It’s been just over a month that the world of marketing saw a transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. For app marketers, reaching and retaining its highest-value app users is of utmost importance. In a recent announcement, Google thus unveiled audience tools that GA4 would offer.

In the coming weeks, the tech giant will be enabling access to GA4 audience builder in Google Ads, to help advertisers efficiently build audiences as they set up and manage their campaigns. Among other audience tools are ‘new unnotified users suggested audiences’ and ‘re-using app and web audiences’.

The Google announcement also shared advertisers like Ratel, a European auto-subtitle generator app developer, have seen promising results with GA4’s audience tools. The company wanted to scale its app reach and performance in its top markets and leveraged GA4’s segmentation options to target the right users in their iOS campaigns.

By building an audience which focused on paying users and excluded free trial users, they were able to achieve three times more in-app actions at a 157 percent lower CPA (cost per action) compared to previous campaigns.

After witnessing so many fancy terms and jargons around GA4, are the Indian marketers finding it difficult to catch up? Maybe not so much.

Schneider Electric’s Rajat Abbi, vice president - global marketing and chief marketing officer, Greater India shared that he has in fact gotten positive feedback from his peers in the marketing community, when it comes to GA4. “In the current multi-device, multi-platform landscape, this feature is of utmost importance. The integration of AI-driven insights greatly enhances campaign planning and reinforces audience segmentation,” he mentioned.

Additionally, Abbi feels that the improved funnel analysis efficiently pinpoints weaknesses in the customer acquisition to conversion process. Such detailed insights enable marketeers to refine their outreach and achieve enhanced results in this highly competitive digital environment.

Marketer Prasun Kumar also believes that the integration of machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities (that GA4 uses) has been fascinating. “It empowers us to make data-driven decisions with greater accuracy and insights,” he says.

Was the shift from UA to GA4 favourable?

Experts are in fact happy with the data model that GA4 offers. A seasoned marketer from the financial services space shared that unlike GA3 or Universal Analytics, GA4 offers a more flexible data model that allows accurate tracking and is more focused on user privacy. Data privacy being one of the key tenets of modern marketing, other marketers also resonate with the statement.

For instance, Kumar said that the enhanced privacy controls and consent management have helped them adhere to data protection regulations while still gaining valuable insights into user behaviour. “Overall, the upgrade to GA4 has been a positive step in elevating our analytics capabilities,” he mentioned.

Additionally, GA4 combines both web and app data in the same property. Experts feel that now it thus gets much easier to analyse and study. “GA4 offers more advanced eCommerce tracking which helps us in our online sales efforts and helps us make more data-driven decisions on how to improve our eCommerce strategy,” a marketing expert added.

Initial hiccups

The transition from UA to GA4 was indeed a big and impactful shift, experts shared. Basically, the GA3 model was based on sessions and page views, while GA4 is based on events and parameters which eventually means these platforms collect, process and report the same data differently. Marketers felt the hit in terms of data migration and event tracking implementation.

“Understanding the new data model and how it differs from Universal Analytics took some time, and we had to ensure that our existing tracking codes and tags were compatible with the new version,” said Kumar.

Another marketer mentioned that the transition presents challenges that require adjustments in tracking setup and understanding the new report interface. GA4 uses an event-based tracking model, which requires marketers to update their tracking codes and implement new event-tracking methods.

GA4 as part of MarTech stack

Maximising the impact of your marketing strategies hinges on cost optimization and effective budget allocation. Sharing on how to allocate marketing budgets with this tool in play, Abbi pointed out that by harnessing GA4's information, one can pinpoint high-performing marketing channels, allocate resources with precision, and enhance the return on investment (ROI).

“Despite its advantages, marketers should consider certain factors when integrating GA4 into their MarTech stack. The event-driven data model in GA4 differs from UA, necessitating careful data mapping during migration. Transitioning to GA4 might require a learning curve for marketers accustomed to UA. While GA4 continually improves, it may not yet fully match UA's capabilities,” he added.

Kumar feels that while it undoubtedly is a flexible tool that can fit into various martech stacks, it is essential to consider the specific needs and objectives of the organisation when integrating GA4. “Depending on the complexity of your tech stack and data infrastructure, some customization and configuration might be required to make the most out of GA4's capabilities,” he mentioned.

Experts thus advise that to ensure seamless integration, marketers should verify GA4's compatibility with other non-Google tools in their MarTech stack. Although GA4 allows more customization, some specialised analytics tools might offer even greater flexibility.