September & October GA4 Updates and What They Mean for Digital Marketers

Google has rolled out many changes to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), between the months of September and October 2022. Here is an overview of each one.

Google has rolled out many changes to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), between the months of September and October 2022. Here is an overview of each one.

September 1, 2022: Updates to Search Query Thresholds

Google announced they are updating the Search Queries reports for Google Ads. These Search Queries reports are designed to offer insight into the search queries used for the ads on Google Ads. When utilized correctly, marketers can use these reports to understand how users search for products and services before eventually landing on Google Ad. They can then construct a keywords list to help them target their audience better.

Some of the recent changes to these reports are to Google Ads Query, Session Google Ads, and First user Google Ads Query. The changes are designed to offer users a higher privacy threshold and include only terms that have high search volumes. This will ensure the metrics displayed on Universal Analytics will be consistent with the ones shown in Google Ads Reports.

September 14, 2022: Tailored Recommendations

Google Analytics has implemented  tailored recommendations to ensure marketers are shown data that is most relevant to their needs. Google creates these tailored recommendations by analyzing a combination of different factors. This includes the Google Analytics account’s settings, history, and general trends from other Google Analytics accounts.

Users can see these tailored recommendations by navigating to Recommendations portions of their Homepage. Recommendations will also be visible on the top and the right side of different pages. Users can then select the recommendation to see more details around it.

It should be noted that these tailored recommendations only appear for existing accounts that have been in use for a long time. Google Analytics requires time to gather information about new account activities, so new users may need to wait before being provided with tailored recommendations.

September 29, 2022: Automated Form Interaction Measurements

Google Analytics offers enhanced event measurements. These allow marketers to track and measure each interaction with their content. 

To enable or disable this feature, marketers simply need to log into their account, select the “Admin” section, and then select the property they are interested in editing. Next, they can choose the “Data Streams” and then “Web” options. They can then move on to the “Enhanced Measurement” section and shift the slider to the “On” position.

The recent Google Analytics update allows marketers to automatically measure user interactions with forms on their website using a “Form Interactions” option. This feature gathers data from two specific event types:

  • form_start: This event signifies when a user has begun interacting with a form on the website. 
  • form_submit: This event signifies when a user has submitted a form 

This new interaction tracking method is automatically implemented into new web data systems. However, users will need to manually enable this tracking method for existing web data systems using the steps described above.

October 5, 2022: New E-commerce Features on Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4

Traditionally, Google Analytics users needed to change their E-commence implementation to generate E-commerce reports on GA4. However, a recent update has made it easier to generate these reports without having to make significant changes. The recent update offers three ways to do this.

The first option is to migrate and re-apply Google Analytics 4 ecommerce events. This will ensure that the latest features are automatically added going forward.

Another option is to populate Google Analytics 4 E-commerce events via E-commerce implementation on Universal Analytics.

The third option is to have Google Analytics 4’s E-commerce events replace Universal Analytics’ E-commerce events. Users can then utilize their Google Analytics 4’s for their Universal Analytics property. This with approach, users can continue using reports on Universal Analytics while retaining the option to migrate their system to Google Analytics 4 at a future time.

Google Analytics 4 also aims to make this migration process easier with the help of a dedicated “E-commerce migration helper” tool. This tool performs the following three functions:

  • Identifying the tagging solution users are presently using for E-commerce events
  • Validating how Google Tag Manager interprets Google Analytics tags for E-commerce events.
  • Recommending solutions to transition a user’s existing events system to Google Analytics 4’s events system.

October 14, 2022: Added FTP Data Import Option

Google Analytics 4’s Data Import function allows users to combine various types of data gathered on a schedule. This helps offer better insight into data groups and reveals connections between them.

The recent update lets users schedule data imports on a regular, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This applies to all data types such as user, cost, item, and event data. Google Analytics will retain the option to manually import data files. This new scheduled data import feature simply ensures users get access to the latest data periodically.

Stay Up to Date With the Latest GA4 Updates With Napkyn! 

We closely monitor Google Analytics 4 updates and bring you the latest information as it happens. Please check our News and Resources section regularly to see what new changes are being implemented with each update.

To learn what these GA4 updates mean for your marketing activity, please contact our experts.

 

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