Google Analytics 4: what changes and what to do before July 2023

On March 16, 2022, Google announced that Universal Analytics, the classic version of Google Analytics, will stop processing new data on July 1, 2023. Its replacement is Google Analytics 4 (GA4). What to do now: install GA4 alongside the old one, today, so you already have more than a year of data by the time Universal Analytics shuts off.

What stops, and when

Standard Universal Analytics properties (the ones whose code starts with "UA-") stop receiving new visits after July 1, 2023. Until then they keep working as usual. After that date nothing new gets added to the old reports, so it's worth exporting the ones you need ahead of time.

The real problem is something else: GA4 doesn't import your Universal Analytics history. It starts counting from zero, on the day you install it. Google says so directly in the announcement: move over as soon as possible to build the historical data you need before Universal Analytics stops.

A practical example: if you run a guesthouse and want to compare summer 2023 with summer 2022, you need GA4 installed by spring 2022 at the latest. Install it in June 2023 and you'll have nothing to compare against that summer.

What's different in GA4

Everything is an "event." Universal Analytics thought in sessions and pageviews. GA4, Google says, uses an event-based data model: a page view, a tap on your phone number, a submitted form are all events. Reports look different from Universal Analytics and some numbers are calculated differently, so don't compare them one to one with the old ones.

Website and app in one place. GA4 can measure a website and a mobile app together. For a business with just one website, that matters less.

More focus on privacy. Google says GA4 doesn't store IP addresses and doesn't rely exclusively on cookies.

Detailed data isn't kept forever. In GA4 you choose how long user-level and event-level data is kept: 2 or 14 months. The setting affects detailed analysis (explorations), not the standard reports.

What to do, step by step

1. Create a GA4 property in your Google Analytics account, with the right time zone and currency.
2. Add a web data stream for your site and leave enhanced measurement on. Google says it automatically collects page views and other events.
3. Add the tag to your site. There are three ways, depending on how the site is built: the Google Analytics field in your website platform (if it has one), pasting the code into a custom code section, or Google Tag Manager.
4. Check that data is coming in, in the Realtime report. Google says data collection can take up to 30 minutes to start.
5. Set data retention to 14 months in the property settings, so you can compare year over year in explorations.
6. Mark as conversions the events that matter to you: a submitted contact form, a tap on your phone number, a booking.
7. Keep Universal Analytics running alongside until it shuts down, and save the old reports you need in good time.

Cookies and visitor consent

GA4 doesn't change the European rules. The ePrivacy Directive (Article 5(3)) says you may store or read information on a visitor's device only with their consent, after informing them clearly. The exceptions are transmitting a communication and what's strictly necessary for a service the user explicitly asked for. Analytics cookies aren't part of the service the visitor asked for, so your cookie banner has to block them until consent is given. When you install GA4, make sure the tag respects the choice made in the banner.

What drives the effort

For a simple business website, installation is a short job. The effort grows with the number of conversions you want to track, with an online store (where order data has to be sent), with a website and an app that need to be connected, and with a cookie banner that has to be set up to work with the new tag.

If you'd like us to handle the setup and reporting, our marketing services page shows what we do. And if you run a local business, an equally useful step is your Google Business Profile.