All right, before we get started, quick shout out to DataDock Meetup.
That is a little event here in Berlin
where I was invited to give my little presentation on Google Analytics 4
And we had a little discussion around
a little round of presentations around the future of Google Analytics,
on that meetup, along with other speakers here.
And the format is quite unique because you only get ten minutes to talk.
Great questions at the end, great audience as well.
And obviously you can network if you are
in the area of Berlin, then check out the Data Dock event.
If you are just online and want to join us
online, they actually also live stream it so you can join Hybrid,
just go to the LinkedIn page and sign up to the next event.
So thanks again for Data Dock,
for inviting me and Pandata for hosting us with this great event.
And now let's dive into my presentation, Google Analytics 4.
Did Google overplay their hand with Google Analytics 4?
Why should you switch or not switch to Google Analytics 4?
Here are my thoughts.
So first of all, Google has acknowledged that the Internet has changed,
consumer behavior has changed, the environment has changed,
and Google really had to make a move with that tool of Google Analytics.
They had outdated tech, especially when it came to having different devices tracked.
They wanted to have something that
goes with the times and also helps the users to really understand their
website visitors, but also their app visitors.
And they want to play to their strengths
because they have invested billions into machine learning or AI.
They're one of the leaders worldwide to bring out new things in this
development and they know that it's the future.
And obviously they want to also port
that over to their advertising business and Google Analytics as well.
So they really need to have a database
in order to analyze that data with their machine learning capabilities.
So that's why Google Analytics 4 was also introduced.
But the biggest reason is probably privacy.
Privacy has changed so much.
The conception of privacy and the view on privacy has changed so much over
the last few years that really Google had to make this big, big move.
There was or there's still legal trouble ahead.
We have GDPR, CCPA, many other privacy legislations that are
coming out worldwide that are aimed at making sure that users privacy is upheld.
And Google is one of the targets oftentimes when I think about these laws.
So that is one reason why Google really had to change something.
As well as there's less data available now.
We have cookie banners up in Europe,
cookie consent banners, we have private platforms entering
the markets that do not track kind of notices.
And consumer behaviors, frankly, also change.
They are sick of being followed around
the Internet, and ad blocking is quite prevalent.
And that's why less data is available in Google needed to react to this thing as
well in the realms of privacy as well as their own deadline that they have given
themselves by saying hey, we will get rid of third party cookies.
And nowadays I don't see any kind of real equivalent of how they can do that.
This doesn't really concern
Google Analytics per se because it's first party cookie, but if we look at third
party cookies as a staple of tracking mechanisms for retargeting,
for advertising systems to do conversion tracking and so on,
there needs to be a fundamental shift in the technology, and that will probably
also impact how Google Analytics is doing things.
So then they come along with Google Analytics 4.
Is it the savior that we are all waiting for?
Well, marketing says sure it is.
We have new measurements, we can now take our old tech and replace
it and track all the new things into one interface app plus web.
And we have a new data model that makes us all more flexible.
Any kind of business type that you want to track is available in GA4.
We also have new features like funnel
analysis, flexible funnels that you have audience triggers.
Many different other new little features that were not possible with the data model
beforehand are now built into Google Analytics 4.
Anomaly detection, for example, some machine learning as well.
We have privacy controls,
so that should appease the privacy people quite a bit because we can delete data
now, we can turn on Google Signals based on different countries and be very
flexible with our data gathering and have the right privacy controls in place.
We can take ownership of our data,
so we don't have to keep our data in Google Analytics.
We can actually export it to something
like BigQuery or to BigQuery really, and from there you could
put it out to any other form that we want to have it in any other database.
And this is really cool because we are now taking ownership of our own data.
Google Analytics doesn't actually want our
data because we get our data deleted in the free version after 14 months maximum.
And obviously the machine learning really cool that they are now able to take our
data and build predictive audiences, do anomaly detection and so on.
And that's what they wanted all along. But and there was a but in this sentence we
all know that Google Analytics is not what it says it is really.
We still have much legal trouble ahead, especially here in Europe.
People are already saying that well,
even if you switch to Google Analytics 4, you won't be compliant.
All of the mechanisms that I have built
in, there may be a little bit of a plaster on the wound,
but it's not really healing the wound in a sense.
So that's something that you need to be aware of.
Do you want to be still in a legal kind
of nirvana with Google Analytics 4 and not knowing if you're going to get
sued or not, or do you want to maybe look for an alternative there.
