We’re now less than one year away from Google deprecating the current version of Google Analytics (read: it won’t work anymore). With that in mind, we’ve had a few clients ask us our all-time favorite question: “So what?” Below are a few ways that we’re encouraging our clients to prepare for the new world of GA4.
Switch to GA4
We had to say it! Google is making this a required upgrade, effective July 2023. You can read our basic Google Analytics 4 setup guide and our Google Tag Manager setup guide to get started. Futurety is always here to help if you have any questions.
Start relying more on first-party data
Soon, the best way to target your customers will be by using your own data. If you don’t currently have your customers’ or prospects’ emails; if you’re not tracking new, lapsed, and returned customers by their name/address/phone; or if you don’t have a strategy for either of these, now is the time. There is significant government pressure on digital ad platforms to reduce their use of tracking cookies sooner rather than later, so the more you can use your owned data to target your customers and prospects, the better.
Futurety launched a consumer behavior platform, HUCKLE, to help you use your own data to make informed decisions. It uncovers deep insights into your audience’s demographics, psychographics, lifestyle attributes, hobbies and more all within minutes. Customer data is becoming more important with the phasing out of third-party cookies, so use your own data to build your customer persona.
Supercharge your reporting
One of the most exciting features of GA4 is its standard integration with Google BigQuery. This means it’s now much easier to pull detailed data from GA4, and put it into Data Studio, Power BI, or another dashboard with more slicers and breakdowns.
BigQuery is easy to set up and minimal cost (often <$10/month) to manage. The benefits to being able to break down your data into 100+ different audience segments is excellent.
Get ready for new insights with GA4
GA4 comes out of the box with data-driven attribution, meaning it gives conversion credit to every channel along the purchase journey. So if a user visits your site via organic search, leaves, then comes back later from Facebook and converts, both channels get credit for a partial conversion. This is especially relevant if you work in an industry that has long purchase journeys (think cars or homes).
As it goes, this is just the tip of the iceberg! New features are being added to GA4 almost weekly it seems, and each new release offers more ideas on how this new platform can evolve our marketing strategies. Contact us if we can provide you with guidance on any of these ideas, and use GA4 to its full potential.
