This is Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the next generation of Google’s web and app analytics platform, replacing Universal Analytics (UA). By providing improved metrics, this update to Google Analytics allows you to gain a deeper understanding of how your customers use your websites and apps. Moreover, it offers a more user-friendly platform, allowing you to access more useful data for making important business decisions.

So in this blog, you will get to know about the advantages and disadvantages of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in comparison to Universal Analytics (UA).

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of the analytics platform. It has amazing functions. Using Google Analytics, you can see how your users interact with your websites and online products across your websites and apps. If your users have chosen to make their personal information available, it collects the pages they visit, their interactions, and any details they provide about themselves.

It will replace Universal Analytics, which will cease collecting data in July 2023. Google Analytics 4 offers a number of benefits over Universal Analytics. But there are also some flaws so read along to get to know about these analytics practices.

Benefits of Google Analytics 4

Here are the most amazing benefits of GA4 are as follows:

1)Google BigQuery integration:

Google BigQuery has tools to store large amounts of data. It includes BigQuery integration at no additional cost, unlike Universal Analytics, which only includes it as part of a paid enterprise upgrade.

You can transfer the data from google analytics 4 to BigQuery. 

You can enrich, warehouse, blend and modify data in Google BigQuery. Easily export data to other platforms as well.

2) More funnel and reporting options:

The previous users of universal analytics paid extra to get access to reporting options and more funnel. But now for free, you get access to additional funnels and reports. It offers a vast option to get more benefits from your data.

3)Combined web and app tracking:

Tracking web and app were separate in google analytics before but now in GA4, they are combined. Now the data can be easily stored and reported on a website or mobile app in the same place. As a result, you can track users across platforms without having to blend and attribute data from different properties later.

Firebase Analytics and Google Analytics combine app-specific tracking data to perform cross-platform tracking.

By integrating analytics data from multiple platforms, marketing teams are able to manage analytics data more easily, access it more easily, and ensure that the correct access is granted to each property’s data.

Drawbacks of Google Analytics 4:

There are also some downsides of google analytics 4.

1) Cannot Create ‘Views’ in the Free Version of GA4

Google Analytics 4 is lacking the Views function. Which is very disappointing for the previous users. This means must create more rules to separate out the internal traffic or the usage of big query integration will also help to get the same function available in google analytics.

There’s a unified reporting interface in GA4 with filters called data filters. Manage your work according to this change.

Now the difference between new filters and data filters are:

Data filters are unable to apply to the previously collected data. Compared to the view filters they can apply to the whole data including the previous one.

It is very disappointing for marketers who are dependent on their previous works to perform effectively.

2) Property Limits Still Exist:

There are limitations to creating a number of properties in google analytics 4. With a single property, users can make 25 registered user properties in a free version. There’s the same property limit for every account. So to increase your property limit you have to create various accounts.

3) User interface changes:

The GA4 user interface is the major update in the software. It is totally different from the previous existing Google Analytics version. It interrupts the workflows, terminology is changed. It slows down the business work. A new layout is designed that works on devices of different screen sizes.

However, the new simplified menus can make it difficult to see which functions are available or whether new features have been added.

Before being fully dependent on google analytics 4. It’s better to understand the new interface as fast as you can. It will save you from later on migrating to another platform.

WRAP UP!

This blog shows the pros and cons of GA4 over Universal Analytics. Hope you got some juicy nuggets from this blog. Hopefully, Google will soon release upcoming features to better understand GA4 usage.