Industry News

For enhanced usability and smoother navigation throughout reports, google has introduced a new toggle positioned next to the comparison at the top of each report.

This toggle enables you to easily activate or deactivate the chosen comparisons as you review your reports. When transitioning from one report with an applied comparison to another, the comparison will be automatically deactivated by default.

Learn more about comparison toggles.

Enhancements have been made to data sampling and the selection of tables in Google Analytics. The platform now utilises two types of tables optimised for either performance or flexibility when storing data from your website or app. With this update, Google Analytics dynamically selects the table that best suits each query, thereby minimising the likelihood of encountering the (other) row and experiencing data sampling in reports and explorations.

Consequently, in explorations or reports involving data sampling, you may now observe the (other) row. This selects the table based on your query to deliver the most precise results and mitigate the impact of data sampling and cardinality limits.

To gain a deeper understanding of how data is stored and presented, explore more details on this topic here.

Google has introduced a new Admin experience in Google Analytics 4 properties. The new Admin experience organises users' settings into categories that make it easier for them to find what they are looking for and discover the purpose of each administrative setting. For instance, all the settings that impact how data is shown in reports are now grouped together. With this change, users will be able to complete their administrative tasks with fewer clicks and more confidence. Learn more about Admin.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud users now have the capability to integrate it with a Google Analytics 4 property directly through the Sales Marketing Cloud interface. If these users were previously engaged with the Universal Analytics 360 integration within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they can now seamlessly transition to using the same features within Google Analytics 4.

For the first time, this integration is accessible for both Google Analytics 4 standard and 360 properties. The experience is currently active in Salesforce Marketing Cloud for individuals who were previously using the integration with Universal Analytics 360.

The integration between Google Analytics 4 and Salesforce Marketing Cloud facilitates the synchronisation of audiences generated in Analytics with Marketing Cloud. Consequently, users can incorporate these audiences into their Salesforce email and SMS direct-marketing campaigns.

For more information on the Sales Marketing Cloud integration, users can refer to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud audience integration documentation.

Google is enhancing automatically collected events from web data streams in Google Analytics 4 to address a filtering issue for some subproperties.

In the future, all automatically collected first_visit and session_start events from web data streams will include the same event parameters as the event parameters for the first client-triggered event in a session. This ensures that these automatically collected events will be appropriately filtered in or out of a subproperty, resulting in consistent and predictable reporting.

Users do not need to take any action to enable this improvement, as this launch will resolve the issue moving forward.

Learn more here.

Item-scoped custom parameters are now accessible in the GA4 BigQuery Export. Additionally, the ability to collect item-scoped custom parameters through the GA4 Measurement Protocol has been lauched.

Google has introduced a new recommendation to install the Google Analytics mobile app, enabling users to stay connected to their business while on-the-go. The mobile app helps users monitor their business in real-time, build their own reports, and take actions to improve their account. The new recommendation includes a QR code so users can easily find the mobile app in the Apple App Store (for iOS) or Google Play Store (for Android). The recommendation is primarily visible on the Google Analytics 4 Home page if users haven't recently used the app.

In a follow-up to an earlier announcement, it has been revealed that Google Analytics will discontinue the use of First click, Linear, Time decay, and Position-based attribution models across all properties, effective from mid-October 2023. These models will no longer be accessible in both the Analytics user interface and Admin API. For properties currently relying on these models, they will be automatically transitioned to the Paid and organic data-driven attribution model. Meanwhile, the Paid and organic last click, and Google paid channels last click models will remain available.

Furthermore, calculated metrics have been introduced in Google Analytics 4. These metrics involve the application of mathematical formulas to one or more existing or custom metrics to generate new, potentially more insightful metrics. For instance, users can create a metric like "Item margin" by using the standard "Item price" metric and the custom "Item COGS" metric.

With this update, you have the flexibility to customize metrics to align with your specific business needs or logic. You can adjust the weighting of existing metrics or create entirely new metrics by combining standard and/or custom metrics.

These new metrics tend to be more actionable than the original metrics from which they are derived, as they incorporate additional business logic, enabling direct decision-making and action within Google Analytics.

Learn more here about calculated metrics.

Google has announced the availability of an enhanced integration feature that enables users to seamlessly connect Salesforce Marketing Cloud with a Google Analytics 4 property directly from the Marketing Cloud interface. If users were previously utilising the Universal Analytics 360 integration within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they now have the opportunity to transition to the GA4 integration.

