How I learned to stop worrying and migrate to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Friday, June 2, 2023
Written by
Michael O'Neill,
OSC Web Team
An animated timer indicating how many days, hours, and minutes left until July 1, 2023

Tic…tic…tic…

If you’ve signed in to your Google Analytics at all over the 12-18 months or so, you’ve seen a litany of increasingly dire warning messages about the end of timesend of the version of Google Analytics you’ve been using (Universal Analytics, but sometimes called Google Analytics 3). These warnings have urged you to migrate to the new Google Analytics 4 with all due haste and with increasingly dire warnings. The clock, after all, is ticking.

Tic…tic…tic…

What’s happening (and when)?

Google has been giving website operators access to a free analytics tool called Google Analytics (GA) for years. Once the domain of incredibly expensive products, GA has essentially democratized access to the website analytics world…or at least democratized access to the tooling (it still takes attention, work, and expertise to derive insight from the reporting features available in Google Analytics).

From time to time Google changes versions of their Google Analytics product.  Generally speaking, these changes have been positive evolutions of the product…changes that people have been excited to move to and use.  As the Google Analytics versions evolved, your GA data generally traveled with you…. This is not the case with GA4.  

GA4 is a completely new product with a new data architecture, new features, and new paradigms. Moving from Universal Analytics to GA4 is essentially the same as moving from Universal Analytics to Piwik, Matomo, Adobe Analytics, or any other web analytics product.  Your historic website analytics data does not migrate into the new GA4 product. 

Fortunately, we’ve all had ample warning of what’s happening and the timelines associated with the change. Here’s a recap:

  • On July 1, 2023 Google’s Universal Analytics product (UA/GA3) will stop collecting new data.  
  • You will still be able to log in to your Universal Analytics account to see previously captured data until July 1, 2024. After this, you will lose access to your historical data.
  • If you want historic records, Google recommends you export past reports.
  • If you have not migrated to GA4 by July 1, 2023, Google will attempt to automatically create a GA4 property for you and will do its best to use existing UA implantation code to stream data into the new GA4 account.

Tic…tic…tic…

What you should do before July 1

Now is a good time to proactively migrate your property to GA4. Generally this is a better option than waiting, as you can ensure that there are no gaps in your data collection.  Remember, if you wait for Google to do it for you, there’s no guarantee that it will work as expected. Google will do its best to make sure data continues to flow and that relevant configuration options you’ve made over the years to your Universal Analytics accounts are carried over to GA4…but that’s no guarantee that you’ll get what you expect (or that it will even work).

Because of this, it’s a good idea to try migrating to GA4 yourself prior to the deadline.  

Tic…tic…tic…

Guidance, support, and resources to help migrate to GA4

Migrating your Universal Analytics to GA4 is only the beginning of the work. Some of the things you may have been used to using in the old Google Analytics are no longer present in the new Google Analytics. And in fact, for many, so much as changed in GA4 that there will be a steep learning curve just getting used to working with the new tool. Fortunately, there are a great many resources that can help with your migration GA4 and (afterwards) to start developing expertise in this new analysis and reporting tool. 

Here are a few ways to get started:

In addition to the above, we've been discussing GA4 migrations during most recent sprint demos and expect to continue doing so through the July 1 deadline (and beyond). These are open to anyone in the campus community and are held every Thursday at 1:00PM.  Agendas with Zoom links are published every Thursday morning and are also shared in the UI-WEB listserv.

What to do if you are stuck

As always, please reach out if you have questions about your website, your analytics, and migrating to GA4.