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GA4 Audiences

Part 5 of many about GA4 and what is coming after UA

We will pick up this installment of the Analytics after UA here at the end of this article GA4 Segments and Audiences by focusing on building audiences in GA4.

Creating custom and remarketing audiences in Google Analytics 4 is one of the strategies to progress your analytics setup, per the GA4 checklist. You may need clarification on GA4’s comparable audiences, segments, filters, and comparative options.

Who are the GA4 audiences?

Let’s begin by defining the target audience. Users can be grouped or segmented into audiences based on one or more demographic, geographic, or user behavior characteristics.

This segmentation of users means you can use the whole amount of data in Google Analytics 4 to build audiences. For instance, you can create the following audience:

1. 1. Facebook Ads Traffic from the USA
  2. Google Organic Search Mobile Traffic
  3. Google Ads Desktop Traffic Paris, France
  4. Users who started their first session visiting the specific landing page and scrolled more than 50% of the page

Users that arrived at the targeted landing page for the first time during their first session and scrolled more than halfway down the page

These are all illustrations of audiences in GA4. So the question “What’s the difference between them” is excellent if you use segments in GA4 Explore.

How To Create Audiences in GA4

The audience creation process in Google Analytics 4 is comparable to that in Universal Analytics. Therefore, you should launch GA4 and take the next step to do that: Click the “New Audience” button under GA4 -> Admin -> Audiences.

creating Audiences in GA4 — Creating audiences in GA4

Let’s review the interface at this point. For this article, I decided to split the audiences into two types:

1. 1. Predefined audiences – the ones we can create using GA4 Templates
  2. Custom audiences – any audience we create using GA4 “Create a custom audience” button

Audience types — GA4 – Building new audiences

We can create the first type of audience using Google’s templates. Then, selecting the appropriate selection and entering the value are the only things we need to change. Next, Google offers us some ideas on how we may create them.

For instance, choosing “US” as the “country id” in the demographics template makes it simple to establish an audience that includes all users from the USA.

GA4 Audiences including US citizens — Audiences including US citizens

We can create remarketing audiences for Google Ads using customized or suggested audiences.

Predictive audiences is another intriguing Google Analytics 4 feature that allows you to run paid advertising campaigns, for example, for users more likely to churn. Send by ecommerce_purchase or in_app_purchase events to activate these audiences.

Audiences – Metric

Definition

- - - - Purchase Probability
        The probability that a user who was active in the last 28 days will complete a specific conversion event within the next seven days.
      - Churn probability
        The probability that a user who was active on your app or site within the last seven days will not be active within the next seven days.
      - Predicted revenue
        The revenue expected from all purchase conversions in the next 28 days from an active user in the last 28 days.

Unfortunately, you will see a “Not eligible to use” label if you don’t send these events.

Let’s create a custom audience and enable it in Google Ads. This way, it will become a remarketing audience.

Creating a custom audience in GA4

We want to target users who landed on the Show page during the last 30 days. We want to show them an ad detailing purchase ticket options and deals.

GA4 Custom Audience Users with page visit Jeffrey Kahane Show — Custom Audience – page visit Jeffrey Kahane Show

How to edit, delete or archive an audience in GA4?

As I previously stated, Google Analytics 4 allows you to build up to 100 audiences. So, you may find yourself in a position where you must remove, alter, or archive one.

Once more, editing an existing audience does not need resetting any users. This audience has no users before you provide and save modifications, but it immediately begins to get new traffic.

The audience can be archived in Google Analytics 4. The same as delete, it is. Go to the GA4 Audiences page, click the three dots next to the audience you want to delete, and then select “archive.”

Edit, Duplicate, Archive, or Delete GA4 Audience — Audiences – Editing

In the next and final installment you will read about Reporting with GA4.

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GA4 Configuration

Part 3 of many about GA4 and what is coming after UA

This installment of the Analytics after UA deals with detailed work you need to do to ensure you have completed the basic setup of GA4 by performing a proper GA4 configuration. We will pick up here at the end of the last article:

Next steps with your new GA4 property

After completing the process with the wizard, you’ll see “You have successfully connected your properties” at the top of your Google Analytics 4 Property Setup Assistant page. If your Universal Analytics property name is “Example property (UA-nnnnnnn),” your GA4 property name will be “Example property – GA4 (xxxxxxx)”, without a “UA-” prefix, and where xxxxxxx is a new property number.

