GA4 – 3 months before the deadline! With GA4 looming, and digital marketing agencies panicking that their clients data may be lost, it is time to consider how you will record all your data in one place.
Yes, GA3 will continue to store your data, but that does not mean it will be simple to compare like for like. And you also need to consider that GA4 has a 14 month data retention period as a maximum, so comparing one year with the 2 previous years will be impossible. That is if you can find the data you are looking for in the first place!
GA4 is a complete change in behaviour and the way we think about data in Google Analytics. It’s a huge learning curve even for those who are very used to looking at data on a daily basis.
So, how do you overcome this issue of data retention across 2 different platforms?
The answer is really very simple indeed. Google Sheets (or other brand named spreadsheet).
We use Google Sheets for a number of our larger clients, for whom data is very important. This enables us to collect the information they need on a month by month and year by year basis, and also enables us to do calculations, filters and graphs from the data therein.
It’s a very simple solution, and needs updating on a monthly basis so that the data you need is not lost – and with Google sheets, it is collaborative, and shareable. You can control user access, which means that when someone leaves a company, that person can be easily removed.
Additionally you can see change version history, so if the data is amended by accident, it can also be restored very simply.
Best of all, it auto saves! No more typing away and then 2 hours later you lose everything because of a system crash – those days are gone.
Actually, no, best of all is that you now have all the data you need month by month, year by year and all in one place.
If you need help extracting your data or setting up GA4 in readiness of the big Analytics change of the century, then please feel free to make contact.
We are always happy to help.