This integration marks a significant advancement as it is now accessible for both GA4 standard and 360 properties. Presently, this enhanced functionality is operational within the Marketing Cloud platform for individuals who were previously engaged with the integration using Universal Analytics 360.

The Google Analytics 4 integration allows users to synchronise audiences generated in Analytics with Marketing Cloud. This synchronisation allows for the utilisation of these audiences in Salesforce email and SMS direct-marketing campaigns.

In the most recent update, users have the opportunity to configure their web data streams to carry out client-side text redaction for email addresses and user-defined URL query parameters. This functionality serves to reduce the chances of unintentionally transmitting sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Notably, email redaction is automatically enabled for all new web data streams.

Learn more about data redaction.

If you have enabled Google Signals for your property, you now have the ability to disable the inclusion of Google Signals in your Reporting Identity on the Data Collection page within the Admin settings. This action allows you to exclude specific demographics and interest data from your reports, particularly data from users who are signed in and have given consent.

This feature can be particularly beneficial if your property utilises the Blended or Observed reporting identity, as it can help mitigate the risk of data thresholding. It's important to note that even with this option turned off, Google Analytics will continue to gather Google Signals data. This allows you to use Google Signals data for audience creation, conversions, and sharing with linked Google Ads accounts for purposes such as remarketing and bid Optimisation.

Click here for further information on activating Google Signal.

This new report provides valuable insights into the user experience on e-commerce websites or apps, revealing both the number and percentage of users who initiate the checkout process and successfully navigate through each subsequent step of the checkout funnel.

Users can access the Checkout Journey Report by visiting either the Monetisation section within the Life Cycle collection or the Drive Online Sales section within the Business Objectives collection on the Reports menu. In cases where the report is not visible, administrators or editors have the capability to add it directly from the report library.

Learn more here.

Google is pleased to announce the introduction of user data export, a new export feature accessible via the existing BigQuery connector. Users now have the ability to activate a fresh array of tables, with each row dedicated to depicting a distinct user. These tables encompass valuable user-centric attributes crucial for modeling and analysis, including:

Present audience profiles
Lifetime value (LTV)
Predictive scores related to purchase and churn probabilities
User-specific properties
Device and geographical particulars

To initiate the process, users can enable user data export directly from the BigQuery Links section within the GA4 Admin interface.

Learn more about user data export.

Google Analytics introduces a new recommendation when consent mode has been incorporated into either gtag.js, Google Tag Manager, or the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK. However, it's possible that the Google tags or Consent management platform may be obstructing cookieless pings.

This new recommendation informs you that by removing the block on cookieless pings, the majority of reporting features in Google Analytics 4 will leverage behavioral modeling, provided the model quality permits, to bridge data gaps. This is achieved by employing machine learning to emulate the behavior of users who decline analytics cookies based on the actions of similar users who accept analytics cookies. To delve deeper into unblocking Google tags while using consent mode, you can find additional information here.

User now have the option to both review and remove established connections between Google Analytics 4 properties and AdSense accounts. Upon linking your AdSense account with a Google Analytics 4 property, you can easily locate it within the 'AdSense Links' section on the Admin page.

Behavioral modeling data is now available in any exploration or report that includes paths and funnels in Google Analytics 4. More specifically, this includes the path exploration and funnel exploration, as well as the user purchase journey report and custom funnel reports.

When website visitors or app users decline Analytics cookies or equivalent app identifiers your reports are missing data about them. Behavioral modeling fills in the data gaps by modeling the behavior of users who decline analytics cookies based on the behavior of similar users who accept analytics cookies.

Learn more about behavioral modeling

Enhance your customisation options for Google Analytics 4 Reports with the newly introduced Match Types feature. Report Filters have been upgraded to include match types such as 'begins with,' 'exactly matches,' and regex.

Learn more about match types.

The latest Audiences report within Google Analytics 4 allows you to pinpoint your most active and profitable audience segments. This encompasses any audience that has a minimum of one user during the designated timeframe.

You can find this fresh report under the User Attributes section located on the left side of the Reports page. Should you not locate the report, an administrator or editor has the capability to incorporate it into the report library.

