Hey there, I'm Benjamin from Loves Data. In this video, you're going to learn about
the new 'Google Analytics 4' properties. 'Google Analytics 4' properties were previously
called 'App and Web' properties and they're designed to provide additional flexibility
in the way you collect data and report on your audience. Today I'm going to cover the differences between
'Google Analytics 4', 'App and Web', and the existing properties you will find in Google
Analytics. And I will also cover if you should be using
a new 'Google Analytics 4' property. Okay, let's get started! ‘Google Analytics 4’ properties are designed
to provide greater flexibility in the way you track the actions taking place on your
website and in your app. Rather than being built around ‘pageviews’,
‘Google Analytics 4’ properties are built around a flexible event structure, where you
can send all different types of information to your reports. Before we look at the steps to get started
with a ‘Google Analytics 4’ property, I want to mention, they were previously called
‘App + Web’ properties. So if you’ve already created an ‘App +
Web’ property, then you don’t need to set up another property in Google Analytics. Since ‘App + Web’ properties are now ‘Google
Analytics 4’ properties. There’s no difference. However, there are differences between ‘Google
Analytics 4’ and Universal Analytics properties. Let’s take a look... Overall, ‘Google Analytics 4’ gives you
complete flexibility in the way you collect data... There is a range of reporting options, including
ad-hoc reporting to meet your needs... The option to filter out your internal traffic
is coming... Other than filtering internal traffic and
developer traffic, there aren’t currently any other filtering options. However, I expect we will see this change
in the future. You can make some limited changes to the attribution
model used for your reports. And I also expect to see the options expand
in the future. Cross-domain tracking is coming... You can link ‘Google Analytics 4’ properties
to Google Ads... Although you can’t link other products,
like Google Search Console, I’m hoping to see this in the future. You can store a raw copy of your data using
Google BigQuery. And you can pull data into Google Data Studio
and access your reports using Google’s app. That’s a quick summary of the current differences
between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics properties. Overall, I recommend setting up a ‘Google
Analytics 4’ property in parallel to your existing Universal Analytics property. This will give you access to the latest reports
and features. You might love the new reports, or you might
prefer the old reports, either way, you will be ready with the latest version of Google
Analytics. Now let’s cover how you can identify what
type of property you’re using in Google Analytics. Let’s head to Google Analytics... I’ve already logged in, and we can see there
are three columns... There is the account column on the left, then
the property column in the middle, and a view column on the right. Since there are three columns, this immediately
tells us that we’re looking at a ‘Universal Analytics’ or standard web property. Now let’s select another property... We can see there are only two columns. There is an account column on the left, a
property column in the middle, and there is no view column on the right. This means we’re now looking at a ‘Google
Analytics 4’ property. This is the new type of Google Analytics property. If you follow these steps and you don’t
have a ‘Google Analytics 4’ property, then the first thing I recommend is that you
keep your existing property. So if you are already tracking your website
with a ‘Universal Analytics’ or standard web property, keep tracking it into the existing
property. Then, if you want to start using a new ‘Google
Analytics 4’ property, you can set this up in parallel to your existing implementation. This is the best option since it means you
can continue to use your existing reports with all of their historical data, and you
can begin to use the new reports in the ‘Google Analytics 4’ property. Let’s travel through the steps to create
a new ‘Google Analytics 4’ property. Google is currently rolling out an ‘upgrade’
option to existing ‘Universal Analytics’ accounts. This doesn’t seem to be available in all
properties at the moment, so if you don’t see this ‘Upgrade to GA4’ option yet,
you can either wait or simply create a new property yourself. We will cover these steps in a moment. Here we can see we do have the ‘upgrade’
option, so let’s click this... We’re now prompted to either create a new
‘Google Analytics 4’ property or link to an existing ‘Google Analytics 4’ property. Let’s select the option to create a new
property... We’re given details about the upgrade process. And if you’re using the gtag.js tracking
code on your website, you can even enable data collection without having to make any
changes to your website. Since my demo account isn’t using gtag.js,
we can see this option isn’t available. Okay, let’s select ‘Create Property’... We can see our new ‘Google Analytics 4’
property has been created. Let’s select ‘Admin’ to add a data stream... Now let’s select ‘Data Streams’... We can see a data stream has been automatically
created for the website. So let’s select this... We can now copy the ‘Measurement ID’ on
the top right corner and add this to our website using Google Tag Manager. If you’re not using Google Tag Manager on
your website, then now is probably a good time to migrate your tracking code to tag
manager. The current recommendation is to track into
a Universal Analytics property and a new ‘Google Analytics 4’ property. And using Google Tag Manager is going to make
