Ultimate Guide to Recommendations in GA4

June 16, 2023 Most of us have started using a new tool, software or hardware and quickly realized we didn’t know where to start. It may be because there a lot of  buttons, tabs, options, directions, or even ideas in your mind on how to use it. Well, GA4, is no different.  However, although it contains many tabs and reports you may not be familiar with yet, it has a built in helper to point you in the right direction. It’s called Recommendations and it’s one of the many things we love about Google Analytics 4 (GA4). 

What are GA4 Recommendations?

Google Analytics (GA) surfaces tailored recommendations to help you get the most useful and accurate data and take advantage of new, relevant features as they become available. Google surfaces recommendations by looking at your property's history, your settings, and trends across GA.

Recommendations appear in the Recommendations section of the Home page 

and contextually throughout Google Analytics at the top and to the right of any relevant pages.

Now, don’t worry if you don’t see any Recommendations if you just started running your property. As mentioned, they are based on your property’s history, so if you don’t have any, there’s really nothing to recomend aside from “collect more data” 🙂. Google Analytics regularly discovers and launches new recommendations for you as more and more data flows in.

Recommendation Types

There are currently 5 types of recommendations available to help you get more out of GA4. Keep in mind that you may see one, two, or many recommendations in your account. 

Now, when Google identifies an unlinked Search Console account, you’ll see a recommendation to link your Search Console account to your GA4 account. By adding this link, you’ll  get access to new Search Console dimensions and the Google Organic Search Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic reports, which enable you to analyze your search query and search traffic data.

2. Create predictive audiences: A predictive audience is an audience with at least one condition based on a predictive metric. For example, you could build an audience for “likely 7-days purchasers” that includes users who are likely to make a purchase in the next 7 days. Google recommends you create a predictive audience and then use the audience for remarketing or bidding in Google Ads campaigns or ad groups.

3. Grow your business with a Google Ads credit: Google provides new Google Ads users with a one-time Ads credit to help you reach more potential customers using your Google Analytics data.

If your GA4 account is eligible for linking, the recommendation card will appear in the “Insights & Recommendations” section on the Home page, the Insights/Recommendations section in the Report snapshot,  Advertiser snapshot reports, and in the Insights/Recommendations hub.

5. Sign up for a Merchant Center account: By creating a Merchant Center account, you can show products from your online store on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, and other Google services. Signing up for a Merchant Account is especially useful if you have Google Ads, because it allows you to store core information about your products so you can generate and serve those ads to future customers.

Finally, Google also gives you the ability to provide feedback on the recommendations with thumbs up and thumbs down voting buttons. 

Dismissing Recommendations

Though we’ve  established that we welcome Google’s Recommendations,  if you’re unsure of something that is being recommended, or your team have decided it’s not something  you want to put in place, you can dismiss it so it’s no longer listed. To dismiss a recommendation that you don't want to complete, select > Dismiss on the top right of the recommendation.

Why is a recommendation no longer available?

If you don’t see recommendations in your account, don’t panic. There are multiple reasons why a recommendation may disappear. It could be because it has already been implemented, the benefits of implementing it are no longer substantial, or it has been disregarded altogether. However, don't worry! You can always check out other recommendations for your account and keep in mind that recommendations are based on historical data and tracking information, so the more you track the more likely you will have new recommendations.

Conclusion

At Napkyn, we keep track of the latest Google Analytics 4 developments and post updates to ensure you are always in the loop regarding new features and how to use them.  Sign up for our monthly newsletter to get the latest scoop on Google Analytics 4 as well as useful guides for getting the most out of this platform.

Have questions about transitioning or getting the most out of your GA4 implementation? Contact us.