Learn more about the Audiences report

Users are now able to utilise third-party segments in conjunction with Google Analytics 4 audiences within Google Ad Manager. When an individual links their Analytics property to Google Ad Manager, and activates Google signals and enables ads personalisation in the link settings, audiences are automatically exported to Ad Manager. These audiences can be used directly for targeting purposes or can be blended with other audiences as needed. Additionally, users have the option to conduct analyses on these audiences to gain valuable insights.

Learn more about Google Analytics 4 audiences in Google Ad Manager

Set a default conversion value

This new feature allows users to establish a default value for a conversion event in Google Analytics. By doing so, in cases where the 'currency' and 'value' parameters are not specified for the conversion event, the system will automatically use the default value set by the user. However, if the event already contains a value, the set default value will not be applied.

In its latest update, Google Analytics introduces new revenue metrics in explorations, including:

• Gross item revenue: Total revenue generated from items alone, excluding tax and shipping.
• Gross purchase revenue: Total revenue derived from purchases made on your website or app.
• Refund amount: The overall sum of refunds issued on your website or app.

Additionally, Google Analytics streamlines the Metrics picker in explorations by removing the following duplicative revenue metrics:

• Ecommerce revenue
• Event revenue

To track revenue from ecommerce transactions in explorations, you should use the Purchase revenue metric. While existing explorations that use the removed metrics will continue to function, it is advisable to update them and utilise the new revenue metrics for any new explorations.

Google's latest update, Google Analytics 4, introduces brand-new ecommerce elements to the custom reports builder. This allows users to craft personalised ecommerce reports from the ground up and/or modify existing standard ecommerce reports.

The following ecommerce dimensions are now available in the custom report builder:

Item affiliation
Item brand
Item category
Item category 2
Item category 3
Item category 4
Item category 5
Item ID
Item list ID
Item list name
Item list position
Item location ID
Item name
Item promotion creative name
Item promotion creative slot
Item promotion name
Item variant
Shipping tier
The following ecommerce metrics are now available in the custom report builder:

Gross item revenue
Gross purchase revenue
Item refund amount
Item revenue
Items added to cart
Items checked out
Items clicked in promotion
Items purchased
Items viewed
Items viewed in list
Items viewed in promotion
Purchase revenue
Refund amount
Shipping amount
Tax amount

When a Google Ads account is linked, the user gains the ability to import their web and app conversions from Google Analytics 4 into Google Ads. This import allows users to utilize Google Analytics data within Google Ads, leading to improved bid optimization and enhanced performance.

In the case of eligible Google Analytics accounts, the recommendation card may appear in different locations, such as the top of the Advertising snapshot page, the Home page, or the Insights Hub page, presented as a card.

Learn more about recommendations

With the launch of the Google Analytics Data API v1, users now have the ability to export user IDs and device IDs of the audience they have created in Google Analytics 4. Previously, this information could only be sent to direct integrations such as Google Ads or Firebase, or via the BigQuery User Export feature. The availability of the Google Analytics Audience Export API in alpha extends to both standard and 360 properties, with higher limits for 360 properties. Further details can be found in the developer documentation.

Now you have the option to specify the channels that will receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Google Ads. You can choose between two options:

1. Google paid channels (formerly Ads-preferred): This option allows only Google Ads paid channels to receive conversion credit.
2. Paid and organic channels (formerly Cross-channel): With this option, both paid and organic channels can receive conversion credit. However, please note that only the credit assigned to Google Ads channels will be visible in your Google Ads accounts.

To view the eligible channels for each conversion, you can check the Conversions summary, Conversions detail, and Campaigns tabs in Google Ads, as well as the Attribution settings in Google Analytics. If you wish to modify this setting, navigate to the Admin > Attribution settings page in Google Analytics. You have the flexibility to make changes to this setting anytime within Google Analytics, and the modifications will be applied to future conversions.

For further information on the channels eligible for conversion credit when shared with Google Ads, as well as importing conversions into Google Ads, please refer to Google's detailed resources.

Google Analytics 4 users now have the ability to connect their AdSense accounts with their properties. When you establish this link, the AdSense data associated with your account will be accessible in GA4 reports and explorations. By merging AdSense data with other valuable website metrics like traffic sources and user behavior, you can uncover profound insights and discover patterns that aid in optimizing your ad revenue.

For additional information on integrating GA4 with AdSense, please refer to the Google Analytics Help Center.

