How to setup Google Analytics 4? A Complete Guide

Google has announced that Universal Analytics will soon be joining the Google graveyard to be one of the features they are sunsetting. Wave goodbye to Universal Analytics and say hello to Google Analytics 4!

Since you’re already here wanting to learn how to setup Google Analytics 4 I guess you already know the bad news that it is not an easy transition to move from the old version to the new one.

The new interface is less user-friendly and many of the features that you are used to are no longer available. However, it is a fact that you must accept that you will eventually need to transition to GA4 sooner or later. (July 1, 2023 to be exact)

In this blog post, we will give you a complete guide on how to setup GA4 so that you can make the most out of the new features and interface or you can also choose the easy way to setup an analytics solution for your website.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is the next generation of Google Analytics and a huge upgrade from session-based to fully event-based tracking that supports both web and mobile apps, including privacy controls such as cookieless measurement, and behavioral and conversion modeling.

GA4 was equipped with Google's advanced machine learning and predictive capabilities that offer guidance to perform customer behavior tracking across the web and mobile apps to give you a fuller picture of your customer journey.

What's new in Google Analytics 4?

How to Setup GA4?

Simply put, it is not easy especially compared to the old Google Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is quite technically challenging to setup properly just to start collecting the most basic data because it no longer tracks your bounce rate, pageviews, etc by default.

What that means is that you will need to setup each and every action as an event to start collecting the most basic information which already comes with Universal Analytics or GA3 right out of the box.

Setting up a new account

If you don't already have a Google Analytics account, you need to first create one and by default Google will create a GA4 account as a property for you.

Step 1: Create an account on Google Analytics page

Step 2:

UA to GA4 Data Migration

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10762548