Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics. Since it is the 4th version, it is called GA4. There are many new features including a single view of users across devices(desktop, mobile etc) and (if applicable) platforms like Apps. This new property type – Google Analytics 4 properties – unifies and simplifies data processing, reporting, audiences, and analysis.
There are other three older versions listed below:
- The very first version of Google Analytics (GA1) is the Classic Google Analytics which uses the ga.js JavaScript library.
- The second version of Google Analytics (GA2) is popularly know as Universal Analytics which uses the analytics.js JavaScript library
- The third version of Google Analytics (GA3) is also known as Universal Analytics but it uses the gtag.js JavaScript library.
The new Google Analytics 4 – GA4 is based out of a new measurement model called event-based schema for data collection. This new measurement model enables clients to get even richer insight from their data by solidifying its ability to unify data across devices.
In the past, if you wanted to measure your website usage data then you would need to use the GA property meant for tracking website data and similarly If you wish to measure your mobile app usage data then you would need to use Google Analytics for Firebase
There was no easy way to combine mobile app and website usage data for unified reporting and analysis. But this has all changed with the advent of Google Analytics 4 – GA4 property (formerly known as ‘Apps and Web’ property).
Google Analytics allows you to integrate mobile app and website usage data into a single GA4 Property. This new property is called ‘Google Analytics 4 (or GA4)’ and it is available in your GA account when you create a new property.
If you have got both a mobile app and a website and you want to measure the purchase journey and/or engagement of your users across your mobile app and website then you should start using the GA4 property immediately.
Even if you don’t have a mobile app, Google still recommends that you create and use the GA4 property and run in parallel with your GA3 property as eventually Google is likely to discontinue support for GA3 and other older GA versions.
You can use and take advantage of the new GA4 property even if you don’t have any mobile app. In that case, you can just use it to measure your website performance.
However,
GA4 won’t become a 100% replacement for your GA3 property, anytime soon. It is still not ready for commercial consumption mainly because of lack of robust ecommerce reporting and attribution modelling. So keep your GA3 property intact.
The reporting view that you create in GA4 property is the GA4 view. The reporting interface of the GA4 view looks similar to that of Google Analytics for firebase (because GA4 is built on firebase analytics). But it is quite different from any GA3 reporting view.
At first glance, GA4 may look intimidating as many of the reports and metrics that you have been familiar with are not there. They have either been removed or replaced.
You are going to see different sets of reports in your GA 4 view and you are not going to see many reports. This is because many of the reports are generated only when you start tracking events.