There’s nothing scarier to a digital marketer than losing mission-critical data. A pit takes over your stomach as you scramble for it, whether you’re working on a strategy deck for a big leadership presentation or a campaign performance report for that new product rollout. If you haven’t heard of Google Analytics 4 (G4) or haven’t already implemented it for your organization, prepare for a giant pit.
What’s Happening
Universal Analytics, the Google Analytics so many marketers know, love, and rely on, is going away for good in 2023 with G4 replacing it. What does that mean? Instead of just basing performance measurement on desktop web, independent sessions, and cookies, G4 measures traffic and engagement across your websites and apps. The end result is:
A unified, more complete view of your customer lifecycle that isn’t fragmented by different platforms or individual sessions
Attribution across your entire customer journey, not just the last click in your Analytics data
New insights and predictions from Google’s machine learning, including behavioral and conversion modeling
Sounds Great. So Why Are Marketers Shrieking in Horror?
Starting on July 1, 2023, you’ll need a G4 instance to continue leveraging Google Analytics. But waiting until July is a big mistake; this is a change you need to make ASAP.
If G4 isn’t running now, you won’t be able to see year-over-year data this time next year. Plus, G4 better understands unique users, which eliminates inflated traffic numbers from the same user engaging on multiple devices. In other words, you’ll get better visibility into unique users and more accurate data. Without G4 in place, you won’t have a chance to establish new benchmarks for unique traffic — which will create sheer panic next year when your website traffic appears to take a giant dip. You won’t have what you need to communicate everything clearly to your stakeholders.
In other words, G4 is another addition to your never-ending to-do list that you must bring to the top.
That’s Why We Created the Perfect Solution
Successfully moving to G4 requires more than flipping a switch. You need to take stock of your goals, conversion touchpoints, and reporting. Whether it’s traditional Google Analytics or G4, you should view the tool as a source of truth for your digital marketing efforts that can answer questions like:
How long after a website visit does it take for users to convert?
Which channels influenced conversions?
Which conversion points are users most likely to engage with?
What does the audience need to see prior to conversion?
Making the right move to G4 means setting up your digital marketing efforts for long-term success. You can’t do that if you’re not getting as many data-driven insights as possible.
Enter SalientMG’s experts…
In true senior doer fashion, our team has done extensive G4 training so we can get new instances — and all the important ingredients — up and running as quickly as possible. Here’s what our experts will do for you:
Build a ready-to-use, fully-implemented G4 instance, including connections to Google Ads and Google Search Console
Conduct an analysis of your existing goals and conversion points, followed by recommendations for improvement
Implement your organization’s most important goals and the touchpoints that go with them
Set up reporting that you can use to measure success today, tomorrow, and beyond
If you want, we can also train your team to take full advantage of G4. Even better, we can do all the work in just two weeks. That’s no hocus pocus; we’re well-versed in these new capabilities and can work fast.
Don’t Get Caught Off Guard
Q4 is the perfect time to get your digital house in order for the upcoming year. As the calendar races towards 2023, grab ahold of a helping hand and reserve one of our limited spots for this sensational service. We’ll tackle the work once so you can reap the benefits forever.