it easier to add the extra tag to your website. If you want to learn more about Google Tag
Manager, then check out my extra resources in the description below this video. Okay, so we’ve copied the ‘Measurement
ID’. We will use this in Google Tag Manager in
a moment, but now I want to show you the steps you’ll need to take if you don’t see the
upgrade option for your property. Let’s select another property... We can see this property doesn’t have the
upgrade option yet. So if we don’t want to wait, then we can
simply create a new property. To do this, we need to select ‘Create Property’... We can then see options to create a property
to track a website, an app, or an app and a website. To create a new ‘Google Analytics 4’ property
we need to select the ‘Apps and web’ option (even if we’re only going to use the property
to track a website). Google has said this is the new default for
Google Analytics, however, I haven’t seen this in my accounts yet. So take a moment to make sure ‘Apps and
web’ is selected. Then we click ‘continue’... Now we need to name our property... I’m going to call this property ‘Loves
Data GA4 Demo’, but you can name your property anything you like. Typically, this should be the name of your
organization, website, or app. I also recommend including ‘GA4’ in the
name because this will make it easier to identify as you switch between different properties
in Google Analytics. We can then select our ‘industry category’... Our ‘reporting time zone’... And ‘currency’ for our reports... Now let’s click ‘create’.... We can now configure our first data stream
for our new ‘Google Analytics 4’ property... You can add multiple data sources to your
property – you can create data streams for iOS apps, Android apps and websites. I’m going to select ‘Web’ for my data
stream... Now I need to enter the URL of my website
and I can name the data stream... We can see that ‘enhanced measurement’
is enabled by default... This new feature will automatically track
a range of common actions into Google Analytics... Let’s select the configuration icon to take
a look... We can see ‘enhanced measurement’ will
automatically track pageviews, scroll depth, outbound clicks, site search, embedded YouTube
videos and file downloads. I want to automatically track all of these
actions, so I am going to leave all the options enabled. Now we can click ‘create stream’... Let’s select our new data stream... This gives us everything we need to begin
collecting data from our website into our new property. You will notice changes if you’ve been using
standard website properties in Google Analytics. We have the option of adding a new tracking
tag to our website... We can see this under ‘Add new on-page tag’... So if you don’t currently use Google Analytics,
you can use this option to start collecting data. However, if you’re already using Google
Analytics or Google Tag Manager, then you will want to use one of the other options... If you have already implemented Google’s
global site tag (or gtag.js) on your website, then you can connect your existing tag to
the new property to begin collecting data without having to change anything on your
website. Now I want to highlight, if you want to collect
data from your existing Google Analytics tracking code, you will need to make sure that the
global site tag is implemented directly on your website, if it isn’t then simply linking
to your existing property, doesn’t pull any data into your new property. Finally, if you’re using Google Tag Manager,
then you can add a new tag inside your Google Tag Manager container. To do this, you will need to copy the ‘measurement
ID’ and use this when you configure the new ‘app and web configuration’ tag in
Google Tag Manager. Let’s do this now... Now that we’ve copied the ‘measurement
ID’, let’s head to Google Tag Manager... Since I’m already using Google Tag Manager
on my website to collect data into my existing, standard Google Analytics property, I am going
to add an additional tag to my container. We can now create a new tag... Let’s name the tag ‘Google Analytics GA4’... And select ‘GA4 configuration’ as the
tag type... Then we paste the measurement ID into the
tag configuration... And now we need to select a trigger for the
tag... Let’s select ‘all pages’... This will fire the tag on all the pages of
our website. Let’s save the tag... This means we now have the new ‘app and
web configuration’ tag AND we have our existing standard Google Analytics tag, so we’re
sending data to our existing property and our new property. We can now click ‘Submit’ to publish the
changes to our website. Let’s head to our website and reload the
page... This will trigger the new tag and begin collecting
data into our new property. To view the reports we can now head back to
Google Analytics... That’s it! We can now see data is beginning to be collected
into our reports. So that's what's new with 'Google Analytics
4' properties. They have replaced 'App and Web' properties
in Google Analytics and we are likely to see new features and reports added in the future. If you're using an existing Universal Analytics
property to track your website, then I recommend you continue tracking your website into your
existing property. You can then set up a new 'Google Analytics
4' property and track your website into both types of properties at the same time. This gives you the best of both... You can continue to use your existing reports,
while you also have access to new reports and features. Are you using a 'Google Analytics 4' property? I'd love to know! Let me know in the comments below. And if you found this video helpful please
subscribe, share it with your friends, and hit the like button so I know to make more
videos like this. See you next time!
