We’ve just passed the two-year mark since Universal Analytics stopped processing hits, a day that was supposed to mark a new era in analytics.
But here we are, two years later, still clinging to the past. The blog posts keep rolling in about how bad GA4 is. Teams are still wrestling with the setup, the data, the interface and wondering how something meant to be an upgrade ended up feeling like a downgrade.
I get it, and I don’t always disagree with the challenges people raise. When I first saw GA4, my reaction was probably the same as yours: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, GOOGLE?!
We went from a familiar, trusty companion, the Nokia 3310 of analytics, to something closer to an iPhone 16 Pro Max overnight. Except no one gave us the manual, and half the buttons are hidden behind swipe gestures that no one asked for.
But two years on, I truly believe it is the shake-up the industry needed.
Has data become more difficult to get to for businesses?
Yes, in some ways it definitely has. Small (and even bigger) businesses, with limited technical or analytical resources will be finding it more difficult to get to the numbers they so easily used to do.
Has Google made it more expensive to get to data?
Yes, but in some ways I can’t blame them. The costs of storage for millions of websites’ daily data must have been astronomical. Let alone the cost of loads of us ecommerce professionals accessing the tool every day, watching real-time numbers on Black Friday.
Along with that, the number of businesses that weren’t paying for 360 and working from sampled data in the interface was huge. Just because the data was easy to get to, and lots of people could do it, does not and did not mean the data was reliable. There comes a cost with accurate and trustworthy data, and I think in some ways we had it far too good for too long, so our expectations were impossibly high.
Let’s be clear, I’m not saying there aren’t plenty of good analytics alternatives out there and if you just can’t get to grips with GA4, they are worth considering. However, before you do that, it’s really worth considering the power of the tool and where it shines above anything Universal Analytics could do.
Simple and easy changes, including maximising your use of event parameters to get granular with your data, connecting your GA to BigQuery (even if today you don’t know how to use it), and just setting up the recommended events alone will stand you in good stead.
I’ll be writing a few more articles on why all these things are important, and how you can maximise your use of Google Analytics even if you’re not the most technical or analytical person. Equally, if you have any questions then drop us a note at hello@conversio.com or take a look around and find out more about what we do.
