GA4 (Google Analytics 4).

What is GA4?

GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is Google's free analytics platform for measuring how people find and use a website or app. It records activity as events, such as page views, scrolls, clicks and form submissions, and groups them into sessions and users.

GA4 replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data for standard properties in July 2023, so any business using Google Analytics today is on GA4.

Why it matters

GA4 is usually the one place where every channel (organic search, paid ads, email, social and referrals) can be compared side by side. It answers commercial questions: which campaigns bring enquiries, which pages lose people, which sources send visitors who go on to buy. It also shares audiences and key events with Google Ads. Set up badly, it gives confident answers to the wrong questions, and budget decisions follow those answers.

The parts that matter

• Events and parameters Every interaction is an event. Some are collected automatically; the ones specific to your business, such as a quote request, need setting up.
• Key events The events you mark as important, called conversions in GA4 until 2024. These drive most of the useful reporting.
• Traffic acquisition The report showing which channels and campaigns bring sessions and key events. Its accuracy depends heavily on UTM parameters.
• Explorations area A flexible analysis area for building custom funnels, paths and segments when the standard reports fall short.
• Data retention Detailed event data is kept for two months by default in a standard property; you can extend it to 14 months in the settings.

What to do about it

Log in and check three things. First, that your key events reflect real business outcomes, such as enquiries, calls and bookings, and that each fires once per action. Second, that data retention is set to 14 months, so you can compare year on year in explorations. Third, that GA4 is linked to Google Ads and Search Console. Then build one simple saved report showing key events by channel, and look at it every month.