Make the switch to Google Analytics 4

Consider your account structure

You can create separate properties for your website and app, or you can combine them into one property. If you only have one website and one app, you can skip this step.

Create a GA property and data stream

This is the first step in migrating your data. You'll need to create a new Google Analytics property and then link your website or app to this property. The GA Setup Assistant can help you with this process.

Collect website and app data

This step is only necessary if the GA Setup Assistant couldn't automatically use your existing tags. You'll need to set up tags manually to collect data from your website or app.

Turn on Google signals

This step is required for enhanced remarketing. Google Signals uses data from Google accounts to provide a better understanding of your users.

Set up key events

Key events are actions that users take on your website or app. You'll need to set up key events in Google Analytics so you can track how users interact with your site.

Add users

Users are people who interact with your site or app whose activities you can measure with Google Analytics.

Link to Google Ads

Help drive sales, leads, or website traffic with insights from Google Analytics, and by getting your business in front of the right customers across Search, YouTube, and more with Google Ads.

Migrate audiences

Audiences are groups of users that you can target with your marketing campaigns. If you've created Universal Analytics audiences based on custom dimensions in your Universal Analytics property, you may need to create those same custom dimensions in your Google Analytics property.

Import key events into Google Ads for bidding

Google Ads conversions that are based on Google Analytics key events can help you track how your ads from Google Ads are performing so you can improve your marketing strategy and optimize your bidding strategy.

Add Analytics audiences to a campaign or ad group for remarketing

For Google Analytics properties, you can import web and app conversions, transactions, and audience segments built in Google Analytics to your Google Ads account.

Measure ecommerce

You can set up ecommerce events to collect information about the shopping behavior of your users. The events enable you to quantify your most popular products and see the influence of promotions and product placement on revenue.

Link to BigQuery

In BigQuery, you can choose to export your data to external storage or import external data for the purposes of combining it with your Analytics data.

Data management

• Import data from external systems: Your business systems generate unique data, often existing in isolated silos. Data Import in Google Analytics allows you to merge this data regularly, breaking down these silos to unveil new insights so the data is accessible to all Analytics users.

• Measurement protocol: A measurement protocol is a standard set of rules for collecting and sending events directly to Google Analytics servers.

Migration references

• [UA→GA4] Migration reference: This migration reference maps Universal Analytics functionality to the corresponding Google Analytics 4 functionality.

• Map Universal Analytics events and custom dimensions to Google Analytics 4: An essential task in migrating from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 is the translation of your current measurement approach, including pageviews, events, custom dimensions, and custom metrics, into the Google Analytics schema.

Measure activity with User-ID

The User-ID feature lets you associate your own identifiers with individual users so you can connect their behavior across different sessions and on various devices and platforms. Analytics interprets each user ID as a separate user, which provides you with more accurate user counts and a more holistic story about a user's relationship with your business.