Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Esther
Hi, guys. Welcome to today's episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today we're joined by Aaron Ocampo of IPA Group, and we're talking about the new Google Analytics platform, GA4. Welcome, Aaron.
Aaron
Hello guys, how are you?
Esther
We're good.
Melanie
So we believe we know you somewhat. Let's get some context here, shall we, boys and girls? How do we know you Aaron?
Esther
I've never met him before in my life.
Aaron
I'm the husband of one of the hosts.
Melanie
Mine.
Esther
You wished.
Melanie
No, you're quite right. You are the husband of our esteemed website developer, designer, and Google Analytics pro Esther Ocampo. And you're the lesser half, sorry, the better half of her.
Esther
Of course.
Aaron
Thanks.
Esther
And the editor of Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Let's not forget that he does that.
Melanie
Yeah, let's not forget that. But you're here because you apparently know about Google Analytics 4
Aaron
Apparently
Melanie
Somewhat.
Aaron
Yeah.
Melanie
Tell us, because I'm taking over. Now tell us, why should we know about Google Analytics 4 now and when does it all change?
Aaron
Well, Google Analytics Four is a new version of Universal Analytics from Google. All of us, if you have a website, you should have some sort of analytics and normally it's Google Analytics. So the previous version was Universal Analytics as they called it, and then they're moving away from that and then towards this new version of it, which is GA4 or Google Analytics Four. And the main reason to know about this is because it's going to be the actual analytics that we're going to use in years in the future, and they are deprecating the previous version. So it's important if you have a website to change to the new version, you have a whole year, but time flies and if you don't do it soon, you probably are going to rush yourself later.
Esther
Or forget about it.
Aaron
That's the main thing.
Esther
Okay, so are there any advantages apart from not forgetting about doing it, for doing it now, for making the change now with a whole year-ish to go?
Aaron
I would say a couple of them. The first one would be getting used to the new version while the other is in place still, because that way you could get both results and both reports and you could compare them and see if you're getting the same metrics or not. That will be one of the main things. And the other one is that you will have a whole year of support and that help from Google and all that because you're still using the previous one. So I would say those main things would be it.
Melanie
So it was called Universal Analytics. I mean, it's still there now, but does it give you more information now than it will do in July next year? Is that why it's been called just Google Analytics rather than Universal?
Aaron
I'm not sure about the reason for the name, the change of the name. I would say it's more related of how they're doing things because Universal Analytics before was kind of trying to group everything in one place. With this new version, you will have certain parts of it to target different parts of your business. So business is not only a website, you can have an app, you can have different channels. They call it, they call them different channels that you can track. So all of those things are now in Google Analytics and you can use different IDs or different codes to track those things. So I would say that could be the reason for the change. But in general, I would say it serves the same purpose at the end.
Melanie
So I just wanted to ask, it took them years to make Universal Analytics user friendly. And we recently transferred over my website because you guys manage it for me and it's not user friendly, the new Google Analytics 4. Do you think it's going to take them as long to make this as user friendly?
Aaron
Well, to be honest, Google hasn't been known because they're good at their user friendliness. I don't know. They have a lot of work to do in that regard. It's more about the tool than the user experience at this point. And that's why I think they're going through this transition because they want to get feedback from the community or things like that. I think that's the main thing they need that transition period.
Esther
Okay, and what will we lose from Universal Analytics going to GA4? Will we lose any of our metrics or will we just gain stuff? What's the main differences?
Aaron
Okay, metrics change entirely. It's not going to be the same. Yes, you could have, for example, things that you're used to seeing in the previous Google Universal Analytics are not going to be there. For example, one of the main ones would be bounce rate because they are changing the approach to measure traffic and engagement in your website and app and all that stuff. And instead of going through all of those things individually, they're going to go in a way that they call them events. So every single thing that happens on your website, app, and channels are going to be measured in things called events. And depending on the combination of those events, you will get the other metrics or things like that. Bounce rate was kind of a combination of an event which was time that the user was spending on your site and then the actions that they were taking in it. So they're taking away that and you could come up with some sort of bounce rate yourself, because that's another thing that Google Analytics 4 has now, is the ability for you to create your own metrics or your own reports.
Esther
Depending on what you want to measure.
Melanie
And if you can understand how to use it, of course. I know I may have probably worried quite a few people saying how un-user friendly it is at the moment, but saying that to actually change it over, it's actually not that hard, is it? It's quite easy. Step by step. Could you just quickly take us through how you would do it?
Aaron
Well, the moment is very easy. Like you were saying, you would go inside your Universal Analytics and there's a wizard there for you to migrate from one version to the other one. It takes you through the steps. It's two or three steps at the most, to be honest. And at the end, the only thing that you have to do is copy your new ID into your website or app and then it automatically should recognise it with this new code. Google has made it really easy for you to migrate from one to the other. And like I was saying before, it's good to have both of them at the moment because you will have both metrics and both results at the same time, so you will see if the new version is actually working as expected, you know.
Esther
So you're a web designer as well, and what would you recommend people who are just building their website or just starting their website or websites that you're building, would you connect them first to the old analytics or directly onto the new ones?
Aaron
You can't do it now, you can't actually use Universal Analytics anymore. So everything from, I don't remember, if it was a couple of months ago or three months ago, it's all Google Analytics 4.
Esther
No option. Okay, you're using it and that's it.
Melanie
So let's say you have multiple users on your Google Analytics because like most things, you can have analysts, you can have admins. Do I have to add on the roles from my old Universal Analytics to my new Google 4 Analytics?
Aaron
No, everything goes in the migration, so no, you don't have to worry about that. The migration does that for you.
Melanie
And it's probably a good time to actually double check and make sure the people that you want on there are on there and get shot of people that don't need to be there anymore as well. Yeah, probably, yeah.
