The Countdown Begins: Wrapping Up Your Google Analytics 4 Settings in 30 Days

If you’ve logged into your Google Analytics Universal (GAU) account recently, you will have noticed the following sticky red banner at the top of the page.

Another friendly reminder from Google that Universal Analytics is going away…

This a glaring reminder that on July 1, 2023, Google will cease processing data into its universal property, finally forcing a shift over to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for App and Web.

That is for all Google customers who do not pay for Google’s premium tier, Google 360. For those that do, you have a little more time. An additional year to be specific - 1 July 2024.

Even so, we strongly recommend that you do not delay. At The Lumery, we have been supporting clients in making the transition to GA4. Beyond technology, change management and encouraging stakeholders to make the shift require a carefully considered approach.

By now, you have likely set up your GA4 property, audited and migrated a clean, strategically defined set of events into your new data model. It's time to perform one final cross-check to ensure everything is in working order and to consider how you want your new GA4 settings to be as you make the move.

There’s a lot to consider.

• Will you move from session-based reporting to hit-based reporting immediately? Or will you reconstruct sessions using GA4 data to compare like-to-like and monitor discrepancies to establish new benchmarks?
• Will you count conversions on a session or hit level?
• Will you choose last click or DDA attribution?
• Will you back up your GAU data before Google deletes it for good?

These are just a few of the key decisions that still need to be made as the transition finally takes place. At The Lumery, we take pride in bringing clarity to complex situations. We understand that navigating online documentation can be confusing, so we've decided to share this internal checklist that our analytics team uses to guide clients through these final decisions.

We hope that it will be helpful to you.

Of course, if you have any questions or would like a guiding hand confirming your final settings and supporting teams to navigate the new platform and transition reports and KPIs over to the new model, don’t hesitate to talk to us.