When customers migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, they have the option to utilize a feature known as connected site tags. This feature enables them to reuse their existing analytics.js website tag. Recently, enhancements have been introduced to further improve the tag reuse process. These enhancements include the ability to transmit enhanced ecommerce data, custom dimensions and metrics, and other customized tag data to GA4 properties. For more information on this feature, please refer to the Google Analytics Help Center.

If Google detects an unlinked Search Console account, you might receive a suggestion to connect it with Google Analytics. By establishing this connection, you gain access to a range of valuable features such as new Search Console dimensions, as well as reports on Google Organic Search Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic. These resources empower you to thoroughly analyze your search query and search traffic data.

For eligible Google Analytics accounts, you will find the recommendation card in multiple locations, including the "Insights & Recommendations" section on the Home page, the Insights/Recommendations section within the Report snapshot and Advertiser snapshot reports, and the Insights/Recommendations hub. Learn more about recommendations

Google have added five new dimensions to the Google Analytics 4 audience builder:

Country
Manual term (UTM Term)
Mobile device info
Minute
New vs Returning

They have also added a new metric: session duration.

Introducing the enhanced Business Objectives collection, designed to offer customized reports specifically tailored to the information you provide during the initial setup of Google Analytics. This upgraded collection equips you with insightful reports that directly align with your business objectives, enabling you to uncover relevant information. With this update, GA4 takes a step further in aligning with Google Ads and campaign objectives, enhancing the synergy between the platforms.

Within your report library, you have the flexibility to customize the reports featured in the Reports module. This includes the ability to add topics from the Business Objectives collection and remove specific reports as needed. If you already have an established property, you can seamlessly incorporate topics from the new collection into your report library. It's worth noting that the Life Cycle collection continues to be accessible to all users. Learn more.

The Google Analytics 4 audience builder has undergone several enhancements to provide users with enhanced flexibility and control in audience creation. These updates include the introduction of new dimensions and metrics, improved options for managing event value and event count, and the addition of a matching option between two dates.

New dimensions and metrics in the audience builder

Enhancements to the audience builder include the availability of new dimensions and metrics, which were previously lacking in comparison to the Universal Analytics audience builder. The following dimensions and metrics are now available in the audience builder:

• Item-scoped dimensions

Item ID
Item affiliation
Item brand
Item category
Item category 2
Item category 3
Item category 4
Item list name
Item name
Item promotion ID
Item variant

• Item-scoped ecommerce metrics

Item revenue
Items added to cart
Items checked out
Items purchased
Items viewed in list

• Event-scoped ecommerce metrics

Item-list click events

• Session-based metrics

Low engagement sessions

Low engagement sessions

A newly introduced metric, called "low engagement sessions," can be utilized to identify users who displayed a lack of engagement with your website or app. This metric allows you to build an audience consisting of users who have had more than three low engagement sessions within the past five days. Once this audience is identified, you can employ targeted advertising strategies to encourage these users to revisit your platform. For instance, retailers may create ad copy emphasizing an upcoming sale or event to entice them.

Event value can be used on its own

Previously, the modification of a specific event using the event value parameter was limited. For instance, you could only identify users who completed "event X" with an event value exceeding 50.

Now, the event value parameter can be used independently without being restricted to a particular event. This means that you can create an audience of users who have any event with a value greater than 50.

Full set of operators for event count

Google have also expanded the range of operators that can be utilized to build audiences using the event count metric. In the past, the available options were limited to greater than (>), less than (<), and equals to (=), and only when the "most recent time period" was selected.

Now, Google have introduced the complete set of operators, including greater than or equal to (>=), less than or equal to (<=), and not equal to (!=). These operators are now available for selection when choosing either "at any point in time" or "the most recent time period."

Greater than or equal to (>=)
Less than or equal to (<=)
Not equal to (!=)

Match between dates

A new "between match types" option has been introduced for dates. This enables you to create an audience consisting of users who visited your website within a specific timeframe, such as Black Friday, and target them with advertisements in the lead-up to the following year's Black Friday. The start date and end date are both inclusive in this match, meaning that a range from May 24th to May 26th would include all three days (24th, 25th, and 26th).

A new feature is available that allows you to generate customized funnel reports, giving you the ability to track user actions as they navigate through different steps to accomplish a task, and assess how many users abandon the process at each step. This enhancement provides the flexibility to create tailored funnels that cater to your specific business needs, and the results can be found in Reports. For further details, learn more here.