Esther
Good plan. What happens if people come to the 1 July 2023 and they haven't changed over? Do they automatically get transferred over? Do they get locked out of Google Analytics? What happens?
Aaron
No, there's no automatic transition or anything. You have to do it, or the owner of the property in Google has to do it. So if you don't do it, you lose access. It's like the Google Analytics stops working. It doesn't track anything or anything, it's just your website will still be live and all that stuff, but you won't be able to track anything. You won't see any results or any traffic or anything, so you will have to do it.
Melanie
So it's especially vital if you have somebody such as IPA Group managing your Google Analytics and your website, it's especially vital that you give plenty of notice to your website developer to make sure it's done, because they are managing multiple websites, multiple accounts. They are human like the rest of us. I know nobody seems to think they are, but trust me, they are. And this is your opportunity to double check and make sure whoever's been hosting and managing, or even just your website designer, even if you're doing it yourself, is to make sure that this is done, because there is no going back. You cannot fix this after July 2023. So we are going to be talking about this actively over the coming weeks and months, just to reassure people that it's something you can look after. So is there any top tips that people can take away from today's session? Any action points that you would recommend to our listeners?
Aaron
Yes, like we were mentioning before, one of the main ones would be doing it now, so you will have both results. That's one of the main ones, because with every new technology out there, you always get bugs, you always get differences between the new and the old and things like that. So having both of them at the same time and measuring your website traffic and all that at the same time, will give you the right idea if you're getting the proper ratings and all that stuff. Second of all is get used to it. It's not something that people like. Change is something that no one likes, but at the end, it's the way to go. Obviously, there are other options out there in terms of analytics, google is not the only one that does this. Yeah, there's tonnes of them. We can talk about some of them, but there are tonnes of them out there. Some of them are more GDPR friendly, some of them are specific for a specific niche and things like that. So it's good knowing that there are other options. But you know, Google is the king of all of this stuff.
Esther
That's true. They even have their own verb. Just Google it.
Aaron
Yeah, get used to it, play around with it. You have a whole year and obviously, if you make a mistake, there's always ways to go back and change things. Those would be my suggestions at the moment.
Esther
So you're saying about changing things. You were saying about setting up events and monitoring the channels that people come through and stuff. Can those be changed later? Are those sort of like what the goals are on the present universal? Are those like the goals and where you set a monetary value or are the events completely I'm sure there are similarities, differences. Can they be changed?
Aaron
Well, in general, it's supposed to be almost the same. Everything. But in reality, yes, there are big changes. One of the main ones is the UI, which is one of the main things whenever you go in and start playing around with it. So the thing is that even though that's supposed to be the same thing, it's not. In reality, it's not. Sorry, I lost track. We were saying, what was your question?
Melanie
He wasn't listening to you, Esther.
Esther
Never does. He's going to end this part out, probably. He's got the power at the end of the day, the events, can you change the events to track different things?
Aaron
Yes, that was the thing. Yes. You can create events, you can change it, you can edit them. At the end, that was another main thing about this new technology, is giving you the power to create reports in a different way that you were creating them before. Yes, definitely. You will be able to edit or create or modify whatever you need in this new GA4. The only thing is goals, for example, is still the same, it's still there. You will be able to track them and create them, all that stuff.
Melanie
Okay, I'm going to ask one question here. If you are struggling to get hold of your website developer, or maybe they've gone out of business, or you've tried to do it yourself and you're like, this is a disaster, I'm not doing this right at all,
Esther
Or you're scared. You just don't feel up to do it yourself.
Melanie
I'll be honest with you, I did it with you. I did the transfer myself with you, Aaron, because I was nervous I was going to do something wrong. Is it hard to find somebody who can help you do this? Do you have to be an ongoing customer? Would IPA Group be able to help?
Aaron
No, definitely not.
Esther
Definitely not be able to help?
Melanie
Yeah, he can't help at all, rubbish.
Aaron
No, at the end it's just a migration. You don't have to be an ongoing client. Obviously, like I was saying, it's not the same. You have to get used to it. So the ratings are not going to be the same, the UI is not going to be the same, but at the end, we can help you to do that migration. So, yeah, don't worry about that.
Melanie
Could you just explain what UI means? You said it twice now and I haven't actually got it.
Aaron
User interface.
Melanie
Okay.
Aaron
Is what you see, you know, the boxes and buttons and all that stuff, that's the UI.
Melanie
I would have called it a dashboard, but okay.
Esther
That's the common word for it. We're talking to a web designer who will use lots of different jargon that we don't use in everyday life. So segue into how do people get in touch with you at IPA group to help them with their migration from UA to GA4?
Aaron
Well, my website is ipagroup.co you can find me there, you can send a request through the contact page there. If you want you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, all that stuff. So yeah, that's how you can contact me.
Melanie
Wicked. Well, you didn't do too bad there. You might come back again.
Aaron
Thanks.
Esther
Would he want to, though? That's the question.
Melanie
Just for the audience that's listening. He wanted to see what it was actually like, because he edits all the mistakes and all the coughs, the noises. I'll do one for you - that's me using a bottle. And he wondered what the heck we did here. And I think he had a small taste of just exactly what we put our enduring speakers through each time. So thank you so much for coming on and braving it. And I think we should have you back when you can tell us about other analytics companies. I'll be really honest with you. It never was on my orbit that there were others.
Aaron
Oh, definitely. I'll be happy to do it.
Esther
Cool. Great. So we'll talk to you again next week, guys, about more exciting information on topics related to marketing and how to help your business.
Melanie
More exciting, obviously.
Esther
So until then, bye. Bye.
Melanie
More exciting things?
Esther
Not as in more exciting than GA4, but as in extra topics.