What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s latest version of their analytics platform. As of July 1, 2023, all users of the free version of Universal Analytics/GA360 will be required to migrate to GA4. If you are using the enterprise version of GA360, you will have until July 1, 2024. (Source)

What is the difference between Google Analytics (GA) / Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4? 

In Google Analytics (GA) / Universal Analytics (UA), data is processed as different kinds of analytics calls, an instance in which data is sent to Google Analytics servers from the interaction made with the site. For example, there will be a page-view call versus a specific event call (button click, purchase, etc). 

A hit or analytics call is a specific interaction between a user and your website that is tracked by Google Analytics. These hits are created when the tracking code that you place on each page is triggered by the behavior of a user. In GA/UA, tracking starts with a page-view in order for a session or visit to be recorded. In cases where a user lands on the page and triggers an event such as scroll tracking before a page-view, tracking does not take place. 

In GA4, all data is processed as an event. 

Source: Ken-willams.com

Upon transfer to GA4, certain behavioral metrics that were available on UA/GA will no longer be available. For example,

• “Bounce rate” is now replaced with “engagement rate” .
• IP addresses are automatically masked in GA4.
  • With UA/GA, if you wanted IP addresses to be masked, you had to specifically call this out within Google Tag Manager.
• With GA4 the maximum data retention will be 14 months for a free account, or 50 months for an enterprise account.
  • With GA/UA, data retention had no time limit. 

Overall, the move from session-based to event-based tracking provides the opportunity for more specific measurements on your fans' purchasing behavior. 

When will the See Tickets integration be moving from Google Analytics to Google Analytics 4? 

See Tickets will be ready to support the final switch happening on July 1st, 2023, for all free accounts that are migrated from GA/UA to GA4. 

What will I need to do?

Step 1. Create a Property if you don’t have one yet. If you would like your See Tickets data to flow into your GA4 property then you will want to have a GA4 property created (instructions here) and add your GA4 measurement ID onto the site. 

Step 2. Connect your GA4 Property to the existing Google tAG manager (GTM) container that exists on your ticketing pages (instructions here)

• If you don't have an existing Google Tag Manager container installed on the your ticketing pages, please create one using these instructions. To install your new GTM container on your See Tickets account, send your GTM Container ID to your CSM or marketing@seetickets.us.

Step 3. Follow the steps linked here to install the See Tickets JSON file into your Google Tag Manager container. This will automatically set up your GTM container with triggers and events that are optimized to work best with your ticketing pages on SeeTickets.us.

How do I test that GA4 is working? 

1. Visit https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web.
2. Click the business name in the top left-hand corner and a dropdown will appear. Select your GA4 property. (If you have not created one yet, then follow these prompts.)

3. Select Reports in the left-side menu.

4. Visit the site and then select "Realtime" in GA4 so that you can see if the data is flowing into the property.

What if I don’t update my Google Analytics UID? 

If you have an enterprise account then there is a one-time extension to continue processing data until July 1, 2024. However, if you do not have an enterprise account and do not update from UA/GA360 to GA4 then you will no longer see data flow into your analytics account.

Google Analytics Best Practices 

• Ensure you are aware of who has access to admin controls within your Google Analytics. If you have a change in roles/colleagues ensure that you are updating privileges accordingly.
• Schedule a 6-month reminder on your calendar to ensure you are reviewing who has permissions in case there are changes within your organization. 
• Verify that you have your event parameters setup in GA4 under the events section in the admin area.

Additional Resources we love from some of our Subject Matter Experts!

• Setting up GA4 with GTM by Analytics Mania
• GA4 setup best practices

Have more Questions?

Feel free to reach out to Marketing@seetickets.us and we will do our best to support you!