You may have noticed the doomsday clock that was counting down to Google’s migration to its new analytics property, GA4, and wondered, “What the heck is this? Will I lose my data? Do I have to do something before time runs out…or else?” Great news! It happened, and you didn’t lose anything. In fact, you’ve just entered the next generation of analytics that will help your business make better use of your data.

LESA has been tracking the migration. Once you provide us with your new GA4 ID, we can start sending your engagement data to the GA4 platform where they will be processed to offer new, more relevant insights into your website’s effectiveness and your customers’ behavior.

And if you also grant us view access to your GA4 property, we can collaborate with you to help you look at the video effectiveness stats and generate reports down the road. If you have any questions about how to set up view access, contact us at support@lesautomotive.com for instructions.

What do you really need to know about GA4?

GA4 is Google’s new web analytics platform that collects event-based data from both websites and apps. It replaced the former Universal Analytics (UA) property effective July 1, 2023. You may still be able to see your old UA reports for a while, but any data collected starting July 1^st will be processed by GA4.

The shutdown of UA is being rolled out in stages, however all UA properties are now in a queue to be terminated, and you will be required to set up GA4 to access website measurements of any data collected on or after July 1^st.

Here are some quick facts that may make the migration to GA4 feel a bit less stressful:

• Your old data is not lost. Existing UA data can be imported into the new GA4 platform to help maintain continuity and preserve your historical data.

• Some of the reporting metrics and terminology will look familiar, which should smooth the transition to GA4.

• GA4 allows for more customization than UA offered, so once you’ve configured your GA4 property, you’ll have the ability to tailor your analytics to meet your business’s specific needs.

• You are not alone! There are plenty of supportive, how-to resources out there to help you transition to GA4 and use its capabilities to your best advantage.

Why did Google switch from UA to GA4 – What’s the advantage?

GA4 offers a number of improvements over UA, including new privacy controls, simplified reporting, and direct integration to media platforms. It also collects both website and app data to provide a better understanding of the customer journey. Perhaps most significantly, it focuses on event-based data, so instead of giving you a count of the number of times customers arrive at your site, like a traffic meter, it lets you see what customers actually do while they are there.

Now you’ll be able to see just how customers are responding to your content. Understanding the cause-and-effect aspect of your online marketing campaigns, including your video merchandising campaigns, will help you understand which of your site’s features are resulting in direct actions such as clicks, shares, or other tangible forms of engagement. You’ll have a better idea of how to attribute conversions, so you’ll know what’s driving sales and be able to do more of what’s measurably effective.

The future of measuring your video merchandising campaigns

We’re especially excited about the potential of GA4 to measure and track your customers’ actions when they engage with video inventory content on your website. GA4 may reveal patterns in customer behavior that led to conversions, which could allow you to pivot to customize your video merchandising strategy to emphasize more of what’s working.

We know that 60% of auto shoppers who used online video during the research process reported visiting a dealership or dealer website after watching a video of the vehicle they were considering. Leveraging your video content library has never been more important. To understand why, check out our Why Video page. You’ll be glad you did!

Stay calm and … complete your GA4 set-up!

GA4 analytics is ready to start processing your data in new and beneficial ways. You can start taking advantage of all this new platform has to offer once you configure your new GA4 property. LESA is ready to start sending your video merchandising data to GA4, and we have every expectation that the new property will help us create winning video strategies for your dealership.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll take a closer look at how LESA’s data is displayed in GA4 and offer tips on how to navigate this new analytics landscape. Stay tuned for Part 2!