Adapting to the post-cookie era
The post-cookie era poses major challenges for data tracking. GA4 meets this challenge by using data modeling based on artificial intelligence. This approach fills the data gaps caused by users refusing cookies, offering a more complete view of user behavior while respecting their privacy.
Privacy and data management in GA4
Privacy settings
GA4 offers advanced options for managing data confidentiality. Users can set the duration of data retention, and the system uses an anonymous unique identifier to track user interactions, relying on proprietary cookies.
Proprietary cookies vs. third-party cookies
Proprietary cookies, used by GA4, are specific to the domain visited and are considered more privacy-friendly than third-party cookies. Third-party cookies, which are on the way out, are used by third-party domains and pose greater privacy issues.
Impact of the end of third-party cookies and alternatives
Consequences for businesses
The end of third-party cookies leads to a reduction in data accuracy and limits advertising targeting. This affects not only web analytics tools, but also advertising performance on platforms such as Facebook, TikTok or LinkedIn.
Server-side measurement as an alternative
To compensate for the loss of third-party cookies, server-side measurement is an effective alternative. It enables certain marketing tactics, such as dynamic advertising and retargeting, to be retained, while treating data as first-party, which is more respectful of user privacy.
Paradigm shift with GA4
Event-driven model
GA4 introduces a fundamental shift in the way we track user interactions. The data model is now event-centric, offering greater flexibility and personalization in tracking interactions on websites and applications.
Event types and parameters
GA4 distinguishes between several event types: automatic, enhanced measurement, recommended and customized. Each event can include up to 25 parameters, enabling detailed and precise analysis of user interactions.
The importance of event tracking in GA4
Event tracking
Precise event tracking is essential in GA4. It is crucial to track all significant interactions on a site to take full advantage of GA4's analysis capabilities.
Conversion configuration
In GA4, conversions are key events aligned with business objectives. The platform enables simple configuration of conversions, with a limit of 30 conversions per property. GA4 counts all conversions made by a user in a single session.
At the e-commerce level GA4 introduces new dimensions and metrics for e-commerce, making it possible to track customized parameters at item level, such as color, size or rating. GA4's monetization reports offer detailed tracking of site-generated revenues and the performance of different areas of the site.
Advanced aspects of GA4
Data sampling
Sampling enables trends to be estimated from subsets of data. Although fast, it is not always 100% accurate, which can be a drawback for critical data such as conversions.
To avoid sampling, we can reduce the date range or use standard reports that are not sampled.
BigQuery can be used to store unsampled raw data, now available free of charge with certain limitations in GA4.
Views (or lack of them)
Unlike Universal Analytics, GA4 has no "views" for segmenting site data. It is therefore necessary to use report collections for similar segmentation.
Custom reports in GA4 can be created by modifying dimensions, measures and applying filters, although filtering options are limited compared to Universal Analytics.
Regular expressions (Regex)
The use of regular expressions is different in GA4 compared to Universal Analytics. GA4 uses a full match rather than a partial match, which can lead to different results when using the same regex in both systems.
Data retention
By default, event data in GA4 is retained for two months. This retention period can be increased to 14 months via the administration settings.
These advanced GA4 features and settings highlight its flexibility and enhanced data management capabilities compared to Universal Analytics, while also highlighting some of the complexities and limitations to be considered when using it.
Conclusion and outlook
GA4 marks a turning point in web analytics and SEO. With its event-centric approach and ability to adapt to a cookie-free environment, GA4 offers powerful, privacy-friendly tools for analyzing and optimizing the performance of websites and applications. This evolution requires an adaptation of monitoring and analysis strategies for SEO professionals, underlining the importance of a thorough understanding of GA4 and its functionalities.
To find out more :
Google Analytics 4: leveraging user data