Set up the GA4 Configuration tag

Step 1: Create a GA4 Configuration tag

Start by creating a Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tag to send data to your Analytics property.

1. 1. 1. 1. In Google Tag Manager, click Tags > New.
      2. Enter a name for the tag at the top (e.g., “GA4 Configuration – example.com”).
      3. In the Tag Configuration box, select Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.
      4. Configure your tag:
        
        In the field Measurement ID, enter your “G-” ID. Keep the Send a page view event when this configuration loads option checked to automatically send page view events.
      5. Optional settings:
        
        Server-side tagging: Select Send to server container to send all GA4 events to a Tag Manager server container instead of Google Analytics. Specify the Server Container URL of your Tag Manager server container. Learn more about Server-Side Tagging.
        
        Parameters: Add any parameters you’d like to configure in Fields to Set. Use recommended event parameter names so that Google Analytics can populate dimensions and metrics for you.
        Example 1: To set a user ID, add a row to Fields to Set. Set the Field Name to user_id, and the Value to a Tag Manager Variable that returns the user ID.
      6. Example 2: Use Fields to Set to configure cookie field settings:
      7. Custom properties: Add any custom user properties that you’d like to configure in User Properties.
        Note: Analytics automatically collects some user dimensions so you don’t have to define user properties for them. You can set up to 25 additional user properties per Google Analytics 4 property.

Step 2: Create a trigger

Next, set up a trigger to load the Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration when someone loads your website.

1. 1. To ensure that the Google Analytics 4 Configuration tag fires before other triggers, click Triggering and use the Initialization – All pages trigger. Learn more about Page triggers.
  2. Save the tag configuration.

Result

Your tag configuration should look like this:

Step 3: Verify your tag works

To make sure your tag works as intended:

1. 1. In Google Tag Manager, click Preview. The Tag Assistant opens.
  2. Enter your site’s URL.
  3. Check if the Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration fired when the page loaded.
    ✅ If your tag fired successfully, the Tag Assistant UI look like this:❌ If your tag didn’t fire, check your tag’s trigger settings.
  4. When you are done with debugging, close Preview mode.
  5. In your Workspace, click Submit to publish your changes.

Set up events

To set up an event using Google Tag Manager, you will configure a Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag and then create a trigger that specifies when you want to send the event.

The following steps show you how to send a custom event to a Google Analytics 4 property when a user clicks a button to sign up for your newsletter. The steps show you how to implement the event using Tag Manager and don’t require you to implement a data layer object.

Step 1: Create a GA4 Event tag

Start by creating a Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag for the new custom event.

1. 1. In Google Tag Manager, click Tags > New.
  2. Enter a name for the GA4 Event tag at the top (e.g., “GA4 Event – Signup newsletter”).
  3. Select Google Analytics: GA4 Event.
  4. In the Configuration Tag, select your Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tag.
  5. In Event Name, enter a name for the event (e.g. signup_newsletter). This will create a new custom event and the name will appear in your GA4 reports. To create a recommended event, use one of the predefined event names.

Step 2: Create a trigger

Next, create a trigger to send the event when someone clicks the button.

1. 1. Click the Triggering box in your GA4 Event tag.
  2. Click + on the top right.
  3. Enter a name for the trigger (e.g., “Trigger – Signup newsletter”).

You can choose the conditions for sending the event. The following example sends the event based on the button label:

1. 1. Click the Trigger Configuration box in your trigger.
  2. Choose All Elements.
  3. Click Some Clicks.
  4. Set the following trigger condition: “Click Text contains Sign up for the newsletter”.
  5. Save all your changes.

If you want the event to trigger when someone views a page (e.g., on a confirmation page), you could use a Page View trigger instead.

Step 3: Preview your changes

Before you publish your new event in Tag Manager, click Preview to see the data that’s recorded when you click the “Sign up for the newsletter” button.

You can use preview mode to test changes to your container before you publish those changes to your website.

See your events in Analytics

You can see your events and their parameters using the Realtime and DebugView reports. Note that the DebugView report requires some additional configuration before you can use the report.

GA4 Setup

Part 2 of many about GA4 and what is coming after UA

The next installments of the Analytics after UA, deals with detailed work you need to do to make sure you have access to GA4. Here is a step by step explanation of GA4 Setup:

Use the GA4 Setup Assistant to create a new GA4 property that collects data in parallel with your existing Universal Analytics property. There are no changes to your Universal Analytics property, and it continues to collect data as always. You can access both properties via the property selector or Admin screen.

