Google Analytics 4 is better than Universal Analytics – at least, that’s what some marketers have been telling Search Engine Land.
While the new platform certainly has its fair share of haters, some advertisers seem to absolutely adore it and have been showering the tool with praise.
If you’re scratching your head wondering how on Earth they could have reached this conclusion, below, we’ve put together some of the feedback we received from these unicorns. Let us know if their explanations could persuade you to have a sudden change of heart.
1. GA4 is easier (when it’s been set up properly)
Tim Barlow, managing director of Attacat, says that GA4 is a superior tool to UA because:
- “Customisation is easy.”
- “When well set-up, GA4 is much easier for first-time users to get to grips with.”
- “GA4 has a better data model – someone reading a blog post for 30 mins is a bounce in GA3. In GA4 they are the valued reader they are.”
- “GA4 is designed for more than just websites whereas GA3 isn’t suitable for the multi-device/mixed on and offline world we now live in.”
- “Consent is now a major issue in Europe. Google seems to be the only company properly investing in this issue – at least in the world of free or affordable Analytics.”
- “Non-developers can achieve more with GA4 because GA3 invariably needed devs for any customisation. With GA4 you still need a dev involved but not as often.”
2. It’s more accurate
The unpopularity of GA4 is simply down to people not having enough time to learn how it works rather than it being a reflection of the tool itself, according to Drew Blumenthal, founder and CEO of Digital Drew SEM.
GA4 has a number of great features to offer the industry, once advertisers have the chance to understand how it works, he said:
- “I personally think the interface is a lot sleeker than UA, but more importantly it is more accurate.
- “With the loss of data through privacy policies, you need GA4 to be more accurate of the traffic coming in.
- “GA4 also combines app, first-party data as well as cookie data, which is going to be a lot better long term. “
3. GA4 is powerful, flexible and creative
Digital marketer Stacey Chance admits that trying to understand how to use GA4 to its full capacity has definitely been a “learning curve”.
However, she pointed out that using events in the new tool is actually the same as it is in other analytics platforms, such as Heap, making the process straight forward than she originally realized, she said:
- “Our team has found GA4’s features incredibly powerful and flexible.”
- “The more we use it, the more we find creative, smart ways to leverage its features.”
4. It’s better than UA
The team at AS Marketing admit they found GA4 a bit tricky to navigate in the beginning, but since taking the time to understand how it works, they now think its a superior tool to its predecessor. They explain: