GA4 - Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to migrate to GA4?

Yes. If you have a Universal Analytics property, you must migrate. So first, check if you have a Universal Analytics property. The earlier you migrate, the more historical data and insights you will have in Google Analytics 4. Google first released GA4 in October 2020, and in the announcement post, Google cited changes in user behaviour and privacy standards as major reasons for the switch. If you want to keep collecting data in Google Analytics after the deadline of July 1, 2023, you’ll need to transition to GA4.

How long does it take to migrate to GA4?

It takes 7 to 10 days to complete the migration process, including data layer implementation, GA4 set-up and data validation.

How many conversions can you have in GA4?

You can mark up to 30 events as conversions. In GA4, you no longer have to set goals based on limited conversion criteria. Instead, GA4 automatically marks four collected mobile app events as conversions. In addition, you can mark up to 30 more (50 for Google Analytics 360) app or web events as conversions.

Is GA4 better than Universal Analytics?

GA4 reporting view provides a new set of engagement metrics that can track users’ engagement with your website/app much more accurately than the pageviews and bounce rate metrics used by GA3. GA4 is a new property designed for the future of measurement: It collects website and app data to understand the customer journey better. It uses event-based data instead of session-based and includes privacy controls such as cookieless measurement and behavioral and conversion modeling. One of the most significant changes between UA and GA4 is introducing an event-based model in place of UA’s existing session-based model.

How long does GA4 hold data?

For Google Analytics 4 properties (non-Analytics 360 version), retention of user-level data, including conversions, can be set to 14 months. For all other event data, you can choose the length of retention: 2 months. 14 months.

Where is GA4 data stored?

Google Analytics operates data centers globally, including in the United States, to maximize service speed and reliability. Before data transfer occurs to any servers in the United States, it is collected in local servers, where users’ IP addresses are anonymized (when customers enable the feature).

With GA4 engaged sessions, if a user scrolls the page but the session lasts less than ten seconds, will it still count as a bounced session regardless of that scrolling behaviour?

An engaged session is one that:

  • It lasts ten seconds or longer

  • Has one or more conversion events

  • or has two or more page or screen views

Unless assigned as a conversion, scroll is a bounce.

Will I need cookie consent banner along with GA4?

Yes, we at Taggurus will help you deploying the cookie consent banner as well to be compliant with GDPR. Based on the plan you choose, we are currently offering free cookie consent banners for small and medium businesses for the first year.

I've found limitations with building the Explore reports, and the integration with Looker could be better. The visualizations for Explore are limited, and I've discovered it only pulls through some dimensions and metrics to Looker. Which is best to use?

We recommend using BigQuery and then connecting this to Looker. Looker also has excellent features, such as the community template library, which allows you to go beyond the restrictions of what Google has designed. Likewise, with BigQuery, you can control and transform your data and join it to other sources to get a fully enhanced data source.

Is deleting custom dimensions the same as archiving?

In effect, deleting custom dimensions will remove them from your GA4 platform, and they will only be available when you reinstate the custom dimension. However, if you want to review all events available on your property, ensure you set up your BigQuery connection, where you have a permanent store of your GA4 user-level data for every triggered event.