Google Analytics 4: drawbacks and limitations—is it worth sticking around?

The absolutely free edition of Google Analytics, Common Analytics, is the most greatly applied web analytics solution. The platform is so common that it dominates 86% current market share, generating Google the current market chief. But even even though quite a few consider Google Analytics the regular, there are motives to request if it is the excellent option for your advertising and marketing setup—especially considering that Google declared the sunset of Universal Analytics.

On July 1, 2023, Common Analytics qualities will halt processing new hits, forcing customers to switch to its successor, Google Analytics 4. When this may possibly appear to be like a organic development, entrepreneurs should not be fooled.

The discovering curve will be steep—Google Analytics 4 is pretty much an totally new platform and continue to producing. On best of that, Google Analytics challenges getting rid of the users’ belief thanks to grey areas around the likes of privacy and information possession.

With a privateness-targeted long term forward, now is the time to request options that superior balance facts assortment with compliance. With a proper analytics platform, marketers make your info collection as it need to be: predictable and sustainable. Right after all, marketers and analysts want to approach user-degree facts whilst setting up belief with their people.

In this posting, we will dive into the troubles with Google Analytics 4 from a consumer standpoint and from a privacy and compliance standpoint, so you can make an knowledgeable decision in advance of switching platforms.

User standpoint: Google Analytics 4 is a phase in the wrong direction

 Google Analytics 4 introduces an altered reporting and measurement engineering that is neither properly recognized nor commonly accepted by the marketing local community.

From a user knowledge perspective, a lot of locate GA4 demanding to navigate. But over and above that, there are a host of difficulties with the feature sets. Enable us dig deeper into these limits: 

There is no basic way to migrate your knowledge

 Migration is a complex system and need to be prepared carefully. Unfortunately, Google Analytics 4 does not make it any less complicated. Without having info or tag migration, all historic facts from Common Analytics will not be transferred to the new system.

The challenge only grows with the organization’s size—you can have hundreds of tags to go. So, if marketers must start accumulating information from scratch, they may possibly as perfectly change to a new analytic computer software.

Not-so-intuitive user interface

The most prominent obstacle marketers and analysts will very likely come upon with Google Analytics 4 is the unfamiliarity with the new interface.

A new dashboard has many right away evident dissimilarities from what entrepreneurs are applied to running. Hit types are vital to how Common Analytic homes take care of all stats. Strike sorts include website page hits, event hits, eCommerce hits, and social interaction hits.

GA4 does not have any thought of a hit form like Common Analytics employs. Anything in Google Analytics 4 is categorized as an “event.” This is a enormous variation.

In order for marketers to have achievements on the new system, they will have to adapt swiftly to maintain the exact momentum they had with this earlier system.

Boundaries on custom dimensions

A custom dimension is an attribute that marketers can configure in their analytics device to dive further into their facts. It provides the selection to pivot or section this information to isolate a unique audience or targeted traffic for deeper investigation.

GA4 certainly allows for customized proportions to phase studies, but there is a rigorous limit. You can only have up to 25 consumer-scoped custom made proportions and up to 50 celebration-scoped customized dimensions for every home.

Deficiency of custom channel grouping

Channel groupings are rule-dependent groupings of marketing and advertising channels. When custom-made, these groupings allow marketers to monitor the efficiency of all those channels successfully.

Unlike Common Analytics, GA4 does not allow you to produce tailor made channel groupings in the new interface. In its place, entrepreneurs will only be equipped to use their default channel groupings.

Motivations guiding the small deadline

 The deadline Google has left the analytics community to act is startling. There are quite a few speculations as to why this could possibly be, which includes:

1. Google could have been unhappy with the velocity of adoption for Google Analytics 4 and decided to act decisively.
2. Google circumventing some of the legal warmth that Common Analytics is experiencing in the EU.
3. Google wanting to cut expenses and rid alone of technical financial debt associated with countless numbers of websites with legacy remedies installed. Given that GA4 is created to support Google’s advertising and marketing community, it assures far more income than the competitiveness.

Now there is a concrete deadline to make the swap, entrepreneurs will will need to make your mind up no matter if they want to start off altering to Google Analytics 4 or begin afresh with a new platform.

Privateness and compliance: Google Analytics 4 has a extended way to go

If a company operates in multiple countries, advertising groups will need to be aware of the numerous worries ensuing from the obligations of both area data privacy laws and worldwide laws.

Details protection laws continuously shifting and tight protection restrictions only complicate factors further more. Examining the tea leaves, we believe GA4 will not previous long in Europe. Here’s why:

Google Analytics violates European law

Google helps make it hard to collect information in line with the Normal Knowledge Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to restore handle of own info to end users and buyers. The regulation demands you to receive explicit consent when processing own details. Failure to comply with this provision can consequence in hefty fines or even prosecution.

The new decision of the Austrian Information Defense Authority (DSB), states that the use of Google Analytics constitutes a violation of GDPR. This signifies that businesses engaged in accumulating, storing, and processing information about EU citizens have to regulate their procedures and introduce major technological changes to be GDPR-compliant.

There is no very clear guideline where the info is related as a result of Google Analytics

A Google tutorial indicates info is transferred to the closest Google Analytics server hub. Even so, the data could be saved in a geographic site that does not have enough privacy protection to the EU.

Recently launched options in GA4 partially address this concern by making it possible for the 1st component of data collection (and anonymization) on European servers. On the other hand, info can, and most probable will, be sent to the U.S.

 The foreseeable future of internet marketing necessitates users’ consent

Regardless of whether it be the information good quality, tool restrictions, lack of privateness-welcoming capabilities, or transparency in handling details, we imagine marketers will probably contemplate switching platforms.

Piwik Professional excluds the privateness and compliance difficulties connected with Google Analytics, letting entrepreneurs to collect knowledge predictably and sustainably. The user interface and element sets are equivalent to Common Analytics, so marketers and analysts sense at home when switching to our platform.

If you would like to discover much more about Google Analytics options or get extra information on the Piwik Pro Analytics Suite, take a look at piwik.pro.

Nevertheless undecided? Verify out our report on addressing the problems about switching to an substitute analytics answer and the analytic frame of mind you need to be taking: Switching from Google Analytics—here’s what you need to know.