Google has announced updates to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The coming months will be marked by improved cross-channel reporting and budgeting, AI-generated insights, and some integration with the Chrome Privacy Sandbox.
What’s new in Google Analytics 4?
- Third-party ad data: Users will be able to import advertising data from Pinterest, Reddit, and Snap directly into GA4. The non-Google campaign data will be included in the cross-channel performance report and mapped to Analytics traffic source dimensions with metrics like “ads cost,” “ads click,” and “ads impressions.
- Cross-channel budgeting: Google will also release a cross-channel budgeting feature in beta. The company says it will include a projection report to track media pacing and projected performance against a target objective, like revenue, across channels.
- Campaign Manager 360: GA4 will start importing aggregated impressions from linked Campaign Manager 360 accounts into the advertising workspace.
- An AI to call its own: GA4 will also get an artificial intelligence engine built to find patterns in “countless combinations of dimensions and metrics” and report them in plain language.
- Cookie-less measurement: Later this year, GA4 will start supporting some Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs “to ensure you can continue to reach your audiences and measure effectively even without third-party cookies.”
Why do we care?
The ability to add data from Pinterest, Reddit, and Snap is a significant advancement. Likewise, the ability to budget across channels will be beneficial. However. Since the release of GA4 in October 2020, everyone has been complaining about the UI, but nothing has been done about it.
What Google is saying: Steve Ganem, director of product management for Google Analytics, wrote in a blog post that “measurement is essential for marketers to understand the impact of their efforts and make more informed decisions. Today, we’re highlighting new features and key investment areas to help you make better business decisions.
Reminder: Google turned off Universal Analytics on July 1. That’s when you lose access to your UA data and the interface, and Google says it will begin permanently deleting all UA data.