It’s Time to Break Up With Universal Analytics

The end of Universal Analytics is upon us. In 2022, Google announced it would be waving goodbye to Universal Analytics, with the company’s focus being placed exclusively into its successor, Google Analytics 4.

This guide will explore why the sun is setting on Universal Analytics, what dates you need to be aware of, and why Google Analytics 4 will soon be the new normal for all marketers.

Why is Universal Analytics going away?

Back in March 2022, Google revealed they would be bringing an end to their Universal Analytics platform. While this wasn’t necessarily a shock – the release of Web + App (now known as Google Analytics 4) in July 2019 was a big hint something was afoot – the timeframe given did catch marketers off guard.

This is because they were given a little over a year to react and switch over to GA4.

The deprecation of UA may have been a surprise from a speed perspective, but it was clear why the platform was being retired. The reason: GA4. Aside from offering more features and benefits than its UA counterpart, GA4 was built to align better with present and future reporting and privacy requirements.

Here’s how Google puts it:

Google Analytics 4 is our next-generation measurement solution, and it’s replacing Universal Analytics. If you still rely on Universal Analytics, we recommend that you prepare to use Google Analytics 4 going forward.

As GA4 is a “next-generation” tool for website analytics, it doesn’t make any sense for Google to keep its predecessor around alongside it.

It would be like someone keeping floppy disks around when they have a flash drive to store their data. Okay, that’s a bit of a drastic comparison! However, UA is outdated in comparison to GA4, and the gap will only increase as the latter evolves over the coming years.

From Google’s perspective, continuing to run UA would have diminishing returns in numerous ways. It would cost more to operate than it’s worth as growing numbers embrace GA4. Furthermore, with updates stopping for UA, it could lead to various issues (security-related ones most notably), if they were to keep the platform available.

The sunset timeline for Universal Analytics: why you need to react sooner rather than later

You understand why Universal Analytics is being closed in favour of the latest version of Google Analytics. But if you haven’t made the move yet, there are some important dates to keep in your diary. This includes the date where new hitsWeb page hits were all the rage in the early days of the internet, but have since been replaced by far more granular, valuable data. will stop being processed through UA, and when historic data will cease to exist.

The closure date for standard Universal Analytics properties

All standard Universal Analytics properties will cease activity from July 1, 2023. That means no more new hits will be processed via UA properties. If you were to login to your UA account after this date, all current reports would display a load of zeroes across the board – not good when you’re on the hunt for some juicy analytics and metrics.

Although UA will stop processing new hits from July 1, 2023, it is imperative you don’t wait until the last minute to switch over to GA4. Basically, avoid viewing that date as a deadline of sorts for migration. After all, you need time to get accustomed to GA4 and learn how to gather the analytics required for your business.

The migration can be more complicated than it seems on paper, which explains why plenty have held off adopting GA4. As an example, GA4 doesn’t feature Custom Dimensions like UA, which means you have to adapt to using event parameters for Google Analytics to acquire similar data.

The quicker you jump aboard GA4, the less growing pains you will experience once UA becomes unavailable.

The last date to access historical data in Universal Analytics

Even though new hits will no longer be processed through Universal Analytics from July 2023, the platform won’t be shut down completely – at least not straight away. You will be given additional time to access any historical analytics that are present in UA.

As for how long; Google states there will be at least six months leeway from the time UA stops processing data. That means the end of December 2023 is currently scheduled to be the cut-off point for those hoping to access and download their historical data.

Beyond this deadline, you won’t have the option to access any data that is present in your UA account.

It is important to note that even if you have a large collection of data from UA, this is incompatible with GA4. This is due to the data model – including the collection and processing of data – being significantly different with each platform.

This is another reason why you should adopt GA4 as quickly as possible. Make the switch early, and you will build up more historical data via the GA4 platform.

The closure date for enterprise Universal Analytics 360

Not to be confused with standard Universal Analytics users, there is a different sunset date for organisations using the enterprise version of the platform – aka Universal Analytics 360.

It’s also good news for those that are not quite ready to let go of UA just yet. The deadline is currently set at July 1, 2024. That is a full year after the standard Universal Analytics version.

Originally, enterprise customers didn’t have quite as long. The previous deadline to switch was October 1, 2023. Google pushed the date back for two main reasons. First, it helps users to make a smoother transition to GA4. Second, it gives Google additional time to craft a more fully developed GA4 for enterprises.

However, there is a caveat for those that want to stick with UA as long as possible. Google warns that Universal Analytics 360 will likely see a continual degradation in performance as it closes in on its new sunset date.

For added motivation to make the switch quicker, there is also an enterprise version of GA4 available – conveniently named Google Analytics 4 360. The 360 version, as you would expect, is more upgraded than the standard GA4 platform. This includes properties like more events, audiences, conversions, higher quotas, and so on. Like with the standard GA4, added features will also be introduced in 2023 and beyond.

Making the switch to Google Analytics 4: what GA4 solves for marketers

As with other major Google Updates, GA4 has been done to solve a number of problems that were present for marketers. It might not seem like that at first when you’re still trying to adapt to a new system, but the advantages are worth persevering with the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4!

Here’s a quick look at the general problems solved by using GA4:

Improve your marketing campaigns

Obviously, the biggest benefit is the ability to enhance your marketing campaigns. With an array of data available, you can learn a lot about your audience, website performance, and conversionA conversion is a desirable result on a website that leads to an action such as completing an order, filling out a form, or simply clicking on a link. rates. This type of information opens the door to learning about areas that are performing well and those that require improvement.

For example, you might discover that a large portion of your audience comes from Canada. Rather than ignoring this data, you decide to place an emphasis on advertising to the Canadian market, giving your business a greater presence in this market as a result.

Ultimately, this data delivers answers to many questions you might have about your audience. It also means you can better adapt your marketing efforts to make your advertising budget go further. You gain a greater insight into marketing channels to invest in and which to avoid.

Boost website performance

With in-depth analytics reports, it’s possible to learn about different ways to improve your website and make it more appealing for users. You can learn information such as:

• Webpages that receive the most traffic
• The areas of your site that cause visitors to leave
• The load speed of your site
• Performance of your site on mobile devices

You’re not receiving vague statistics that give you an unclear target to improve traffic. With deep insights like these, it opens up the possibility of improving specific areas of your site. For example, you may learn which blog posts are generating a giant chunk of traffic. With this information, you can produce similar content in the hope this will also appeal to both your audience and Google for organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page..

Improve your search engine optimisation efforts

Extending on from the previous point, insights gained from GA4 are also valuable when it comes to refining your SEO campaigns. By learning about aspects like search traffic, the type of keywords and search queries that are receiving hits, and the bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website. across various sources, you are given the data necessary to, well, optimise your SEO.

Information is power. By learning more about your target audience and the people visiting your website, you are in an informed position to improve your marketing efforts. Add in that GA4 offers even more data than ever before, and you have the reports that can assist with boosting your SEO efforts – and improving your return on investment in the process.

For more information about what is Google Analytics 4, switching to GA4, and why you should do so, make sure to give our Google Analytics 4 Guide a read.

Start making the move today

It has been a rewarding relationship. You have learnt more about yourself (well, business) and grown as a result. Yet you knew when it started, it wasn’t going to last. It is time to say your last goodbye to Universal Analytics.

Instead of dragging it out for too long, ensure the breakup is as quick and painless as possible. The quicker you move on, the quicker you can start to benefit from everything GA4 has to offer.