Google Analytics 4 for E-commerce: The Only Guide You Need
Google Analytics has long been an essential tool for e-commerce businesses to understand their website traffic and customer behavior.
The latest major upgrade to Google Analytics is version 4 (GA4), which provides advanced capabilities powered by machine learning.
In this Substack, I'll provide an overview of how GA4 can be leveraged by e-commerce businesses to gain insights to improve their customer experience, marketing campaigns, and overall business performance.
I'll start with a brief comparison of Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics, the previous major version.
Next, I'll discuss the key reasons e-commerce businesses should use Google Analytics.
From there, I'll provide a step-by-step guide to setting up GA4 for your e-commerce site. I'll also cover how to create custom reports in GA4 tailored to your business needs.
Finally, I'll outline some tips for getting the most value from Google Analytics 4 and discuss some limitations to be aware of.
By the end of this article, you'll understand the capabilities of GA4 and how to implement it for your e-commerce business.
Let's dive in!
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newest version of Google's analytics platform. It was built on an entirely new infrastructure and architecture to take advantage of advancements in technology like machine learning.
GA4 offers several benefits over Universal Analytics, including:
Cross-device measurement - GA4 can connect user data across devices and surfaces to give you a complete view of the customer journey. This provides insights into the true impact of your marketing campaigns.
User-centric reporting - Instead of focusing on sessions and pageviews like Universal Analytics, GA4 focuses on providing insights at the user level. This allows for a more holistic understanding of your customers.
Machine learning - GA4 uses machine learning models to automate data processing. This enables features like Smart Goals, which sets up conversion events automatically. The machine learning foundation also allows GA4 to surface more predictive insights.
Privacy-focused - GA4 only collects anonymized user data to protect visitor privacy. This helps prepare for a cookieless future as third-party cookies are phased out.
Hence, GA4 provides a more powerful, flexible analytics platform for today's multi-device world. It focuses less on website analytics and more on providing cross-channel insights about real people interacting with your business.
What’s The Difference Between Universal Analytics and GA4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a major upgrade from Universal Analytics (UA), with key differences in data collection, processing, and analysis. Here are some of the main differences:
Event-based data model - GA4 focuses on tracking events like button clicks or page views, rather than sessions and visitors. This provides more granular, actionable data.
Mobile-first - GA4 was designed for the mobile era. It uses better device recognition and includes metrics like app opens and screen views.
Machine learning - GA4 leverages machine learning for features like predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and automated insights.
User-centric reporting - GA4 introduces User ID reporting, stitching data into cross-device user journeys instead of device-based sessions.
More privacy controls - GA4 has enhanced privacy options and data controls like the ability to exclude IP addresses or disable personalized advertising.
Simpler implementation - GA4 uses a simplified global site tag instead of multiple tracking snippets. It's easier to set up across devices and platforms.
Better data controls - GA4 provides more control over data collection, processing, and sharing. You can integrate better with marketing platforms too.
No sampling - GA4 processes higher data volumes without needing to sample traffic. Lower traffic sites get more accurate reporting.
More powerful customization - GA4 has an enhanced custom report builder and over 200 new dimensions and metrics to work with.
So, GA4 brings major improvements in mobile support, user privacy, customization, data accuracy and machine learning capabilities.
It's the obvious choice for modern analytics.
Why Use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics provides e-commerce businesses the ability to understand their website traffic and customer behavior in detail.
With Google Analytics, you can:
- Identify your website's most popular pages and blog posts. See which blog posts are driving the most traffic and engagement.
- Understand your customers' journeys from initial visit to purchase. See where customers are dropping off in the purchase funnel.
- Identify your best-selling products. See which products are viewed and purchased the most.
- Set up conversion funnels to understand the customer journey. See each step customers take from initial visit to purchase.
- Attribute sales to different marketing channels. See which channels like organic search or email marketing are generating the most revenue.
- Run experiments and analyze results with A/B testing. Test different versions of product pages to optimize conversions.
- Access real-time reports on traffic and engagement. See who is on your site and what they are doing right now.
The powerful analytics and insights provided by Google Analytics are essential for understanding customer behavior and optimizing an e-commerce site for growth. With Google Analytics data, retailers can make informed decisions to improve conversions and revenue.
How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 for Your E-commerce Site
Setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is simple and straightforward.
Here are the steps to get GA4 tracking on your e-commerce site:
1. Create a Google Analytics 4 Property
- Sign in to your Google Analytics account. If you don't have an account, you'll need to create one.
- Click on “Admin” in the bottom left corner.
- In the menu, click on *”Create Property.”
- Enter your website URL, select a reporting time zone, and give your property a name.
- Click “Create.”
2. Install the Tracking Code
- In your new property, go to “Data Streams" in the left menu.
- Click on the web data stream that was automatically created.
- Copy the tracking code snippet.
- Paste the tracking code before the closing `</head>` tag on every page of your website.
3. Set Up Data Streams
- In your property, go to “Data Streams.”
- Create data streams for events, e-commerce, and any other data you want to collect.
- Copy the measurement ID for each data stream.
- Add the measurement ID to the main tracking code snippet.
4. Configure Events and Parameters
- In your property, go to “Events” in the left menu.
- Create custom events to track user interactions, campaigns, transactions, and more.
- Enable auto-event tracking for common events like clicks, submissions, video plays etc.
- Add any custom parameters you need to track.
And that's it!
GA4 will now start collecting data from your website. Customize reports, connect it to other tools, and analyze the insights to improve your e-commerce business.
Set Up Reports In GA4
Google Analytics 4 comes with many powerful default reports to track your site's performance.
Here are some of the key reports you'll want to use:
Audience reports
Audience reports help you understand who is visiting your site.
