GA4 Migration Guide in 12 Steps
Less than 1 year left for your business to migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.
Many companies are left wondering what and how to even prepare for Google sunsetting Universal Analytics.
Questions such as, what will happen to my data? I’m not familiar with the new tool? How do I even get started?
This resource will help guide you through this process and provide a roadmap for your team.
Why should I migrate as soon as possible?
Google Analytics does not allow you to get historical data into GA4. Data starts once you have migrated over to GA4
You won’t be able to migrate historical data from UA to GA4 as they are based on different models. There is a workaround using BigQuery but this requires extensive technical aptitude. If you require historical data, Contact Us to see how Data Partners can help.
GA4 is promoted by Google as being better than UA. While this may true in some regards, there are still many features that GA4 does not have.
Nevertheless, migration should be done as soon as possible to start collecting data with GA4. You will also upgrade your skillsets.
The earlier you start, the better you will be working with GA4
1. Audit your UA Property
You can do this manually by following a checklist such as: https://www.bayleafdigital.com/how-to-run-google-analytics-audit/ or you can do this automatically by downloading a tool such as: https://optimoanalytics.com/google-analytics-audit/
2. Plan your GA4 Account Structure
Web and Mobile Data can be within one property. For ex: you have 1 website, 1 IOS app, and 1 Android. This would mean 1 property with 3 data streams.
It is important to determine how many properties and streams to setup before beginning to use GA4
3. Assign the Right User Permissions
Give access to the people who need it and not to everyone.
Establish a good user permission process from the start
4. Go Over Property Settings
During your UA audit, make sure to keep note of settings. You can check things such as
- Time Zone
- Currency
- Referral exclusion list
- Cross-domain tracking
- Filters
5. Get all Events to be Migrated from UA
List all your UA events before recreating in GA4. There is a tool from Google which lets you automatically migrate your events which is helpful for quick migration
But this is not helpful for most migrations as you won’t have complete customization and control of your data
GA4 gives more freedom in tracking and creating custom parameters
Check if there are events that could be replaced by GA4 enhanced measurement
6. Identify custom dimensions and metrics to setup
Understand the difference between UA and GA4 on custom dimensions.
UA and GA4 differ in scope, which determines which events a specific dimension applies to.
In UA, there are 4 levels of scope: session, hit, product, and user.
But custom dimensions in GA4 are configured as either event-scoped or user-scoped.
Custom dimensions in GA4 describe event or user
When creating custom parameters in GA4 for your events, remember to register them as custom dimensions or metrics
You can set up 50 event-scope custom dimensions and 50 custom metrics and 25 user-scoped custom dimensions per GA4 property