Moreover, Google Analytics has introduced a User Purchase Journey report, which shows the number of users who drop out at each stage of the purchase funnel, from the beginning of a new session to the final purchase. Learn more

The Home page of Google Analytics 4 properties now features the following new enhancements:

New welcome tutorial

Google Analytics now includes a brief tutorial on the Home page, aimed at new users of Google Analytics 4. This tutorial provides an introduction to essential concepts and settings to help you get started with your new property.

New banner along the top of the Home page

For Editors and Administrators who use Google Analytics data to advertise with Google Ads, a banner titled "Verify your Google Ads settings" will now appear at the top of the Home page. The banner outlines the essential tasks that need completion for bidding against Google Analytics 4 data. Once you mark all the tasks as complete in Setup Assistant, the banner will disappear.

Improvements to the Suggested for you section

In the "Suggested for you" section, you'll now find cards that are popular across all Analytics properties (aimed at assisting new Google Analytics 4 users in getting started) and cards that you frequently revisit.

Dismiss suggestions, insights, and recommendations

If a card appears in either the "Suggested for you" or "Insights & recommendations" section that is not relevant to you, you can dismiss it by clicking the thumbs down button. This feedback will help Google Analytics to better tailor the Home page for you in the future.

When you click the thumbs down button, Analytics will remove the card from your Home page, and it will not appear again for 30 days. Please note that if you do not submit the feedback form that appears after clicking the button, the card will remain visible for the remainder of your session, but it will be removed in future sessions.

All insights and recommendations, including those you dismissed, can still be accessed from the Insights Hub.

Open the Setup Assistant from anywhere

Each page of Google Analytics 4 properties now features an action button located at the bottom right corner. When you hover over the button, the number of tasks that you have marked as complete in Setup Assistant will be displayed. Clicking the button will open up Setup Assistant in Analytics, allowing you to continue with completing the necessary setup tasks.

In the recent upgrade, Google Ads can now import fractional, cross-channel web conversion credits from Google Analytics 4 properties. This update will result in more precise measurement and improved optimization. Prior to this, web conversions were imported on a cross-channel last click basis from Google Analytics 4 and were attributed in Google Ads based on the chosen attribution model. This method did not import any conversions if the last click was not from Google advertising. With the upgrade, fractional cross-channel conversion credit will be imported into Google Ads, even if the last non-direct click was not from Google advertising. For instance, if a conversion action is imported using data-driven attribution, all fractional, attributed Google credits will be imported into Google Ads, irrespective of the last touchpoint.

Learn more about importing conversions

In Google Analytics 4 properties, you can now customize how you count conversions with the new counting method setting for conversion events. You have two options: Once per event (recommended) or Once per session (legacy). It is advised that the majority of users select Once per event. However, if it's crucial for your Google Analytics 4 conversion count to match the corresponding Universal Analytics property count closely, then you should choose Once per session. For further details, please refer to additional resources.

Google Analytics will be phasing out various attribution models, including first-click, linear, time-decay, and position-based models. These models will be removed from attribution reports, property-level reporting-model setting, and Admin API. Starting from May, newly created properties will no longer be able to use these models, and from September, these models will be phased out for all other properties. However, cross-channel data-driven attribution, cross-channel last click, and Ads preferred last click will remain available.

Rules-based attribution models assign a specific value to each touchpoint of an advertising campaign based on predetermined rules. However, they lack the flexibility required to adapt to the constantly evolving consumer journey. In contrast, data-driven attribution utilizes advanced artificial intelligence techniques to determine the impact of each touchpoint on a conversion. This is why data-driven attribution has been set as the default attribution model for both Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads. Consequently, first-click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models across Google Analytics 4 will be phased out.

Read more here about attribution in Google Analytics 4

Two additional choices have been introduced in Google Analytics 4 for the creation or modification of events. These alternatives allow you to specify conversions for web data streams using regular expressions (regex). As a result of this update, you can now transfer destination and event goals that employ regex from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.  Learn more

Google Analytics has raised the limit on the number of Properties permitted in an account, from the prior default value of 100 to 2000 (for further information, refer to the source). This modification will provide greater flexibility in managing properties and eliminate the necessity of requesting an increase through support. Additionally, there is now a restriction on the number of subproperties that can be added to a property (for further information, refer to the source). This cap has been set at 400, and any requests for an increase will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by support.

Google Analytics is now capable of processing item-level custom parameters from ecommerce events on your website or app. These parameters can be recorded as custom dimensions and used for explorations.