At the same time, the UI or everything that's built
into GA4 with the UI, some stuff is still very buggy.
We have inconsistencies in the data,
which is the biggest thing for people who work seriously with data.
If you look into the data one to another day, it might change.
If you look into data from BigQuery to the UI, it might not stack up.
Or the APIs that you have available, you always see inconsistencies in the data.
So how can you make up your mind with the data pool of GA4?
And then there are many missing features which we could talk about,
but probably depending on the person who you're asking,
they might have different other lists out there that they would like to see in GA4.
And then we have this forced deadline, right?
All the marketers out there, all the people who need to deal with this change.
Now the website owners think like, why are they doing this?
Why is it so prevalent that we have
to switch over by July 1, 2023, especially when the product is not yet done?
This is something that puts a lot
of people under pressure and they don't like it.
And then there are switching costs.
Obviously, you need to get everybody involved, get a team together to switch it
over, because Google Analytics is not Google Analytics 4.
It's not an upgrade to your old Google Analytics.
It is a completely new tool.
You need to reintegrate it.
You need to think about the strategies of your measurement strategy,
and maybe you need to get a consultant in and do a reimplementation project.
This might cost quite a bit depending
on the size of the company or the installation that you are dealing with.
So all of these are kind of the factors that marketers right now are saying,
what am I doing here with Google Analytics 4, right?
Or if they already had to deal with Google Analytics 4 and had
to implement it, and now they're dealing with a mess inside Google Analytics 4.
It's quite frustrating, and I get it.
Yet I'm kind of a fan of Google Analytics 4,
but maybe for a different reason, because there is a great gift within
the basket that Google gave us with Google Analytics 4.
And it's a simple fact that we now need to think, and a lot of people are now
going into thinking mode when they see and hear about Google Analytics 4.
That's a great thing.
Although it's sometimes numbing and you don't foresee what can actually
be done with Google Analytics 4, what you actually have to think about.
It is a great feature,
especially for those who are helping other people out with implementations.
We help clients out as well as students
to get this all set up and get the right thinking around Google Analytics 4.
So what if Google Analytics is actually not the go to analytics tool anymore?
What does that change for you?
Because we have some great alternatives
out there depending on the size of the business.
If you are smaller, if you're bigger,
there are some great alternatives out there and you might want to switch over.
But even then, you need to think about what is my data actually all about,
where should I put this in place and which tool should I use in the end?
And by the way, on this slide,
you see that there are many different alternatives.
There's not one THE alternative.
So I can't answer the question, what should I switch to?
It depends on your business, obviously.
And these are all alternatives that you could choose from Google Analytics.
There's no tool that can replace Google Analytics entirely at this point,
I would say just because they all function a little bit different,
have a different scope of the offerings that they have, and maybe also one or
the other aspects might be more important to you, like privacy, for example.
So if you are thinking about switching to Google Analytics 4?
I think you are on the right path there.
Or if you are thinking about switching away from Google Analytics 4,
because you need to ask yourself the most fundamental questions of data.
How important is my data actually to me and my organization?
What do we use it for?
What data do I really need to do my daily work?
How can I turn my data into actionable insights later on?
Or for example,
is my data privacy compliant with all the laws that are out there?
These are all fundamental questions that I
try to get people to think about even before Google Analytics 4 came along.
But it was always a little bit hard
to make them think about this stuff because it was so tool-centered.
So I really appreciate Google Analytics 4.
Did they overplay their hands?
Did Google overplay their hands with Google Analytics 4?
Yes, I think it's kind of hard to say how it will play out,
but right now it seems like Google Analytics 4 is not as well
perceived and maybe not be so dominant anymore in the future.
Nonetheless,
I still love Google Analytics 4 for making us think about the real questions.
So thank you very much. My name is Julian.
I run a company called MeasureSchool.
We teach people everything around Google Analytics.
Google Analytics 4, Data Studio, and Google Tag Manager.
And you can find us at measureschool.com as well as on YouTube.
And if you want to connect with me, I'm on LinkedIn as well.
So thank you very much and I'm happy to take any of your questions.
All right, thank you so much to the DataDock team
for letting me give this presentation in front of a little audience there.
And I'd love to hear from you,
your thoughts as well down below in the comments.
And if you want to learn more about
Google Analytics 4, we have a playlist right here.
And I can also recommend this video right
here where you learn how to set up a landing page
report inside of GA4.
My name is Julian. Till next time.