New tools in Google Ads and Analytics allow you to simplify your measurement and are more seamless to adopt.
Upgrade your Analytics 360 properties to Google Analytics 4 by March 2024 to preserve measurement and campaign performance.
update that modifies status, primary_for_goal, category, name, or value_settings.remove that removes the conversion action.status field from HIDDEN to ENABLED.primary_for_goal and category fields of each imported conversion to indicate how it should impact Google Ads bidding and reports.ConversionAction:
namevalue_settingsConversionAction will continue to fail, as will requests that attempt to remove or update a ConversionAction imported from a Universal Analytics (UA) property.ConversionActionOperation with a MUTATE_NOT_ALLOWED error if it attempts to update or remove an imported GA4 conversion. For example, if your integration relies on this behavior to detect if a conversion action is an imported GA4 conversion, modify it to instead check if the type of the ConversionAction is either GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_4_CUSTOM or GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_4_PURCHASE.
- Josh Radcliff, Google Analytics and Google Ads API Team
The Google Analytics 4 deadline is July 1, make your move before it’s too late and get AI-powered insights to improve your ROI.
What's changing
Starting in April 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will automatically set up a basic GA4 property linked to your Google Ads account if the Google Ads account still uses Universal Analyticsconversions and/or audiences.
During this process, GA4 will configure corresponding conversions and/or audiences in GA4 and apply them in your Google Ads account. This will happen even if you already have a GA4 property but still use Universal Analytics conversions and/or audiences in Google Ads.
Options for handling these changes
The configuration created by GA4 may not be set up to meet your specific business goals or capture all the historical data you need, so we recommend you start manually moving your conversions and/or audiences to GA4 now.
If you don’t want the GA4 Setup Assistant to make these changes, you may opt out by the end of April.
If you don’t want an automatically set up GA4 property at all, you can also opt out of the entire process.
What you should know
Universal Analytics standard properties will stop processing new data from July 1, 2023 onwards. GA4, our next-generation measurement solution, will become the sole Google Analytics standard property type.
This impacts Universal Analytics conversions, audiences, and site stats currently used in your Google Ads campaigns. We recommend that you switch to GA4 now to ensure your campaigns and ad groups are effectively moved to GA4 conversions, site stats, and audiences. If you’re unsure whether a GA4 property has been created, please contact the admin user for your Universal Analytics property in Google Analytics to verify.
Resources to help you migrate to Google Analytics 4
For an overview of functionality and features in UA and GA4, including APIs, check out the Universal Analytics to GA4 migration reference.
For API integrations:
How to get help
- Josh Radcliff, Google Analytics and Google Ads API Team
Showcasing how Mercedes-Benz Germany increased performance with data-driven attribution, and introducing new ways to see success with this model.
Showcasing how Mercedes-Benz Germany increased performance with data-driven attribution, and introducing new ways to see success with this model.
Showcasing how Mercedes-Benz Germany increased performance with data-driven attribution, and introducing new ways to see success with this model.
Three years ago, we introduced Google Analytics 4, a re-imagined tool that helps you get a complete view of consumer behavior across web and app by using first-party, modeled data. This is critical in an evolving privacy and technology landscape, where marketers have to rethink their approach to measurement in order to keep getting the insights they rely on. Today we’re introducing new resources to help you make the switch to Google Analytics 4, improved machine learning features, actionable reporting and new integrations.
Earlier this year we shared that we will begin sunsetting standard Universal Analytics properties on July 1, 2023. We recognize that setting up Google Analytics 4 to fit your needs takes time and resources, in particular for large enterprises with complex Analytics 360 setups. To allow enterprise customers more time to have a smoother transition to Google Analytics 4, we’re moving the Universal Analytics 360 properties’ sunset date from October 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024. We're focusing our efforts and investments on Google Analytics 4 to deliver a solution built to adapt to a changing ecosystem. Because of this, throughout 2023 we'll be shifting support away from Universal Analytics 360 and will move our full focus to Google Analytics 4 in 2024. As a result, performance will likely degrade in Universal Analytics 360 up until the new sunset date.
