Mackenzie is a passionate digital marketer with a focus on data-driven strategies in the supply chain lead gen area. Holding an M.S. in Supply Chain Management, Mackenzie combines her love for data with her expertise in digital marketing to optimize marketing strategies and enhance operational efficiencies. With a keen eye for analytics, she thrives on turning complex data into actionable insights that drive results.
In today’s day and age, if you have a website, you likely also have a Google Analytics 4 property. You’ve got tons of data in your GA4 account, and want to make the most of it. But that might leave you with more questions, like:
If all my competitors are also tracking the same data, how do I gain an advantage over them?
How do I evaluate my data properly?
How can I navigate challenges with GA4 data collection?
If you’re asking these same questions, you need some GA4 data wins. That’s what we’ve got on this page.
Discover quick wins for tracking GA4 data and learn what factors can impact your GA4 data collection!
The background of GA4 and sunsetting of Universal Analytics (GA3)
Google Analytics 4 is the most recent version of the platform that was launched in October 2020. It was switched to the main tracking version in July 2024, which is when Universal Analytics (also known as GA3) was officially sunsetted.
The biggest change between GA3 and GA4 was the tracking style. GA3 relied heavily on Page View-based data tracking to assess interactions on your website. Now, GA4 relies on event-based tracking, which tracks specific actions taken on your website instead of just page views or sessions.
Basically, GA3 utilized a “hits” tracking trigger, which indicated things like page views or events. GA4, on the other hand, uses an event-based model where each completed action is considered an event.
Additionally, GA3 offered multiple attribution models, whereas GA4 relies primarily on last-click and data-driven models for its information.
Expert insights from
Ryan MaakeLead Marketing Consultant at WebFX
“If you miss UA or are looking for an easier way to get that reporting style back, look into connecting GA4 to Looker Studio. You’ll be able to set up custom reports that more closely resemble the older UA style of reporting, and many marketers prefer this approach over relying entirely on GA4’s ‘Explorations’ and default reporting”.
Importance of GA4 results diagnostics
Diagnosing SEO results through GA4 is an important part of making data-driven decisions. GA4 provides comprehensive insights into user behavior, helping you make informed decisions based on actual data rather than assumptions.
This leads to more effective strategies for optimizing your website. When results are down, SEO professionals will always be expected to answer the questions as to why. GA4 can play an integral part in figuring out the causes, because it uses your first-party data that cannot be found anywhere else.
2 simple tracking wins to set up in GA4
Looking for some quick GA4 data wins you can set up? Check them out:
1. Scroll depth tracking
💡 Note: You must have Google Tag Manager set up and hooked up to GA4 to do this. If you don’t have Google Tag Manager set up, you can follow these instructions.
Utilizing scroll depth tracking in Google Tag Manager will help you get a better understanding of how effective your pages are at engaging with customers. Based on what you find, it could indicate whether the top-of-page content is beneficial to the user or if the bottom of the page content has any impact on users.
Here’s how to set it up:
Go to Google Tag Manager
Locate the Trigger Configuration section
Choose Scroll Depth
Select the percentages of scroll depth that you want to trigger
Once set up, you can track this information by going to:
Reports → Engagement → Events → Scroll depth
This will indicate how many people reached that scroll depth on the page. For example, if you set the trigger to fire at 50% scroll depth, the event count in GA4 will indicate how many people have scrolled down 50% of the page.
If you don’t want to set an amount, there is a “default” scroll event you can track if you toggle Enhanced Measurement on, which allows you to track how many users have scrolled 90% of the page.
2. Site search tracking
Have a site search bar on your site? If yes, did you know you can track site search metrics in your GA4?
This is one of the simplest ways to gather insight into how effective your website is.
To start site search tracking, follow these steps:
Go to Admin
Go to Data Streams
Select your data stream
Turn on Enhanced Measurement
Once you have it set up, you can then track the data by going to:
When trying to troubleshoot outliers in your website data, spotting them is usually the easy part. You will likely see either a large drop or a large spike.
There could be a dozen causes for this, including:
Seasonality causing fluctuations in user behavior
Tracking code errors
Modification of URLs without proper redirects
Improvements (spike) or issues (drop) in user experience
Bot activity
And more
Addressing these spikes or drops is where it becomes more difficult because you need to spend time trying to pin down the cause of the issues.
There are factors beyond your own data that can impact your GA4 data and cause spikes or drops in performance. Between shifting algorithms and introduction of new search features, like AI Overviews, you might see a change in your GA4 data performance.
If you’ve adjusted your service offerings, service locations, budget, or pricing in the timeframe you’re looking at, it can impact your GA4 data. Your business functions are foundational to your marketing results.
For example, if you shift your budget allocation for certain digital marketing strategies or change up the channels you’re using to market your business, you can see a fluctuation in results.
There are always factors out of your control that can impact your results.
Consider the PESTEL model for analysis — Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors. All of these can have a potential impact on your GA4 performance data.
For example, in times of economic downturn, you may notice a drop in traffic. If you haven’t noted any other causes, like change in digital spend or the marketing industry, this PESTEL factor may be the contributing cause.
No matter what tracking you have set up in your Google Analytics account, you may notice some gaps in your data collection. There are some known issue with Google Analytics 4 tracking, such as:
GA4 scripts getting blocked by ad blocker extensions (32% of Americans use ad blockers)
Tracking code implementation issues
Incorrect event configuration parameters
User consent tracking issues
Any of these reasons could be why Google Analytics 4 misses data in your dashboard.
Elevate your data collection with RevenueCloudFX
At the end of the day, you will experience results changes one way or another. Ensure you are prepared by setting up custom tracking within your GA4 to get deeper insights when that time comes.
There are plenty of additional metrics you can get by setting up advanced tracking. But it is important to remember that GA4 is only one of the places you should be looking when evaluating why results are the way they are.
If you’re looking to elevate your data collection beyond GA4, RevenueCloudFX is the perfect solution. It helps you capture more first-party data and leverage that data to power your marketing campaigns.
Craft a tailored online marketing strategy! Utilize our free Internet marketing calculator for a custom plan based on your location, reach, timeframe, and budget.
Craft a tailored online marketing strategy! Utilize our free Internet marketing calculator for a custom plan based on your location, reach, timeframe, and budget.
Mackenzie is a passionate digital marketer with a focus on data-driven strategies in the supply chain lead gen area. Holding an M.S. in Supply Chain Management, Mackenzie combines her love for data with her expertise in digital marketing to optimize marketing strategies and enhance operational efficiencies. With a keen eye for analytics, she thrives on turning complex data into actionable insights that drive results.
