Google Analytics 4 Keeps Evolving: Latest Releases You Can’t Miss
An Overview of the Most Important GA4 Updates
The Latest Release: Real-Time Report Enhancements
As of today, you can see a new feature in your Real-Time report. Now, you can not only track the number of users who visited your website (or app) in the last 30 minutes, but also those who visited in the last 5 minutes.
Fun fact: When Google launched this feature, it was released with a bug. (Can you spot the issue below?)
Switching between Time periods in reports
This is a biggie! I’ve seen it all over my linkedIn feed. GA4 professionals seem to praise this new feature.
You can now switch between days, weeks, and months in reports.
view your line chart data by day, week, or month, depending on the level of detail you need.
Higher Focus on User Lifetime Value (LTV)
Lifetime Value Report: This new report helps you understand the overall value users bring to your business over time, considering factors like revenue generated and purchase history. You can find the report in the Template Gallery. It is called “User Lifetime”.
These new reports also came with new Metrics.
User Lifetime Metrics: New metrics, such as total purchase value and average order value within the “User Lifetime” section, provide a more granular view of user worth.
Enhanced Attribution Model reports
Improved User Journey Analysis
Identity Spaces: GA4 now offers four methods (User ID, Google Signals, Device ID, and Modeling) to create a more unified view of user journeys across devices.
Deeper Customer Insights
Enhanced User Exploration: With a right-click on an event in a report, you can now delve deeper into a specific user’s data. This includes details like first seen date, location, device type, and a complete breakdown of their event history within your platform. You can also click this button on the top of the report to get a deeper understanding of a specific user.
Build Explore Report from a Library Report in One Click: Easily generate detailed reports with just a click, streamlining your data analysis process.
Additional Updates
- Ecommerce Tracking: Three new standard ecommerce actions—promotions viewed, refunds issued, and coupons applied—have been added for easier tracking.
- Data Retention Options: You now have more control over how long GA4 retains your data, with a maximum of 50 months for GA360 customers.
It’s also possible to set different retention timeframes for User Data and Event Data, as you can see in the image below.
Don’t forget to check your Data Retention periods. It’s important to set it to a longer timeframe than 2 months if you want to analyse user behaviour in custom reports in a longer timeframe (14 months).
What to do with that toggle “Reset user data on new activity”?
Turn this option ON if you want to reset the retention period of the user identifier with each new event from that user (thus setting the expiration date to current time plus retention period).
If you do not want the retention period for a user identifier reset based on that user’s activity, turn this option OFF. In that case, the data associated with the user identifier will be deleted automatically after the retention period.
Floodlight Linking
You can now link Floodlight with GA4 subproperties and rollup properties. This was already possible for standard GA4 properties. By linking subproperties, marketing teams within your company can link and share specific data with a chosen Floodlight configuration. Rollup property linking supports cross-brand linking and activation use cases.
Why These Updates Matter
These new features in GA4 empower businesses to:
- Gain a clearer picture of customer lifetime value.
- Optimise marketing efforts based on a more complete understanding of user attribution.
- Analyse user journeys across devices for a holistic view.
- Extract deeper insights from user data to personalise experiences.
Stay Informed
GA4 is under continuous development. To stay updated on the latest features and functionalities, keep an eye on the official Google Analytics Help Center and the Google Analytics Blog.
Remember: This is not an exhaustive list, and new features may be rolled out even after this post is published.
By staying up-to-date with these enhancements, you can leverage GA4 to its full potential, driving better insights and outcomes for your business.
If you find this information overwhelming, consider signing up for a GA4 UP subscription. With this subscription, we audit your setup, implement new feature releases and update you on new privacy releases (stay updated with GDPR / CCPA) for a small monthly fee. This subscription allows you to focus on your priorities while the experts handle the rest. Learn more about how we can support you here.
Blog by Tika Spijkerman, Analyst at UP Analytics
You Might Also Enjoy
