Is Google Analytics 4 Worth It? The Pros and Cons

Are you looking for Google Analytics 4 pros and cons to see if it’s worth it? You’re not alone. It’s a scenario many website owners currently find themselves in.

GA4 is Google’s new way to track how people use your website. It’s a significant update from the previous version, but people are divided about it largely due to its complexity.

So, should you spend time learning GA4? Will it actually help your business?

In this guide, I’ll examine Google Analytics 4’s pros and cons and help you decide if it’s right for you.

What Is Google Analytics 4 (GA4) & Why’s It Different?

GA4 is an updated version of Google Analytics that allows you to track how people use your website and apps. It’s quite different from the old version, with several important changes.

The new GA4 aims to give you a fuller picture of how people interact with your site. It uses new ways to collect data and understand user behavior, which can take some getting used to.

But these new features also offer more detailed insights into how people interact with your site or app.

Here’s how GA4 differs from Universal Analytics:

Google Analytics 4 Pros and Cons

Now that we understand how GA4 differs, you might wonder if it’s right for you. To help answer that, I’ve been testing GA4 on my projects and have put together my findings.

What Are the Pros of Google Analytics 4?

First, I’ll look at the benefits of using GA4 on your business website.

1. Combined Web and App Tracking

GA4 can track your website and app in one place, which helps if your business uses both.

One key advantage is seeing how people move between your website and app. This insight can shape your marketing strategy and help you improve each platform.

Another benefit is having all your data in one place. Gone are the days of juggling separate reports for your website and app. This not only saves time but also makes spotting trends easier.

But how does this work in practice? Let’s look at a real example:

Imagine you run an online store. GA4 might show that customers using both your website and app spend more than those using just one. Armed with this information, you could encourage website-only customers to try your app, potentially boosting sales.

2. Deeper Engagement Insights

GA4 introduces new ways to measure how people interact with your site. Two key metrics are “engaged sessions” and “engagement rate.” These give you a better picture of how interested visitors are in your content.

An engaged session is when a user spends at least 10 seconds on your site, views more than one page, or completes a conversion event. This tells you more than just how many people visit your site – it shows who’s interested in what you offer.

The engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that were engaged. A high engagement rate means your content is capturing people’s attention.

These new metrics can help you in several ways:

• Improve your content: If certain pages have a low engagement rate, you might need to make them more interesting or useful.
• Spot technical issues: A sudden drop in engagement could mean a problem with your site that’s turning visitors away.
• Measure campaign success: Beyond counting clicks, you can see if your ads bring in engaged visitors who are likely to become customers.

For example, let’s say you run a blog. You might find that posts with videos have a much higher engagement rate than text-only posts. This could lead you to include more video content to keep visitors on your site longer.

3. AI-Powered Predictions

One of GA4’s more exciting features is its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make predictions. This is helpful, especially because cookie restrictions make user tracking more difficult.

GA4’s AI can fill in data gaps and even predict what users might do in the future by:

• Filling in missing data: If some users don’t allow cookies, GA4 can estimate what they might have done based on similar users. This gives you a more complete picture of your site’s performance.
• Predicting customer behavior: GA4 can predict things like which users will likely make a purchase in the next week. This helps you focus your marketing efforts on the right people.
• Spotting trends early: The AI can identify patterns in your data that might be hard for a human to see. This can help you catch new trends before your competitors do.

For example, if you run an online store, GA4 might predict that customers who view a certain product are likely to purchase it within 3 days. You could use this information to send these customers a timely email reminder or special offer.

4. Free Analytics for Everyone

One of the best aspects of GA4 is that it offers powerful tools at no cost. This is great news, particularly for small businesses and new startups.

GA4 gives you access to advanced tools that used to be only for big companies with lots of money. Now, whether you have a personal blog or a growing online store, you can use the same powerful analytics as major businesses.

This means you can make smart decisions based on data, without spending money. You can compete better with bigger businesses and grow your online presence using top-notch tools.

5. Flexible Event Tracking

GA4 makes it easier to track what people do on your website. Instead of just counting page views, it looks at “events.” An event can be anything a user does, like clicking a button, watching a video, or filling out a form.

The best part is how flexible this system is. GA4 automatically tracks some common events for you. But you can also create your own custom events to track exactly what matters to your business.

For example, let’s say you have a music streaming website. You could create custom events to track when someone:

• Plays a song
• Creates a playlist
• Shares a song with a friend
• Upgrades to a premium account

GA4 lets you add extra information to these events, too. These are called “parameters.” For our music website example, you could add parameters like:

• The genre of the song played
• How long someone listened to a song
• What time of day they usually listen

This system allows you to track almost anything on your site. It gives you a clearer picture of how people use your website, which helps you improve it.

6. Advanced Analysis with BigQuery

GA4 has another unique feature for people who want to dig deeper into their data. It connects easily with BigQuery, a tool for quickly analyzing huge amounts of data.

Here’s how this can help your business:

• More Data: With BigQuery, you can look at all your raw data, not just the summaries GA4 shows you. This means you can ask more detailed questions about how people use your site.
• Custom Reports: You can create your own reports that show exactly what you want to know. This is great if GA4’s regular reports don’t quite fit your needs.
• Combine Data: You can combine your GA4 data with other information, like sales or customer information, to get a complete picture of your business.
• Historical Data: BigQuery lets you keep your data for longer than GA4 does. This is useful for looking at long-term trends.
• It’s Free (to start): Google lets you export your GA4 data to BigQuery for free, up to a certain amount. However, you’ll need to pay if you use it a lot.