Starting GA4 Setup

To use the GA4 Setup Assistant, you need the Editor role for the account.

1. 1. In Google Analytics, click Admin (lower left).
    admin at the lower left hand side
  2. In the Account column, make sure that your desired account is selected. (If you only have one Google Analytics account, it’s already selected.)
  3. In the Property column, select the Universal Analytics property that currently collects data for your website.
  4. In the Property column, click GA4 Setup Assistant. It’s the first option in the Property column.
  5. Click Get started under I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property.
  6. In the Create a new Google Analytics 4 property pop-up screen, you’ll have one of the following options, depending on how your site is currently tagged:
    - Create and continue. Click this button to continue to the Set up a Google tag page.
    - Create property. If you see this option, this means that Analytics can reuse your existing Universal Analytics tagging for your GA4 property. Analytics will create a connected site tag between your Universal Analytics and GA4 properties. Select this option and skip to the Next steps with your new GA4 property section.
      Note for advanced users: This option implements standard data collection for your GA4 property. If you’ve implemented any custom tags for your UA property
  7. On the Set up a Google tag page, select the option that best describes your situation and follow the instructions to finish creating your new GA4 property.

Use the Google tag found on your website (Recommended)

Select this option to use the Google tag detected on your website to complete setup without making changes to your site’s code.
If desired, click Details to view your tag details.
Click Confirm to finish creating your new GA4 property.

Use a Google tag you already have

Select this option to reuse a Google tag that you already have admin access to. Click Choose a tag. You’ll see:

1. A list of tags you have admin access to.Tag IDs
2. Choose a tag labeled “On site” to complete setup without making changes to your site’s code. If you choose a tag labeled “Not detected”, you might need to install it. Select the Google tag you want to use, then click Confirm to finish creating your new GA4 property.

Install a Google tag

Select this option if you don’t have the Google tag installed on your website.

- Click Next to install a new Google tag on your website.
- On the Installation instructions page, you have 2 options:
  1. Install with a website builder: If you manage your site using certain website builders (or “CMS platforms,” like Wix or Duda), you can finish setting up your Google tag without making changes to your code.
  2. Install manually: Choose this option if one of the following is true:
    1. Your website builder/CMS does not yet support the Google tag (gtag.js)
    2. You or your web developer are manually tagging your website
    3. Your website is tagged with analytics.js
    4. You use Google Tag Manager

Option 1: Install with a website builder or CMS
If you manage your site using one of the platforms listed on the Installation instructions page, select your platform and follow the instructions to finish setting up your Google tag without making changes to your code.
If your platform doesn’t yet support the Google tag, you can use the manual installation option (below).

Option 2: Install manually
Choose this option if one of the following is true:

- - - Your website builder/CMS does not yet support the Google tag (gtag.js). Note: You’ll need to use your platform’s custom HTML feature
    - You or your web developer are manually tagging your website
      Your website is tagged with analytics.js
    - You use Google Tag Manager

How to manually install the Google tag
On the Install manually tab, you’ll see the JavaScript snippet for your Google tag. Copy and paste your entire Google tag in the code of every page of your website, immediately after the <head> element.

Your Google tag is the entire section of code that appears, beginning with:

<!– Google tag (gtag.js) –>

and ending with

</script>

Next steps with your GA4 setup

After you’re done with the wizard, you’ll see “You have successfully connected your properties” at the top of your Google Analytics 4 Property Setup Assistant page.If your Universal Analytics property name is “Example property (UA-nnnnnnn)”, your GA4 property name will be “Example property – GA4 (xxxxxxx)”, without a “UA-” prefix, and where xxxxxxx is a new property number.

GA4 Setup Assistant — GA4 Property setup assistant

We will continue with GA4 Configuration in the next post.

Analytics after UA

Part 1 of many about GA4 and what is coming after UA

Hey there! Google Universal Analytics (UA) will sunset before you know it, and your analytics after UA will be dominated by Google Analytics 4 (GA4). I’m thrilled you’re joining me as we dive into the world of SEO analytics with GA4. GA4 is already emerging as the key to gaining comprehensive and user-centric insights into customer journeys across multiple devices and platforms. So, let’s dive in and uncover how GA4 can help us elevate our SEO game.

