With so much changing in the digital world, it can be hard to keep up. But that’s what makes this such an exciting industry!
Since the news of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) replacing Universal Analytics (UA) made headlines, digital marketers have been on edge. They’re left to figure out how to use the new platform to their advantage as Google continues to roll out new features from time to time.
GA4 is set to completely change the landscape of digital marketing, so let’s take a closer look at what it entails so far.
GA4 Features Updates: What’s in Store for Digital Marketers?
Below are some exciting GA4 features introduced in the last two months.
- Autosuggest for Search
Google announced autosuggest for search in GA4 on April 6, 2022. With this feature, you’ll get multiple suggestions as you type in the search bar. The suggested phrases will be in bold.
You can select your desired query using the up and down keys on the keyboard and press enter to start searching.
- Tagging Setting Update in Property Change History
This is a temporary change in the tagging settings of Property Change history. You won’t be able to view any alterations made to Internal Traffic, Session Timeout, Cross-Domain measurement, and Unwanted Referrals until the upcoming launch.
This information will later be available on the Web Stream Details page.
- Direct Marking of Event Conversions
On April 22, 2022, Google announced that all editors could directly mark and unmark conversions on the event table. You won’t have to navigate the configurations to do so. This will save you time and effort when updating the event report.
- Linked Users
Linked Users is a new cross-product access management model on Firebase that enables GA4 Property Administrators to set explicit permissions for users.
As an administrator, you can assign different roles to users, such as Firebase Viewer or Editor. Consequently, critical tasks like restricting cost and revenue data in the Firebase UI will become easier. You’ll also have the power to disable data viewing in the UI.
Follow the steps below to assign roles and set data restrictions at the account and property levels.
Step 1:
Go to Admin.
Step 2:
Select Access Management in the Account/Property column.
Step 3:
Click Add Users, enter the Google Account or Google Workspace email address of the user you want to add, and select the permissions you want to give them. Confirm by clicking the Add button.
To delete a user, enter their email address in the search bar. Select the check box beside their name in the results and click Remove.
Step 4:
For each user, you can choose between the following data restriction options.
No Cost Metrics: Users won’t be able to view cost metrics in reports, insights, explorations, alerts, and audiences for any property.
No Revenue Metrics: Users won’t be able to view revenue metrics in reports, insights, explorations, alerts, and audiences for any property.
- Conversion Modeling
May update on GA4 features included advanced conversion modeling for Consent Mode and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), promising more accurate data measurement and attribution. It’ll help digital marketers fill the gap by estimating online conversions when they don’t have observed data.
In the Consent Mode, some countries require users’ consent to use cookies for advertising. Any event collected without cookies will lack attribution data. This is where conversion modeling attributes them to the right channels.
For users with ATT, conversion modeling will associate the events with relevant YouTube ads or marketing campaigns when IDFA is not accessible.
- Lookback Window for Audience Definition Configuration
When building audiences with events as the basis, GA4 allows you to include or exclude users satisfying the event_count parameter value within the last N days.
Some audience definition examples include:
- Users who signed up in the last N days
- Users who remained inactive for more than N days
- Users who purchased more than N times in the last N days
The maximum lookback period is 60 days.
Follow the steps below to create a new audience using this feature.
Step 1:
Click New Audience and then select Create a Custom Audience.
Step 2:
Enter a name and description for the audience.
Step 3:
Select Add New Condition.
Step 4:
Under the Events tab, select the event_count parameter.
Step 5:
Enter a threshold value to include users with a greater event count.
Step 6:
In the Add Group to Exclude section, enter a threshold value to include users with a lesser event count.
Step 7:
Turn the toggle on for Time Period and select either of the following.
At any point in time (to include users who exceeded the event_count threshold at any point in time)
Most recent (to include users who exceeded the event_count threshold during the last N days) (this feature is currently available for beta users only)
- Behavioral Modeling
A few days ago, Google announced the behavioral modeling feature for businesses that require consent for Analytics cookies.
As the name suggests, this feature models the behavior of users who decline cookies based on the actions of similar users who accept them. It may estimate data based on the following session and user metrics:
- Daily active users
- Daily conversion rate
As a result, digital marketers will get a more accurate idea of their campaign performance.
You don’t have to enable or disable this feature in GA4. Data reports will automatically apply behavioral modeling to the information of users who meet the following criteria.
- Signed in to a Google account with ads personalization
- Using Chrome
- Consented to ad storage and analytics
Here’s how you can view and manage this information.
Step 1:
Go to Admin > Property Column > Reporting Identity.
Step 2:
Click the data quality icon to check the integration of modeled data.
Learn all about the Next generation of Google Analytics with Experts!
The future of digital marketing is looking brighter than ever – and we’re here for it!
GA4 is paving the way for more in-depth data analysis, enhanced user experience, and better integrations with marketing platforms with several new features. The renewed focus on user experience and data accuracy is making it the most powerful analytics platform yet.
Digital marketers who get an early hang of GA4 features will have a distinct advantage over their competitors.
Get in touch with our experts to learn more about using these features to enhance your marketing efforts.