To help everyone make the move, we're launching new resources and tools to help you get started with Google Analytics 4. Our step by step guide helps you complete the entire setup of Google Analytics 4 at your pace and customize it to your needs. Or, if you prefer a more automated experience, you can use the Setup Assistant in the admin section of your Universal Analytics property. Once a Google Analytics 4 property is created and connected, the Setup Assistant can automate some required setup steps and help you track your progress. For example, the Setup Assistant lets you select the goals you want to import to Google Analytics 4, copy desired Google Ads links and audiences, and add users who have access to your current property.
The Setup Assistant tools
The best Google Analytics 4 setup comes from following the steps above to create a customized property tailored to your needs. The earlier you do this, the more historical data and insights you will have in Google Analytics 4. For example, SunCorp, one of Australia's largest financial services brands, prioritized setting up Google Analytics 4 to build a base of historical insights.
When Universal Analytics stops collecting data in 2023, we will have over two years of insights and reporting in Google Analytics 4. This is critical for a business like us to ensure we have a robust foundation of data to inform decision making.
Beginning in early 2023, the Setup Assistant will also create a new Google Analytics 4 property for each standard Universal Analytics property that doesn’t already have one — helping you jumpstart your migration. These new Google Analytics 4 properties will be connected with the corresponding Universal Analytics properties to match your privacy and collection settings. They’ll also enable equivalent basic features such as goals and Google Ads links. If you’d rather begin the switch on your own, you can opt out of having the Setup Assistant do it for you.
Behavioral modeling uses machine learning to fill gaps in your understanding of customer behavior when cookies and other identifiers aren’t available. Soon, behavioral modeling will also be available in the real time reporting, giving you a complete view of the consumer journey as it happens. It’s helping marketers like Nestlé get accurate insights from more customer activity.
Behavioral modeling with Consent Mode in Google Analytics 4 drove a 23% increase in the observable traffic in analytics reporting on European and UK websites.
To get a more accurate picture of your campaigns across all of your marketing touchpoints, we will soon introduce custom channel grouping in Google Analytics 4 to help you see the performance of different channels aggregated. For example, you’ll be able to compare the performance of your paid search brand with your non-brand campaigns. These custom channel groupings work in reporting retroactively, and across the advertising and explore workspaces.
Your insights are only as good as the actions you can take from them. On top of Google Ads, Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360, we will soon launch an integration with Campaign Manager 360 via Floodlight. This will allow marketers to bid towards Google Analytics 4 conversions in Display & Video 360’s automated bid strategies.
Now is the time to make Google Analytics 4 your cross-platform Analytics solution. Get started with Google Analytics 4 now, complete the setup by following our step by step guide and learn how to get the most out of it with the refreshed Google Analytics 4 certification.
In today's measurement landscape, businesses need to navigate new challenges to understand the complex, multi-platform journeys of their customers — all while prioritizing user privacy.
Two and a half years ago, we introduced Google Analytics 4 to address these evolving measurement standards and help businesses succeed. Google Analytics 4 has the flexibility to measure many different kinds of data, delivering a strong analytics experience that’s designed for the future. It allows businesses to see unified user journeys across their websites and apps, use Google’s machine learning technology to surface and predict new insights, and most importantly, it’s built to keep up with a changing ecosystem.
Without a modern measurement solution, you leave essential insights on the table that can impact your business. So now is the time to make Google Analytics 4 your cross-platform Analytics solution. We will begin sunsetting Universal Analytics — the previous generation of Analytics — next year. All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023. Given the new Analytics 360 experience was recently introduced, Universal Analytics 360 properties will receive an additional three months of new hit processing, ending on October 1, 2023.
Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies. This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete. Meanwhile, Google Analytics 4 operates across platforms, does not rely exclusively on cookies and uses an event-based data model to deliver user-centric measurement.
And though Universal Analytics offers a variety of privacy controls, Google Analytics 4 is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for both our customers and their users. It helps businesses meet evolving needs and user expectations, with more comprehensive and granular controls for data collection and usage. Importantly, Google Analytics 4 will also no longer store IP addresses. These solutions and controls are especially necessary in today’s international data privacy landscape, where users are increasingly expecting more privacy protections and control over their data.
Google Analytics 4 is designed with your key objectives in mind — like driving sales or app installs, generating leads or connecting online and offline customer engagement.
Here are just a few ways Google Analytics 4 can support your business.
Understand your customers across touchpoints
Get a complete view of the customer lifecycle with an event-based measurement model that isn’t fragmented by platform or organized into independent sessions.
For example, UK-based fitness apparel and accessories brand Gymshark used Google Analytics 4 to measure across its website and app, allowing the Gymshark team to better understand how users moved through the purchase funnel. As a result, they reduced user drop off by 9%, increased product page clickthroughs by 5% and cut down their own time spent on user journey analysis by 30%.
Google Analytics 4 was the perfect choice in understanding and improving our new e-commerce app.
Improve ROI with data-driven attribution
Use data-driven attribution to analyze the full impact of your marketing across the customer journey. It assigns attribution credit to more than just the last click using your Analytics data, and helps you understand how your marketing activities collectively influence your conversions. You can export that analysis to Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform media tools to optimize campaigns.
Measure engagement and conversions with business and compliance needs in mind
With new country-level privacy controls, you can manage and minimize the collection of user-level data — like cookies and metadata — while preserving key measurement functionality.
Get greater value from your data
Machine learning generates sophisticated predictive insights about user behavior and conversions, creates new audiences of users likely to purchase or churn and automatically surfaces critical insights to improve your marketing.
Easily activate your insights
Expanded integrations with other Google products, like Google Ads, work across your combined web and app data, making it easy to use Analytics insights to optimize your campaigns.
McDonald’s Hong Kong met its goal to grow mobile orders using a predictive audience of “likely seven-day purchasers” and exporting it to Google Ads — increasing app orders more than six times. The team saw a 2.3 times stronger ROI, a 5.6 times increase in revenue, and a 63% reduction in cost per action.
“Google Analytics 4 has equipped us with a strong measurement foundation. We are able to get valuable insights from our first-party data with machine learning and utilize them in our marketing, driving impressive results to future-proof our business.”
— Tina Chao, McDonald’s Hong Kong Chief Marketing and Digital Customer Experience Officer
And now, Search Ads 360 and Display & Video 360 integrations are available for all customers. This means that any Google Analytics 4 property — standard or 360 — can activate its Analytics data, like conversions and audiences, in Google Marketing Platform buying tools to strengthen campaign performance.
Address your enterprise measurement needs
New sub and roll-up properties in Analytics 360 allow you to customize the structure of your Google Analytics 4 properties to meet data governance needs. This ensures that different teams or partners, like advertising agencies, can access the data they need in accordance with your policies.
Analytics 360 also offers higher limits to meet increasing demand — up to 125 custom dimensions, 400 audiences and 50 conversion types per property. And you’ll have peace of mind with service legal agreements (SLAs) across most core functionality, including data collection, processing, reporting and attribution.
"As a large enterprise business with a wide product portfolio, the new Analytics 360 has unlocked insights for our teams to make data-driven decisions, while providing the ability to meet our complex data governance needs with ease and flexibility.”
— Rashi Kacker, Director of Marketing Technology Innovation, Constellation Brands
All standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023, and 360 Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on October 1, 2023. After that, you’ll be able to access your previously processed data in Universal Analytics for at least six months. Learn more about what to expect.
Make the move over to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible to build the necessary historical data before Universal Analytics stops processing new hits. For guidance, check out our Help Center resources.