Hey there, Benjamin from Loves Data here! In this video, I'm going to show you how to
install Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on Thinkific. So the latest version of Google Analytics.
And in case you're wondering, Thinkific is the platform we use to host our courses here
at Loves Data. So if you take my free Analytics Essentials Course or any of my premium courses,
then you'll be watching the lessons and completing the quizzes on Thinkific.
Currently, Thinkific's Google Analytics integration only supports the previous version,
so Universal Analytics. Let's take a quick look at this.
Let's head to my demo site... I've already logged in, so to find Thinkific's Google
Analytics integration, we select 'Apps'... And then we click 'Visit App Store'...
We can then search for 'Google Analytics'...
And select the app... And let's click 'Install'... We can see that we can
now enter our tracking ID from Google Analytics. Currently, this only supports Universal Analytics,
so we can't simply copy and paste our measurement ID from GA4. This wouldn't
work. I'm guessing that Thinkific will update this app or add a new GA4 app in the future,
but currently we're out of luck if we want to use an in-built integration. Google has announced that
Universal Analytics will stop working in mid-2023, but if you are still using Universal Analytics,
then you can add your tracking ID here and you will be good to go in terms of measuring
your Thinkific site and courses. I also want to mention that if you are using Universal
Analytics and Thinkific's integration, then it won't track course purchases by default. If
you would like to measure people purchasing your courses into Universal Analytics from Thinkific,
then I've included a link in the extra resources below this video to get you up and running. Okay
to install GA4, let's select 'Settings'... And then we need to select 'Code and Analytics'...
This is where we can install extra code on our Thinkific site. At the top we can see
'Site Footer Code'... This lets us add code to all of the pages on the site. And below this,
we can see 'Order Tracking Code'... This lets us add code to the order confirmation page.
We are going to use both of these options to add Google Analytics 4 to Thinkific. So we need to
get our tracking code. To do this, let's head to Google Analytics... I'm already in the admin
area of Google Analytics. If you're not, then just click 'Admin' on the bottom left corner...
And you will need to make sure you're using a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property. The
quickest way to tell if you're using GA4, is to check if you see two columns in the admin area.
We can see there are only two columns in my account, so this is a GA4 property.
But if you see three columns, then you're looking at a Universal Analytics property,
so the older version of Google Analytics. If you're getting started with GA4, then check
out my dedicated tutorials, my free Analytics Essentials Course, and my other courses. I've
included links to these in the description below this video. Now let's select 'Data Streams'...
And we need to choose the data stream we want to use on our Thinkific site.
In most cases, I recommend using the same data stream that is installed on your main website.
This lets you measure people as they travel from your main website to your Thinkific site...
Now we need to select 'Global Site Tag' under 'Tagging Instructions'... And let's copy the
code... Now let's head back to Thinkific... And I want you to paste the code we just copied from
Google Analytics into the 'Site Footer Code' section... And let's click 'Save'... This
will mean you can track all of the pages on your Thinkific site and all of the lessons once people
have logged in to take one of your courses. But this won't track people purchasing your courses.
To track these, we need to add some additional code. To get the code, let's head to my blog...
I've included a link to this page in the description below this video. And
on this page I've included a customized version of Google's Global Site Tag that will send a purchase
event to GA4. So the order number, total price, product name, and other details in curly braces
will all be populated using Thinkific's liquid markup. The other thing you will notice is that
I've customized the code so that it doesn't send a page view to Google Analytics. This is the 'send
page view false' parameter. I've done this because the Global Site Tag we just installed will still
load on the order confirmation page, so if we left this off, then we would see two page views
on the order confirmation page. Okay, let's copy this code... And let's head back to Thinkific...
And let's paste the code into the 'Order Tracking Code' section... Now this is really important. We
need to replace the two instances of 'G', 'dash', 'example', in the code with the measurement ID
from our GA4 property. Let's head back to Google Analytics to get this...
We're still looking at the data stream, so on the top right corner we can copy our measurement ID...
Now let's head back to Thinkific...
And now we can replace 'G', 'dash', 'example' with our correct measurement ID. You can also find this
in the code we pasted into the 'Site Footer Code' section if you like. Now let's click 'Save'...
We will now be tracking all of the pages on our Thinkific site and all of the courses people are
purchasing into GA4. After someone has made a purchase you will be able to head to 'Reports',
then 'Monetization' and then 'Purchases' to view the report. Data typically shows up the next day
in GA4, so a purchase made today will be in your reports tomorrow. And I need to highlight that if
you have a free course on Thinkific, then people joining this course won't trigger a purchase
event. So the best way to report on people joining a free course is to configure a conversion based
on the confirmation page people view after they've signed up for your free course. If you would like
me to create a video covering the ecommerce reports or how to track people joining your
free courses, then let me know in the comments below. And if you found this video helpful,
please like it, so I know to make more videos like this one. I'll see you in the next video!