By utilizing item-scoped custom parameters, you can gather additional information about the items on your website or app, beyond the default predefined parameters. This allows you to collect information about an item's color, size, product rating, and in-stock status, for instance.

You can enroll up to 10 item-scoped custom parameters for standard properties and up to 25 for Analytics 360 properties as custom dimensions. Learn more here.

Google Analytics now provides the ability to generate personalized channel groups, which can be developed from scratch or by utilizing Google's pre-existing channel group as a foundation. This feature enables the customization of channels as per your requirements. These custom channel groups are available to all clients and can be utilized in custom reports and explorations to gain insights into the historical and current perspectives of your campaign channels.

You have the flexibility to modify channel names according to your company preferences, modify criteria for any channel, and add or remove channels to obtain broader or more specific views of your channel data. Learn more.

The Google Analytics 4 audience builder will soon be integrated into Google Ads to simplify audience creation and application to campaigns. To make this possible, a new cross-product access management model is being introduced for Google Ads, which allows a Google Analytics 4 property Admin to grant explicit permissions to users in a linked Google Ads account. With this model, the Google Analytics admin can assign roles with different levels of access to Google Ads, such as Administrator, Standard, or Read only. These assigned roles will determine access to Analytics features in Google Ads, including the ability to create Analytics audiences.  Learn more about user access for Ads integration.

Google Analytics has updated the way it displays data quality icons in reports to provide more precise information at the individual card level. Instead of just showing the Data quality icon at the top of the Reporting snapshot report and the overview reports, the update now displays different messages for different cards, giving you more accurate information about each card in a report.

Additionally, a new "(other)" row message has been added to the data quality icon when a report is affected by cardinality limits, which groups less common data beyond the limits into this row. This new message provides several ways to reduce or eliminate these limits.

• All properties now have a one-click option to create the same report in Explore. The "(other)" row never appears in Explore because it uses raw, event-level data.
• Google Analytics 360 properties also have access to expanded data sets, allowing you to flag up to 100 reports per property as high priority. Google Analytics permanently removes the "(other)" row from the reports you've flagged.

Furthermore, new sampling controls have been introduced for Google Analytics 360 properties. These controls enable you to adjust the level of precision and speed in your explorations, with two options available: "More detailed results," which uses the maximum sample size to provide the most precise representation of the full data set, and "Faster results," which uses a smaller sample size to give faster results (this option is selected by default).

Learn more about these new features.

Google revamped the search bar on Google Analytics to help users search for information about their current property/account and access other Google Analytics 4 properties they have permission to.

Find data stream details 
Using the following search terms, users can open the details for a web or app data stream in their property:

the keyword "Tracking"
a web stream measurement ID (i.e., "G-XXXXXXX")
an app stream ID (i.e., "XXXXXXX")

Google Analytics now provides an item-scoped and event-scoped version of each ecommerce metric, enabling you to analyze information about your products or services and separately analyze important ecommerce interactions.

You can now analyze Items purchased by item name, which shows the number of times each item has been purchased. Additionally, you can now see Items purchased and purchased by country, which shows you how many items have been purchased and how many purchases have been made for each country.

You can now find the following ecommerce dimensions and metrics in Explorations and the Data API:

• Item affiliation
• Item variant
• Items added to cart
• Items checked out
• Items clicked in list
• Items clicked in promotion
• Items viewed
• Items viewed in list
• Items viewed in promotion
• Shipping amount
• Shipping tier
• Tax amount

Analytics also renames the following metrics:

• Add to carts (previously called Add-to-carts)
• Item-list click events (previously called Item list clicks)
• Item-list view events (previously called Item list views)
• Item view events (previously called Item views)
• Items purchased (previously called Item purchase quantity)
• Promotion clicks (previously called Item promotion clicks)
• Promotion views (previously called Item promotion views)

If you use an item-scoped dimension in an exploration, such as “Item ID” or “Item category”, use item-scoped metrics rather than event-scoped metrics, such as “Purchases”. The former will give you the number of items. The latter will give you a count of purchase events.
Learn more about the new dimensions and metrics

Google Analytics 4: Recreate Universal Analytics audiences

With the GA4 Migrator for Google Analytics Google Sheets add-on, many audiences in your Universal Analytics property can be replicated in a Google Analytics 4 property. Audiences based on dimensions and metrics that are the same in Universal Analytics and GA4 can be recreated as is. When the audiences use dimensions and/or metrics that differ between Universal Analytics and GA4, you can edit the audience definitions in the spreadsheet to use the relevant GA4 dimensions and metrics.

