As you know, the new version of Google Analytics version 4 has been presented, stay with us in this article to learn about GA4 training in the section on how to connect GA4 to your site.
Google finally introduced version 4 of its Google Analytics service. This version has made fundamental changes and made more accurate reports and more data control possible for us. First of all, you should know that this is not an automatic update that is automatically activated on your previous Google Analytics service.
Before updating Google Analytics to version 4, you should know that no data from your previous version will be transferred to the new version and in fact a new property will be created for you. Therefore, it is better to start migrating to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible. Of course, your previous information will remain intact and you can easily view them.
When you click on the GA4 Setup Assistant, you create a Google Analytics Version 4 Property that collects data along with your existing Property in Universal Analytics. Your Universal Analytics account remains unchanged and continues to collect data, you can always access it using the Property Selector or the Admin page.
If you use a site builder or a website that uses CMS (for example, WordPress, Shopify, Wix, etc.), use the HTML feature of your site builder or CMS to tag the site. You should not just paste your “G-” or “UA-” ID into the field provided by your CMS. The GA4 installer file cannot backfill your new GA4 Property with the old data. Your GA4 account only collects prospective data. To view historical data, use your reports in your Universal Analytics account.
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Adding a property in the new version of Google Analytics version 4 (GA4)
Now, if you already have Analytics installed, follow the steps below:
Follow the instructions below to create your Google Analytics 4 account. These instructions are the same regardless of whether your website pages have analytics tags or you use Google Tag Manager.
In Google Analytics, click on Admin.
In the Account column, make sure the account you want is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it will be pre-selected.)
In the Property column, select the Universal Analytics property that is collecting data from your site.
In the Property column, click GA4 Setup Assistant. This option is the first option in the Property column. (Just above Property Settings, which is the second option.)
At the bottom of the “I need to create a new google analytics 4 property” option, click on Get Started.
If your site is scripted from Gtag.js, you can send the data collection activation option as a parameter, and also if you are using the site builder, Google Tag Manager, or the analitycs.js script directly, you must again Add the new tag yourself (Gtag.js).
Click on Create Property.
Analytics will now create your Google Analytics Version 4 Property and copy basic data such as property name, URL, time location, and currency from your Universal Analytics account. When this process is complete, you will see the message “You have successfully connected your properties” at the top of your Google Analytics Version 4 Property installation page. Click on See your GA4 Property to go to your new Google Analytics Version 4 Property installation.
If your GA4 installer had the option to “Enable data collection using your current tagging” (and you selected it), your new Google Analytics v4 Property should already be collecting data.
Keep in mind that it may take up to 30 minutes for the data to appear in your new Google Analytics Version 4 Property. To confirm that data is being collected, select Realtime from the Reports section, open your site, and you should be able to see a real-time report of activity.
Write down the name of your Google Analytics 4 Property so you can find it later. If your Universal Analytics Property name is “Example Property (UA-1234567)”, your GA4 Property name will be “Example Property (87654321)”, which is 87654321 as the Property number.
If the GA4 installer does not use your current tagging
If you are using a website builder or CMS or your site is tagged with analytics.js (instead of gtag.js), the GA4 installer will not be able to use your current tagging. Therefore, you have to add the analytics tag yourself so that you can see the data in Property Google Analytics 4.
Now you have added Google Analytics Version 4 Property
Data flows into your Universal Analytics and Google Analytics. These two accounts are linked to each other. Since they are linked to each other, you can use the installer in your Google Analytics 4 Property to transfer the necessary settings from your Universal Analytics account to your Google Analytics 4 Property.
Events are the building blocks of data in your Google Analytics 4 Property. For example, a page_view event is collected when someone visits a page on your website. The page_view event is one of several events that are automatically collected through optimization evaluations. If the GA4 installer uses your current tagging, it will automatically enable enhancement evaluations.
Property Google Analytics version 4 does not have a View and instead has a Data Stream. A data stream can be a web data stream, an iOS data stream, or an Android data stream. Property does not have Google Analytics version 4 Goal. To track conversions, you mark an event model as a conversion. A conversion will be counted whenever this event occurs.