What is Analytics 4 vs 3? Google has some awesome tools called GA4 and GA3. GA3 is the older version of GA4. GA3 is also known as Universal Analytics but Google is going to discontinue it on July 1, 2023. However, before migrating to GA4, marketers need to know the differences between them.
Many marketers have been using GA3 and have been familiar with its features. But soon, all marketers need to know how to use GA4. That’s why all marketers need to learn the things that make GA4 more special than the previous version.
Google Analytics 4 Vs Universal Analytics
Many things make GA4 totally different from the older version. The biggest difference is the tools’ channels or platforms. GA4 is going to support analytics for both website and mobile while GA3 only provides website data analysis. What are some other differences?
1. Reporting interface
The new analytics tool has a reporting interface that’s totally different than GA3. What is Analytics 4 vs 3? GA3 has tabs that now are gone. Those metrics and reports from GA3 have been replaced or removed with something new and more advanced.
GA4’s reporting interface may remind you of Google Analytics designed for Firebase. It is because GA4 is adopting the data model of Firebase.
2. Measuring method
Google Analytics 4 is now applying a measurement model that is based on events and is centered on parameters and events. Every single activity your user performs will be considered an event. Since a pageview is an event, you are going to see some details like time, location, and so on.
Google Analytics 3 is a session model that will track data based on pageviews and sessions. It stores information such as transactions as hits, events, and page views. Every action that happened is noted by GA3.
3. Sessions
In GA3 every session is combining transactions, events, and pageviews of a user within a specific timeframe. It is going to act as a container that accommodates all actions taken by every user while the user is on your website.
What is Analytics 4 vs 3? GA4 is different since it will not restrict sessions by time. In GA4, the session is less because the tool will not create new sessions in the middle of the session to change the source. This is going to affect the average session time.
4. Tracking ID
Both data analytics tools also have a difference in tracking ID. When you want to set up the GT4’s tracking via GTM, a measurement ID will be needed. In GA3, it is impossible to do it simply using the tracking ID.
5. Data streams view and setup
GA3 requires you to create separate data streams and views for web and app tracking. But in GA4, you can choose to create separate streams without creating different views. This is going to help you see and set up data streams much more easily.
6. Event tracking setup
What is Analytics 4 vs 3? In GA3, all events that have been tracked will follow the value, label, action, and category schema. The event tracking setup of GA4 is more flexible since it captures some categories of events.
Those categories of events are custom events, recommended events, enhancement measurement events, and automatically collected events. The last two events don’t need any code changes on the app and page.
7. Event tracking automation
The next Google Analytics 4 difference is the event tracking automation. GA4 provides a new feature called enhanced measurement that will allow automatic tracking of some events, including tracking file downloads, video engagement, site search tracking, outbound clicks, and scroll tracking.
Enhancement measurement and automatically collected events in GA4 will not require any additional tags or code except custom and recommended events.
8. E-commerce tracking
In terms of e-commerce tracking capabilities, GA3 is much better than GA4. The older version offers tracking details in a long list compared to GA4. This means GA4 is not ready yet for commercial consumption.
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