For each audience, the spreadsheet includes information about whether the audience is available for recreation; if it isn’t, the spreadsheet has information about why. Editable audience conditions are included so you can modify them before recreating them.

Learn more about the audience migration tool

Evaluate your landing pages

The new Landing page report from Google lets you measure the effectiveness of the first pages people land on when they visit your site. Your user experience and marketing efforts can be optimized by understanding where users first land on your website.

The Landing page report will appear automatically under the Engagement topic in the left navigation. In the event that someone removed the Engagement topic, you may be able to add the report through the report library. Check out the report for more information .

The introduction of behavioral modeling in real-time reporting

Google Analytics 4 now includes behavioral modeling data in Real Time reports and cards. Modeling behavior in real-time extends the benefits of modeled data that are already available in other reports. If website visitors or app users decline analytics cookies or equivalent app identifiers, your reports will not include their information. By modeling the behavior of users who decline analytics cookies based on the behavior of similar users who accept analytics cookies, behavioral modeling fills in the data gaps. Over the next few weeks, this feature will be gradually rolled out.
Read more here .

Following are the new session metrics that Google has added to reports and explorations:

• Average session duration: The average duration (in seconds) of users’ sessions.
• Views per session: The number of app screens or web pages your users viewed per session.

You can use these metrics to answer questions such as:

• How much time does the average user spend on my website per session?
• Is there a tendency for some users to leave my website too quickly?
• Is my app being explored fully by users?

Learn more about the metrics here.

Your custom reports can now include custom dimensions and metrics as primary dimensions, allowing you to report on information that matters to your business more easily. In addition, the dimensions and metrics pickers have been updated to make it easier to find dimensions and metrics in the Reports Builder. Learn more about customizing reports.

Google Analytics 4 now offers new date and hour dimensions across explorations and reporting:

• An event is collected at the time of the hour it occurred.
• The nth hour indicates how many hours have passed since a specified date range began.
• An event’s date and hour are the date and time when it was collected.
• The week of the event is a two-digit number between 01 and 53. Every week begins on Sunday, and January 1st is always in Week 1.
• Month refers to the month when the event occurred, a two-digit integer from 01 to 12.

These dimensions can help you answer questions like:

• What was the hourly trend of my online sales data after the Superbowl commercial aired?
• In what months does my website receive the most traffic?
• Do users of my app convert more often in the evenings, or during the day? What about my website’s users?

Learn more about time dimensions in Google Analytics 4.

You can now start using Google Analytics 4 ecommerce reports without having to change your ecommerce implementation. The following steps can now be taken to make it easier to use GA4 ecommerce reports:

• Recommended  Migrate and re-implement ecommerce to send GA4 ecommerce events  so you can take advantage of all Analytics features.
• New  GA4 ecommerce events can be populated using your UA ecommerce implementation.
• New  Use GA4 ecommerce events to populate your UA property with ecommerce data instead of UA ecommerce events. By using this option, you can continue to use your UA ecommerce reports while fully migrating to Google Analytics 4.

See the GA4 ecommerce migration guide to learn how to migrate from UA to GA4.

A new ecommerce migration helper tool is also available from Google Analytics

• Determine the version and API/library you currently use to send ecommerce data
• Check how your Analytics tags interpret your ecommerce events in Tag Manager
• The corresponding events are listed for each Ecommerce implementation.

Google Analytics now provides a new enhanced measurement option for Form interactions to help you measure how users interact with and submit forms on your website. These events are collected when the new measurement option is enabled:

• form_start displays the first interaction with a form by a user
• form_submit displays when a form is submitted

All newly created web data streams are automatically enabled with the new option. If you already have a web data stream, you can turn this on by navigating to Enhanced Measurement.  Learn more here.

The Google Ads Search Queries report in Universal Analytics and Google Ads queries in Google Analytics 4 have been updated to meet a higher privacy threshold. In order to ensure user anonymity, these thresholds only report on terms with sufficient Google search volume. With Google Analytics 4, you’ll now see metrics that match your Google Ads reports more accurately. With this update, Universal Analytics will report search query terms differently than Google Ads reports due to differences in data models.