We might still be learning, but with GA4, we’ll be able to answer two critical questions: How do people find our website, and what do they do once they get there? The most significant change in GA4 is its user-centric approach to tracking and analysis. The new approach means we’ll look at the entire user experience rather than fragmented experiences on individual devices or mediums.

GA4 Events

Before we proceed, let’s familiarize ourselves with events in GA4. The platform is all about event-based tracking, simplifying the process of creating and customizing events, tracking conversions, and building reports. So, Events dominate the landscape of GA4. For example, in the table below, you can see that so many properties that we took for granted in UA are now specific events in GA4:

UA to GA4 — Google table describing some UA properties that are Events in GA4

Now, let’s talk about setting up events. GA4 automatically collects specific event data, but we should set up event tracking for the events that aren’t captured natively. This gives us significantly more data flexibility and empowers us by making it easy to design and personalize events.

event-based-vs-session-based — The difference between UA session-based model and GA4 event-based model. (Source: Rittman Analytics)

To make the most of GA4, we should start by auditing what our GA4 account is already tracking, understand the parameters we’d like to collect and think about the audiences and segments we’d like to build. We should also work backward to understand which events to track and consider event-tracking limitations when finalizing the list of custom events to collect.

In addition to defining events, there are a few GA4 settings we should be aware of. The native events are either web, app, or both. You can find a complete list of these events at Analytics Help.

One of the best things about GA4 is that it unlocks more powerful segmentation abilities, giving us better context around our organic performance. Segments are a subset of users, sessions, or events.

You can apply segments to explorations to focus on specific data sets. We can create segments based on users, sessions, and events, allowing us to ask essential questions and assess our SEO performance more effectively.

GA4 makes for better analytics

Google Analytics 4 is revolutionizing how businesses measure their online presence, and we’re learning about it together. With its advanced features and improved measurement capabilities, GA4 will help us better track and optimize our digital content to improve our SEO performance. So let’s keep learning and growing together!

Please remember, At the most basic level, you should extend the retention of user-level data to a maximum of 14 months as soon as we set up our GA4 property. Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA) on July 1.

But don’t worry; many tools are out there to capture and store your UA data so you keep your historical UA data. Some of these tools host the event and will display it for you, and many more host it as google sheets.

In addition, you can use any number of visualization tools to access all of your historical performance data, giving you access to GA4 and UA metrics simultaneously for the same reports. If you need any help having your data retrieved or setup, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

SEO AND AI – Today

While writing another piece about the future of AI and Large Language models for our blog, it hit me: I need to address today’s realities more. So here is a piece on what we have on the relationship between SEO and AI, today.

Even though AI models like ChatGPT are exceptional at generating statistically likely text, there may be better choices for creative storytelling. However, AI-generated content serves a valuable purpose in functional content creation, which can benefit industries such as e-commerce, reference materials, and more.

To effectively utilize AI-generated content, consider the following action plan:

1. Identify functional content requirements: Understand the applicable content AI can efficiently generate, such as data-driven reports, event summaries, FAQ sections, how-to guides, news aggregation, job listings, legal documents, technical documentation, and directory listings. There are certain content types that AI excels at, and we recommend that you limit your functional content to the following:
  1. - Data-driven reports
    - Event summaries
    - FAQ sections
    - How-to guides and tutorials
    - Compiling and summarizing news
    - Job listings
    - Legal and policy documents
    - Technical documentation
    - Directory listings
2. Kickstart large-scale content projects: Leverage AI-generated content to quickly create a critical mass of content for projects like recipe collections or travel guides. Building on AI content can help you reach your content goals more rapidly while maintaining quality through proper SEO and content management practices.
3. Optimize keywords with AI: Use AI like ChatGPT to explore alternative keywords, questions, or concerns related to your content and rewrite sections accordingly. Using AI to optimize your long-chain keywords will help ensure your content is more engaging and relevant to your target audience.

For example, we worked with a startup founder to successfully use ChatGPT to generate his pitch outline to present his platform, resulting in a significant increase in interest and, finally, his crucial customer’s adoption of his platform.

In summary, to create a cohesive thought and action plan, you should focus on:

- Identifying the correct type of content for AI-generated content creation
- Utilizing AI-generated content to kickstart large-scale projects
- Employing AI for keyword optimization and audience engagement

By following this action plan, you can make the most of AI-generated content to enhance your content strategy and achieve your goals.