While BigQuery is more complex to use than regular GA4, it opens up a world of possibilities for better understanding your data. If you’re comfortable with data analysis or have someone on your team who is, BigQuery can be a game-changer.

7. Direct Marketing Integrations

GA4 works well with other marketing tools, especially Google Ads. This means you can easily use your website data to improve your ads.

This connection between GA4 and your marketing tools allows for better ad targeting, helping your ads reach the right people more often. As a result, you can see how your ads are performing alongside your website data, making it easier to understand which ads bring in customers.

One of the most powerful features is the ability to create custom audiences. You can group people who’ve done specific things on your site and then show ads just to them. For instance, you could display a special offer to people who’ve visited your site but have yet to purchase.

For a more in-depth overview, see our guide: Easy Google Analytics 4: A Simple Guide on How It Works

What Are the Cons of Google Analytics 4

While GA4 has many great features, it also has some problems. Having used it on various websites, I’ve run into some issues that you should know about.

These problems aren’t deal-breakers. They’re more like challenges you can overcome if you know how to handle them.

1. Steeper Learning Curve

One of the biggest challenges with GA4 is that it’s pretty different from the old Google Analytics. It looks at website data in a new way, which can be hard to get used to at first.

Instead of simply counting page views, GA4 tries to understand how people really use your site. It focuses on ‘events’ rather than just pageviews and sessions. While this can give you better insights about your visitors, you might have to relearn how to find the information you need.

The layout and reports are new, and even how you set up tracking has changed.

In GA4, you need to think more about what specific actions you want to track on your site, which is tricky if you’re not used to it.

2. Limited Historical Data

Another challenge with GA4 is that you can’t see your old data from Universal Analytics. UA is gone, so you can’t look at your old numbers anymore.

This is difficult if you would like to compare this year’s data with last year’s. You can’t do that easily with GA4.

But there are ways to deal with this:

• If you saved your old UA data before it disappeared, you can still use it. If not, you’ll have to start fresh with GA4.
• Focus on collecting good data in GA4 from now on. You can’t get the old data back, but you can make sure you have good data going forward.
• Think about what numbers really matter for your business. GA4 shows you some new things that UA didn’t.
• Use your first year of GA4 data as a starting point. You can compare future years to this.

Losing your old data is tough, but GA4 gives you new ways to understand your website. As time passes and you collect more data in GA4, not having the old data will matter less.

3. Less Developed Reporting Interface

Many people find GA4’s reports harder to use than the old Google Analytics. The way GA4 shows data is quite different and can be confusing at first.

In the old Google Analytics, you could easily find common reports like pageviews or bounce rates. In GA4, these reports look different or might not exist in the same way. This means you have to dig around more to find the information you want.

Also, some standard reports in the old version are now “custom reports” in GA4. You have to set them up yourself, which can be tricky if you’re not used to it.

But it’s not all bad news. Google is always working to make GA4 better. They’re adding new features and making things easier to use all the time. Plus, once you get used to it, GA4’s reports can give you more detailed information than the old version.

GA4 and Privacy: A Double-Edged Sword

GA4 takes a new approach to privacy, which can be both a pro and a con, depending on your perspective. According to the Google Analytics Data Controls Guide:

Rising consumer expectations and changing industry regulations have set higher standards for user privacy and data protection. This has led many businesses to revisit how they are managing data in their Google Analytics accounts.

One big change is that GA4 relies less on cookies. Cookies are small files that websites use to track users, but many people don’t like them because they feel invasive.

Instead, GA4 uses other ways to understand user behavior. It looks at what pages people visit, how long they stay on your site, and what actions they take (like clicking buttons or watching videos).

This privacy-focused approach has some benefits and drawbacks:

To work with these limitations, you might need to focus more on overall trends rather than individual user behavior. You can also use GA4’s AI features to get insights that don’t rely on personal user data.

Do You Really Need All That Data?

GA4 provides a wealth of information, but are you really using all of it? Many website owners are drowning in data, trying to figure out how to use it effectively.

Most businesses only need a few key numbers to make good decisions. Do you really need to know every detail about your visitors? Or do you just need to know how many people visit your site, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing, and whether they’re converting?

This is where OnePageGA comes in.

OnePageGA simplifies GA4 data, giving you just the insights you need without the complexity:

• See all your key metrics on one page
• Focus on what really impacts your business
• Quick setup and pre-built reports
• No fluff: Just the data you need

With OnePageGA, you get the benefits of GA4’s data collection without the complex interface.

Is Google Analytics 4 Worth It for You?

We’ve looked at GA4’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s a powerful tool, but it can be challenging to use and takes a lot of time to understand.

If GA4 feels too complicated, OnePageGA might just be the choice for you. It takes GA4 data and makes it easy to understand, allowing you to get the important information without all the confusion.

If you want to simplify your analytics but still get the benefits of GA4, try OnePageGA free for 14 days to see if it works.

If you have questions or want to join the conversation, you can also find us on X.

Stacey Corrin Content Writer

Stacey has been writing about SaaS and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, SEO, and scaling small businesses.

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