In a few days it will be one year since the transition from Google Analytics 360 to the Google Analytics 4 version.
Probably everyone has already managed to configure the tool and use the ready-made reports for this period. However, after a year, it is worth reviewing these settings for the most common errors and making sure that none of them negatively affect the data collected. A misaligned setup results in incorrect results, which influences erroneous decisions.
We have heard of cases where last-minute migrations from GA 360 to GA4 were made. The rush caused mistakes in the settings on the new interface. The following article will help verify the most important errors that may have occurred during it.
Setting up a data stream is a key part of setting up a data flow from a website or app to Google Analytic 4. It allows the user to connect a specific data source – i.e. a website, Android or iOS app – to reports.
By creating the appropriate flow, you get a tracking code and a number of settings specific to the data source. Various reports are available in the interface, depending on the type of connection.
During setup, we may have mistakenly defined several data streams for one site, hoping to fully replace the GA 360 view. We do not recommend this approach, as it creates a situation similar to one in which we would create two tracking codes for one site. Views in the basic version of GA4 will no longer return, and streams should only be used to configure the connection.
Properly configuring data streams is a fundamental step to sending full data to reports. This allows you to create custom reports suitable for websites and applications. It is worth remembering that a single GA4 service can have a maximum of three data streams: one for a website and one each for Android and iOS apps.
In GA4, by default, data is stored for two months. This means that after this time, data including user ID, ad ID or cookie information will disappear from the reports. Collecting data about a specific campaign, for example, in March, after two months the information about that campaign will disappear, leaving only site (or app) traffic from the last 60 days or unrelated to the campaign.
Thus, we should change the data retention period to the maximum – that is, 14 months in the case of standard GA4. Without this configuration, it will be impossible to analyze full traffic data from the campaign.
We encounter the situation that on a given site the default settings do not collect cookies for GA4. This makes it possible to not even have information about a customer’s visit at all, or to collect it without the user’s sensitive information. In the second case, the data is not complete, but at least the aggregate ones on site traffic appear.
Advanced monitoring after integrating GA4 with a website provides interesting data, albeit in a somewhat limited form. Additional relevant parameters are partially transmitted with the advanced monitoring events, but are not visible in the default reports. We often hear that GA4 is event-based and this is a key element of monitoring, so there is no point in repeating it again. However, without specifying what activities on the site or in the application are important to analyze and learn from (and how to measure and implement them), all work with GA4 will not be very valuable.
The knowledge we have will be limited only to the information that users came from several campaigns and that there were many of them and they visited our site from different sources And from which campaign did those who made significant conversions come? Or those who signed up for the newsletter? Such events do not fit into basic monitoring and are really worth defining, configuring and implementing well.
Such events could be:
Advanced monitoring in GA4 provides valuable data, but requires precise definition of relevant activities on the site or in the analysis application. Without this, working with GA4 can be limited. If you need support in this area, we invite you to contact the Media Maker team.
