3 Must Know GA4 Tips + Bonus

Google Analytics sunsets on the 1st of July 2023, and GA4 (Google Analytics 4) will be the digital analytics torchbearer going forward.

Here are some must-know tips to use GA4 to its full potential:

1. Use Device-based User Identity for reporting to avoid sampling i.e. avoid driving insights from incomplete data.

Of the 3 options (Blended, Observed and Device-based), the first two use Google Signals (Google's proprietary account sign-in data) which makes identifying users possible when the data is limited. Hence, Google samples data/doesn't display some of the data for Blended/Observed.

Device-based shows complete data. The drawback of Device-based though is that it uses cookies and it's starting to become less effective.

2. GA4 has removed first-click attribution, but the report can still be accessed. Sort of.

The User Acquisition report in Lifecycle -> User Acquisition uses first-click attribution and tells us the first traffic source that drove a user to the website.

The report is helpful to understand how customers first interact with your business i.e. top and middle funnel effectiveness.

3. Tie your GA4 data with your CRM data by sending CRM's User-IDs to track how your customers -- who log in -- to the website navigate it.

While most CRMs track customers' behavior on the website, the data and insights are limited. Sending the User-IDs from CRM to GA4 allows you to override the random IDs generated by GA4 while allowing you to drive richer insights for specific cohorts or identifiable individual customers. The more customers that log in, the better the insights.

Bonus tip: The standard reports in GA4 refresh their data every 4-8 hours. GA4 360 (paid GA4) reports refresh their data every 1 hour. So, if you have set up audiences in GA4 and run retargeting ads in Google Ads, best to pay for GA4 360 to avoid budget wastage by targeting those who might have already converted.

Any other must-know tips that I might have missed? Feel free to comment below.

P.S. Thanks to MeasureMinds Group & Analytics Mania from whom I learned a few of these tips.