As the sun sets on Google’s Universal Analytics (UA), a new horizon emerges with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This shift, while potentially daunting for marketers and data analysts, presents an opportunity to uncover deeper, more nuanced insights into user engagement.
For those businesses who have chosen to embrace this change and continue their journey with GA4, understanding the key differences and new functionalities is essential. The future of your data analysis and interpretation hinges on grasping these crucial changes, enabling you to extract maximum value from your data.
Reimagining Sessions
In the world of web analytics, sessions play an integral role in understanding user behavior. A session in GA4 represents a visit to your site and times out after 30 minutes of inactivity. However, unlike UA, sessions in GA4 can encapsulate multiple traffic sources.
For instance, if a visitor lands on your site from a Facebook ad, goes through Google to login, and then returns to your site, this entire journey is counted as one session, despite having multiple traffic sources. This is a significant shift from UA, where each visit from a new source initiated a new session.
The Emergence of Engaged Sessions
Engaged sessions are a new metric introduced in GA4. A session can be considered as ‘engaged‘ if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes two or more page views, or results in at least one conversion.
The shift from Universal Analytics to GA4, particularly the introduction of the “Engaged Sessions” metric, is a response to the evolving digital landscape and user behaviors. Bounce rate, as calculated in Universal Analytics, was a useful measure of site engagement in the past, but with the advent of single-page applications (SPAs) and more complex user interactions, it became less effective. For instance, users could view an SPA and leave without triggering an event, which would be considered a bounce, despite their potential engagement with the content
In contrast, the Engaged Sessions metric in GA4 is designed to provide a more accurate reflection of user engagement.
Understanding Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is calculated by dividing the number of engaged sessions by the total number of sessions. For example, if you have 1000 sessions and 750 of them are engaged, your engagement rate will be 75%. This new metric provides a more nuanced understanding of user engagement levels than before.
In UA, the bounce rate was a measure of site engagement, but its effectiveness has been declining as websites and apps evolved. The bounce rate could show users viewing a single-page application and leaving without triggering an event, which would be considered a bounce. However, in GA4, the concept of engagement has been refined to measure the level at which customers engage with your site or app more accurately.
While both the bounce rate and engagement rate are valuable in their own ways, the engagement rate in GA4 provides a more detailed understanding of user behavior.
The Return of Bounce Rate
Bounce rate, originally excluded from GA4, has made a comeback. But it now differs from how it was measured in UA. GA4’s bounce rate is the inverse of the engagement rate. Using the previous example, if the engagement rate was 84%, the bounce rate would be 16%.
This significant change in measuring bounce rate can be attributed to the new criteria for an engaged session. Depending on your site’s nature, you may see a drastic impact on bounce rates, possibly seeing a sharp drop compared to UA. However, remember that this doesn’t necessarily mean that your content is more engaging; it’s merely a shift in the measuring methodology.
Defining Users
In GA4, users are only those who have had an engaged session. This is another departure from UA where all visitors were considered users. Total Users in GA4 are more akin to what was defined as users in UA.
Average Engagement Time
GA4 replaces UA’s ‘average time on site’ metric with ‘average engagement time’. This new metric deserves applause, as it gives a more accurate depiction of the time a visitor spends on your site. In UA, bounced sessions were recorded as zero-second visits because no second session would be triggered. In contrast, GA4 measures the actual time a visitor spent on your site, offering a more accurate reflection of user engagement.
The Conversion Shift
Last but not least, GA4 bids goodbye to the traditional concept of goals. In its place, we find conversions. This shift pushes us to reimagine our understanding of conversions and work with this new norm.
GA4 represents a significant shift in Google’s analytical approach, introducing more sophisticated and nuanced metrics. While these changes may seem daunting initially, they offer an opportunity to better understand your audience and website performance. As we journey into this new era of analytics, mastering these new metrics will be key to data-driven decision-making and strategic success.
What are the major 2023 Google Ads Insights For Growth Marketers?