Key reports include:
Active users - Shows how many users visited your site over a given time frame. This helps identify loyalty and repeat visitors.
New vs. returning users - View the percentage of visits from new users versus returning users. Optimizing conversion rates for new users is important.
Demographic - Breakdown your audience by location, age, gender and other attributes. Identify your target demographic.
Acquisition reports
See how users arrive at your site and optimize channels. Reports include:
Channels - Track performance of traffic channels like organic search, paid search, social media, etc. Identify high-performing channels.
Campaigns - View metrics for individual campaigns and ad performance. Discover your best conversions.
Behavior reports
Learn how users interact with your site using reports like:
Pages - See which pages get the most views and identify pages with high exit rates. Optimize poor-performing pages.
Events - Track how users interact with site elements like buttons, links, etc. See which actions lead to conversions.
Conversions
Measure goals and sales with conversion reports:
E-commerce - View product performance, sales, revenue, etc. Identify best-selling products.
Goals - Set up custom goals like email signups, downloads etc. and track conversion rates.
Custom reports
Create custom reports to focus on key metrics.
Use segments, filters and multiple dimensions to get deeper insights.
How To Get Value From GA4
Google Analytics 4 is extremely powerful when used to its full potential.
Here are some tips to help you get the most value from GA4 for your e-commerce business:
Connect other data sources - Import data from other platforms like ads, CRM, point of sale etc. to create a single source of truth. This allows for deeper analysis and insights.
Focus on key metrics - Identify the key metrics that impact your business goals, such as revenue, conversion rate, return visits etc. Create custom dashboards and reports to monitor them.
Track campaigns - Make use of UTM parameters and campaign tracking to see which marketing channels drive the most traffic and conversions. Tie this back to ROI.
Monitor funnels - Analyze how users move through funnels using your product or service. Find drop off points to optimize.
Segment users - Break down metrics by user segments like new vs returning, device, geo location etc. Adjust your strategy accordingly.
Set up goals - Define micro and macro conversions relevant to your business to understand the user journey better.
Track on-site behavior - Monitor user on-site activity like clicks, page views, button clicks etc. to improve your site.
Automate reports - Use scheduled email reports to share important metrics with stakeholders regularly.
Properly implementing these tips will lead to actionable insights from GA4 that can greatly benefit your e-commerce store.
Limitations of Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 does have some limitations compared to Universal Analytics.
Some key limitations to be aware of, include:
Inability to see keyword data* - One major limitation of GA4 is the inability to see keyword data for organic traffic. This was available in Universal Analytics but removed from GA4 due to privacy reasons. So you won't be able to see the specific keywords driving traffic to your site.
Less advanced segmentation - The segmentation capabilities in GA4 are currently less advanced compared to Universal Analytics. There are fewer dimensions you can use to slice and dice your data. However, Google is working on improving segmentation.
Limitations of sampled data - Like Universal Analytics, GA4 uses sampling to manage large data volumes. This means you are only seeing a sample of your actual traffic data. For large sites, this can make data less accurate especially when filtering down to smaller segments.
No real-time reports - GA4 does not have real-time reports like Universal Analytics did. The data has a processing delay before you can view reports. So no instant insights on how content or campaigns are performing.
Shorter data retention - GA4 currently stores hit-level data for only 14 months compared to 26 months for Universal Analytics.
So you have a shorter window of historical data.
While GA4 has some definite limitations currently, Google is actively improving the product.
So over time some of these limitations may be addressed. However, it’s crucial to understand the tradeoffs compared to Universal Analytics when making the switch.
In Summary
Google Analytics 4 represents a major upgrade for understanding customer behavior and optimizing e-commerce stores.
With its enhanced capabilities powered by machine learning, GA4 delivers deeper insights into the entire customer journey across devices and channels.
Some of the key benefits of GA4 for e-commerce include:
- More detailed analysis of how users find your site and what causes them to convert or not. This allows better optimization of landing pages, product pages, and checkout funnels.
- Cross-device tracking to see the customer journey across mobile, desktop, tablets, etc. Identify pain points in the journey.
- Enhanced audience analysis to create better segmented analysis of your customers. Target marketing campaigns more effectively.
- Easier implementation with no need for tags on each page. Faster loading speed for pages.
- Increased data privacy and security for users.
As GA4 becomes the standard Google Analytics platform, it will be essential for online retailers to upgrade. Taking advantage of the advanced capabilities can lead to significant gains in sales, conversion rate optimization, lower acquisition costs and more satisfied customers.
The deep customer insights available make GA4 a must for any e-commerce business.
FAQs About Google Analytics 4
How is data sampling different in GA4 versus Universal Analytics?
- In Universal Analytics, data sampling is enabled by default for high traffic sites. GA4 does not use sampling, so you get stats on 100% of your data.
How long does it take to implement GA4?
- Basic implementation can be done in under an hour. However, full implementation with customization of data collection, building audiences, configuring conversions etc. can take 1-2 weeks.
Does GA4 slow down my site speed?
- GA4 is lightweight and has minimal impact on site speed. The focus is on processing data after it is collected vs. bulky data collection.
What happens to my existing Universal Analytics data if I switch to GA4?
- Your existing UA data will remain intact. GA4 starts collecting fresh data without impacting historical UA data.
Can I run UA and GA4 together?
- Yes, you can have both trackers implemented simultaneously and compare data during the transition period.
Is GA4 compatible with Google Tag Manager?
- Yes, GA4 works seamlessly with GTM for easy implementation and management.
Does GA4 work with e-commerce and shopping behaviors?
- Yes, GA4 provides detailed insights into shopping behavior across devices and channels. Enhanced e-commerce reporting is available in GA4.