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GA4 Transition

Written by Geetanjali Tyagi
Updated this week

Optmyzr’s Take on GA4 Transition

As Google will be sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA) starting from July 1, 2023, Google Analytics will start using its Cross-Platform solution commonly known as GA4. Having said that, Google has offered us the opportunity to continue using UA properties in parallel with GA4. Therefore, you can continue tracking your data using UA and can try using GA4 properties simultaneously.

Additionally, our team has also started working on developing solutions to incorporate GA4 into our tools, and we’ll keep you posted with any updates around it.

Transitioning reports to GA4

As Universal Analytics (UA) approaches its deprecation date, it's essential to move away from Universal Analytics and set up your reports with the next-generation Google Analytics 4 (GA4) platform. Otherwise, the UA-configured widgets in your reports would appear empty once the system stops receiving data from Universal Analytics.

Understand the requirement of a new setup

Considering the significant changes made to the Analytics reporting in GA4, the Optmyzr Reporting tool has implemented a separate set of widgets to work with the new GA4 properties (events). This means that your existing UA (Universal Analytics) widgets cannot be used to analyze GA4 data.

This article by Google will give you an in-depth comparison between UA and GA4, however, for the sake of ease, here are a few major causes for the requirement of a new setup using GA4:

  • Data Compatibility: UA and GA4 have different data models and tracking methodologies. By using separate widgets, you can ensure that the data extracted from each Analytics platform aligns correctly with the respective data model. This helps to maintain data integrity and accuracy in your reporting.

  • Event vs Pageview: In GA4, you can easily add custom tags to track specific events triggered by customers on your website, such as monitoring external links clicked within your domain. On the other hand, UA primarily relies on "Page Views" to track the number of page views and associated data for each visited page. With GA4 events, you gain more detailed reporting capabilities and increased flexibility. The new GA4 widgets are designed to accurately capture data for each event, including conversion events that have replaced UA goals.

  • Reporting flexibility and custom configurations: There are different ways to make use of the new advanced features in Analytics, for example, attribution to study conversion areas which can help you understand the impact and effectiveness of different marketing efforts in driving conversions. Having separate widgets provide the flexibility to customize and configure the visualizations, metrics, and dimensions specific to each analytics platform. This also helps avoid confusion with deprecated features.

1. Connect GA4 property to Optmyzr

The first step towards a smooth transition would be to go ahead and link your GA4 property to Optmyzr, if not done already.

Go to the ‘Manage linked accounts’ page and proceed to add a new Google Analytics login with a GA4 property associated. You can then click on the desired property name present under the “GA4 Properties” section and link a Google Ads profile with it. Feel free to check out this help article if you need any additional help with the process.

2. Remove UA widgets from reports

Every report that includes UA widgets now has an interactive process to help you remove them before they're deprecated. This utility will remain available until all UA widgets have been successfully removed from a report. Additionally, it will provide you with information, indicating the exact number of UA widgets contained within that report.

To facilitate the process, please follow the steps outlined below:

  • Click on ‘Get started’ and it will take you one by one to each existing UA widget.

  • Review the data being reported in each widget and take it into consideration it when incorporating the new GA4 widgets.

  • Remove each widget by clicking the ‘Delete’ icon present on the top right side of the widget.

Once all the deprecated widgets are removed, you’re ready to make use of the new GA4 widgets!

3. Add GA4 property to Reports

To get started with GA4, make sure to add the required GA4 property that replaces your existing UA property.

For Single Account reports: If you have associated a GA4 property with the selected account, the data for that property will automatically show up when you add the GA4 widgets.

For Multi-Account reports: Go to the ‘Accounts/Date Ranges’ section to add one or more GA4 properties.

4. Start using the GA4 tables and charts

Explore the potential of GA4 by using our extensive set of performance tables and charts. Our Reporting tool offers widgets that can be customized to meet your specific requirements. Additionally, we provide pre-configured tables and charts for common data sets. These pre-configured options are designed for specific purposes like acquiring users or analyzing event engagement. They utilize carefully selected combinations of dimensions and metrics to provide valuable insights for your analytics requirements.

Start making changes now in our reporting tool.

Tracking GCLID in GA4

If you’re looking to get insights to fetch details about keywords, costs, etc. from your linked Google Ads account to a GA4 property, we’d recommend enabling the “Auto-tagging” option.

What is Auto-tagging?

Auto-tagging from Google allows you to automatically import data from the Google Ads interface directly into Analytics. This will help you to better analyze the user journey on your website after people clicked on your ads.

If the auto-tagging option is enabled and a user clicks over to your site from an ad, it’ll automatically trigger and add the “gclid” parameter to your landing page URL.

Note: Please ensure that the Conversion Tracking is set up correctly for all the conversions you want to report and analyze. You can use the Google Tag Manager to quickly set this up.

Tracking gclid data using Auto-tagging

Setting up Auto-tagging in Google Ads

To start tracking GCLID data, you have to enable the “Auto-tagging” option in Google Ads, link the Google Ads account with the GA4 property and you’re good to go! Here are the steps to help you set this up:

  • Access your Google Ads account and Go to Settings on the left page menu.

  • Click Account Settings at the top of the page.

  • Select the Auto-tagging option and tick/check the “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad” column. (read more)

Linking Google Ads with Google Analytics 4 property

Before linking a GA4 property to Google Ads, please make sure you have the correct permission for the Google Ads account. Additionally, you’ll also need to have the “Editor role” for the GA4 property.

Once these conditions are satisfied, you can link your Analytics property with the Google Ads account by following the steps mentioned below:

  • Sign In to your Analytics account and go under the Admin section on the bottom left.

  • Select the GA4 property, and under the PRODUCT LINKS section, click on Google Ads Links.

  • Click “Link” and choose the Google Ads account you want to link, and confirm.

  • Expand the “Enable Auto-Tagging” option to enable auto-tagging or to leave your auto-tagging settings as they are.

  • Submit (You can read more about this here)

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