytics data to BigQuery so you can securely store your data in the cloud, combine it with data from other sources, and run queries across all your data sets. Or move your data to any other system where you want to use it.

Question 11

What is the new way GA4 collects and stores data

Answer 11

Rather than using a session-based model, which groups user interactions within a given time frame, it uses an event-based model, which processes each user interaction as a standalone event.

Question 12

The old session-based model…

Answer 12

In UA properties, Analytics groups data into sessions, and these sessions are the foundation of all reporting. A session is a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame.

During a session, Analytics collects and stores user interactions, such as pageviews, events, and eCommerce transactions, as hits. A single session can contain multiple hits, depending on how a user interacts with your website.

Question 13

The new event-based model…

Answer 13

In GA4 properties, you can still see session data, but Analytics collects and stores user interactions with your website or app as events. Events provide insight on what’s happening in your website or app, such as pageviews, button clicks, user actions, or system events.

Events can collect and send pieces of information that more fully specify the action the user took or add further context to the event or user. This information could include things like the value of purchase, the title of the page a user visited, or the geographic location of the user.

Question 14

What are benefits of the event-based model?

Answer 14

By moving to event-based collection, Analytics is more flexible, scalable, and is able to perform more custom calculations, faster.

If you have a website and an app, it’s important to measure a diverse range of user interactions to better understand how people engage with your business across these platforms. For example, you could measure:

Clicks and pageviews on your website
Installs and opens on your app
User engagement and conversions on either platform

The event-based data model consistently measures these interactions across devices and platforms and provides you with even richer insights from your data.

Question 15

More about events in Google Analytics 4 properties…

Answer 15

Many basic interactions with your website or app are automatically collected as events in the latest Analytics property. For example, the first time a user visits your website, the property will log this action as a “first visit” event.

You can also enable the enhanced measurement feature, an option that lets you automatically collect more events without having to update your website’s code. Enhanced measurement allows you to measure many common web events like pageviews, scrolls, file downloads, and video views.

Question 16

The following is true for Universal Analytics properties…

Answer 16

• It uses a session-based data model.
• Cross-device and cross-platform reporting is limited.
• It has limited automation.

Question 17

The following is true for Google Analytics 4 properties…

Answer 17

• It uses a flexible event-based data model.
• It has full cross-device and cross-platform reporting.
• Machine learning is used throughout to improve and simplify insight discovery.

Question 18

What are groups of identifiers called identity spaces.

Answer 18

When trying to understand user journeys, Analytics can use several different user identifiers, such as the IDs you assign users logged into your website, Google signals, and device ID.

Question 19

User-ID

Answer 19

If you create your own persistent IDs for signed-in users, you can use this data to accurately measure user journeys across devices. To enable the User-ID feature, you must consistently assign IDs to your users and include the IDs along with the data you send to Analytics.

Question 20

Google Signals

Answer 20

Google signals uses data from users who are signed in to Google. With Google signals enabled, Analytics associates event data it collects from users on your site with the Google accounts of signed-in users who have consented to sharing this information.

Enabling Google signals is very simple. You don’t have to make modifications to your website or app to get started with this feature — just turn it on!

Question 21

Device ID

Answer 21

Analytics can also use device ID as an identity space. On websites, the device ID comes from the user’s browser. On apps, the device ID comes from app-instance ID. You don’t need any further setup in Google Analytics to use device ID.

Question 22

Identity spaces in the old UA properties

Answer 22

In UA properties, most reporting relies heavily on device ID, although a few reports and features can also use the Google signals identity space. When the User-ID feature is enabled, its data is reported separately from the rest of your data and doesn’t integrate with other identity spaces. Because these identity spaces work separately, it’s difficult to measure user journeys across devices and de-duplicate users in UA properties.

Question 23

Identity spaces in GA4 properties

Answer 23

In GA4 properties, data is processed using all available identity spaces. First, Analytics looks for User-ID because this feature uses the data you collect. Next, it tries Google signals, and finally, if there isn’t a match for either, it relies on the device ID. From there, Analytics creates a single user journey from all the data associated with the same identity. Because these identity spaces are used in all reports, they allow you to de-duplicate users and tell a more unified, holistic story about their relationships with your business.

Question 24

What does all this about Identity spaces mean?

Answer 24

When you only have access to one identity space, like device ID, a single person could appear as a different user every time they interact with your business on a different device. But when you use multiple identity spaces, you can get better insight into user journeys, with more robust cross-device and cross-platform data and reporting that reflects de-duplicated users.

Question 25

With GA4 properties, you can answer questions like:

Answer 25

• How many total unique users do you have, no matter what platforms they use?
• How many conversions have occurred on your app and website in the last week — and which platform is contributing to most of these conversions?

Question 26

You can also go deeper to understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns across platforms.

Answer 26

For example, you can see how many users started on your app, then visited your website to make a purchase.

Question 27

Key takeaway 1

Answer 27

With GA4 properties, it’s easy to create new audiences, and you have more options when defining and segmenting these audiences.

Question 28

Key takeaway 2

Answer 28

GA4 properties collect and store user interactions with your business as events instead of sessions. This allows Analytics to be more flexible and scalable, and to perform more custom calculations, faster.

Question 29

Key takeaway 3

Answer 29

GA4 properties combine the use of several different user identity spaces. This gives better insight into user journeys, with more robust cross-device and cross-platform data and reporting that reflects de-duplicated users.