Get More from GA4
GA4 Reporting from a Certified Google Analytics Consultant
Choose data consulting from Google Analytics experts with more than a decade of Google advanced data analytics experience.
Get More from GA4
GA4 Reporting from a Certified Google Analytics Consultant
Choose data consulting from Google Analytics experts with more than a decade of Google advanced data analytics experience.
Make Data-informed Decisions That Matter
Working with an experienced Google Analytics consultant can help you get the most from your GA4 property.
- Harness GA4’s capabilities for custom dimensions, tracking, and reporting.
- Optimize your digital strategy.
- Elevate your understanding of customer behavior and business performance.
Depending on your needs, The Dames’ Google Analytics consulting services can include:
Discovery Session
Lay the groundwork for a custom GA4 setup that will deliver genuine insights. Our discovery session delves into your specific tracking goals and KPIs.
Google Analytics Audit
Gain comprehensive insights from a meticulous Google Analytics audit. We’ll assess your GA4 property’s existing data collection and deliver expert analysis and actionable improvement strategies.
Complete GA4 Setup
Get a seamless GA4 setup that’s integrated with essential Google products and third-party tools. We’ll customize GA4 events and dimensions to accurately track your progress toward your objectives.
Dashboards & Custom Reports in GA4
Unlock the full potential of your data with a dashboard and custom GA4 reporting built just for your business and designed to give you a clear, concise view of your performance metrics at a glance.
Ongoing GA4 Analysis & Support
Partner with The Dames’ Google Analytics experts for regular GA4 analysis and support. We’ll make sure your analytics evolve with your business and provide ongoing optimization as well as strategic guidance for sustained growth.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Google Analytics
How does the google analytics 4 migration impact data tracking?
Universal Analytics (UA) was designed for a web ecosystem that is very different from the one we have today. It was built for a desktop-focused world where cookies were the primary means of tracking user behavior. However, with the rise of mobile devices, privacy concerns, and the changing digital landscape, UA was no longer sufficient.
GA4 is built on a new data model that is designed to accommodate these changes. It uses machine learning to provide more accurate and relevant insights into user behavior. It also offers more flexibility in terms of data collection and analysis, allowing businesses to track and measure user behavior across multiple devices and channels.
Is Google Analytics free?
Yes, Google Analytics is 100 percent free to use, offering an impressive set of analytics tools at no cost—which is perfect for small and many mid-size businesses. However, while GA4 provides potential for deep data analysis, the platform can be challenging to use without knowledge and experience that’s specific to GA4. Fully leveraging the capabilities requires a substantial investment of time and resources to understand its new approach to data analysis and customize its many options for your business.
Organizations that want meaningful, actionable insights from GA4 should expect a steep learning curve and a reevaluation of digital analytics strategies. For some, hiring Google Analytics consultants or a Google Analytics agency will be a faster, more cost-effective approach.
For companies seeking even more advanced features and dedicated support, Google offers Analytics 360, a premium, enterprise-level solution.
Which goals are available in Google Analytics?
In GA4, the approach to tracking user interactions has evolved from the traditional goal types available in UA. GA4 focuses on “events” as the primary means of tracking user interactions, making the old UA goal types—destination, duration, pages/screens per session, etc.—obsolete in their previous form. Instead, GA4 allows for more flexibility and customization in tracking:
- Events. In GA4, everything is tracked as an event. This means actions like page views, button clicks, and transactions are all recorded as events, which can be customized to fit specific tracking needs.
- Conversions. Events in GA4 can be marked as conversions. This allows you to designate which user actions are most valuable to your business, similar to how goals worked in UA but with more granularity and customization options.
- Engagement metrics. GA4 tracks certain engagement metrics like scroll depth, file downloads, and video views without the need for additional setup. These can be viewed as analogous to the pages/screens per session and duration goals.
- Custom dimensions and metrics. While not goals in the traditional sense, custom dimensions and metrics in GA4 allow for detailed analysis and segmentation of event data, enabling deep insights into user behavior and the effectiveness of your digital strategies.
However, the transition to an event-centric model, while innovative, presents challenges to accessing actionable insights directly from events in GA4’s default, out-of-the-box form. Their inherent broadness and generality means they most likely won’t align with the specific data needs of your businesses.
What data is Google Analytics unable to track?
GA4 is designed to track a wide range of user interactions as events, offering a more flexible approach to data collection than its predecessor, UA. However, as mentioned above, GA4 is structured in a way that certain types of data tracking available in previous versions are not directly applicable.
Instead, GA4 events need to be configured to measure conversions based on actions that are significant to your business, such as form submissions, e-commerce transactions, or page views. Plus, GA4 does not directly track some traditional metrics out of the box without custom configuration. For example, without custom setup, tracking purely time-based goals (like specific duration on site) or simple pageview milestones requires defining these interactions as specific events or conversions.
As we’ve stressed, when GA4’s event-based model is customized for your organization, it offers powerful and flexible tracking capabilities. Achieving this means you will need to adopt a more hands-on and customized approach to analytics—a significant learning curve for users transitioning from UA.
How long will a custom GA4 setup take?
The amount of time it takes a Google Analytics agency or consultant to create a custom GA4 setup can vary depending on the complexity of your website and your goals for tracking user behavior. Here are some factors that can affect the timeline:
- Website size and complexity: The size and complexity of your website can impact the time it takes to configure GA4. Websites with many pages and complex tracking requirements may take longer to migrate to GA4 than smaller, simpler websites.
- Customizations and integrations: If you want to have customizations similar to what you had in UA it may take more time to replicate these customizations in GA4. Also, some UA customizations aren’t available in GA4.
- GA4 reporting needs: The complexity and specificity of your GA4 reporting needs can significantly influence the time required to develop your custom GA4 report, as more detailed and customized requirements necessitate a deeper dive into data, events, and configurations.
Once we complete our discovery session, we can give you an estimated timeline for your custom GA4 setup and reporting.
Even a GA4 consultant thinks GA4 isn’t great out of the box
Learn more about why small businesses need GA4 customization.
