How to Import Data from UA to Google Analytics 4

With Universal Analytics (UA) now a thing of the past, you've likely made the switch to Google Analytics 4. The big question on everyone's mind is what to do with all that priceless historical data from UA. While you can't directly merge your old UA data into the GA4 interface, you can absolutely preserve, access, and use it for reporting and analysis. This guide will walk you through the most effective ways to export your UA history and blend it with your new GA4 data for seamless historical reporting.

First, Why Can't You Just Import UA Data into GA4?

This is the most common and logical question, and the answer lies in the fundamental architecture of each platform. Think of it like trying to play a Blu-ray disc in a VCR - they are built on entirely different technologies and handle information in incompatible ways.

• Universal Analytics was Session-Based: UA organized everything around sessions (a user's visit) and pageviews. All the data, from bounce rate to time on page, was calculated within the context of a session.
• GA4 is Event-Based: GA4 throws out the session model in favor of a more flexible, user-centric approach. Everything is an event - a page view, a scroll, a button click, a purchase. This allows for much deeper analysis of user behavior across websites and apps, but it’s a completely different language from UA's.

Because these data models are so different, there’s no clean, one-to-one way to 'import' session-based data into an event-based system without corrupting the integrity and structure of your new GA4 property. The key isn't to merge them, it's to store your UA data and combine it with GA4 data later in a separate reporting tool.

The Best Methods for Exporting and Saving Your UA Data

Getting your historical data out of Universal Analytics is your first and most critical mission. Your access to the UA interface is limited, so acting now is important. Here are the most practical methods, ranging from simple to more advanced.

Method 1: Manually Export Reports from the UA Interface

This is the quickest and easiest way to grab your most important topline stats. It's perfect for saving specific views and key performance indicators (KPIs) you regularly reported on.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Log in to your Universal Analytics property.
2. Navigate to a report you want to save, such as Audience > Overview or Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels.
3. Set the date range you want to export. Aim for a long period, like "All Time" if possible, or export year by year.
4. In the top right corner of the report, look for the 'Export' button.
5. Choose your preferred format:

Repeat this process for all your cornerstone reports: key landing pages (Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages), traffic sources, user demographics, and goal completions (Conversions > Goals > Overview). It’s manual work, but it ensures you have snapshots of your most critical data.

Method 2: Use the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on for Google Sheets

If you're comfortable in Google Sheets, this method is a game-changer. It allows you to build custom reports that pull data directly from the UA API into a spreadsheet, and you can get much more granular than with a standard export.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Open a new Google Sheet.
2. Go to Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons.
3. Search for "Google Analytics" and install the official add-on from Google.
4. Once installed, go to Extensions > Google Analytics > Create a New Report.
5. A sidebar will appear. Name your report and select the correct UA Account, Property, and View you want to pull data from.
6. Choose your metrics (e.g., Sessions, Users, Goal Completions) and dimensions (e.g., Date, Source / Medium, Landing Page). This is where the power lies - you can combine dimensions and metrics that weren’t available in a single standard report in the UA interface.
7. Click 'Create Report.' A new sheet named 'Report Configuration' will appear. Don’t be intimidated! You can set your date range and even schedule the report to run automatically here.
8. Go back to Extensions > Google Analytics > Run Reports. The add-on will now pull all the data you specified into a brand-new sheet, perfectly formatted for analysis.

This method is great because you can pull years of daily or weekly data in one go and have it organized in a clean table, ready for you to build charts or pivot tables from.

Method 3: Go for the Gold Standard with BigQuery

For those who want the most complete, raw, unsampled version of their data, there’s BigQuery, Google's data warehouse solution. While this is the most technically involved option, it's also the most robust and future-proof way to store your entire UA history indefinitely.

The standard BigQuery export feature was primarily available for Analytics 360 customers. However, even if you weren't on a paid plan, several third-party data connectors could pipe your historical data into a BigQuery project for you. If you already have this set up, your data is safe. If not, this path is more complex for salvaging data now, but it underscores the importance of a data warehouse for the future.

Connecting your new GA4 property to BigQuery is free and highly recommended. It future-proofs your analytics and gives you complete ownership and control over your data, moving beyond the limitations of any analytics interface.

How to Compare Your Old UA Data with New GA4 Data

Okay, so you've exported your UA data into a spreadsheet or other storage. Now what? The goal is to create unified dashboards where you can see historical trends next to current data. The best tool for this job is Google's own Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio).

Using Looker Studio to Blend Data Sources

Looker Studio allows you to connect to multiple data sources - like a Google Sheet with your UA history and your live GA4 property - and display them in the same chart. This is the secret to year-over-year reporting when your history lives in a different system.

A Quick Looker Studio Workflow:

1. Go to Looker Studio and create a new report.
2. Add your first data source: Your GA4 property. A 'Google Analytics' connector lets you do this in a few clicks.
3. Add your second data source: The Google Sheet containing your exported UA data. Choose the 'Google Sheets' connector.
4. Create a chart, like a Time Series chart, and select your GA4 data source to show recent traffic.
5. Now, select your GA4 chart and your UA data table. Right-click and choose 'Blend data.' This is the critical step.
6. Looker will ask you to configure the blend. You’ll need a 'join key.' The easiest one to use is the 'Date' field. Make sure the date format is consistent across both data sources. You'll also configure the metrics so your "Sessions" from the UA sheet line up next to the "Sessions" from GA4.
7. Once blended, you can create a single 'Time Series' chart that shows a continuous line of traffic, starting with your UA data and seamlessly transitioning to your GA4 data.

This process gives you one single view of your performance over time, bridging the gap between Universal Analytics and GA4.

Keep Metric Differences in Mind

When you place your UA and GA4 data side-by-side, you’ll notice that some numbers don't perfectly align, even for the same metric name. This is normal and expected due to the different measurement models.

Here are a few key translation points:

• Users: UA focused on 'Total Users' (all users) and 'New Users'. GA4 focuses heavily on 'Active Users' (users with an engaged session). 'Total Users' in GA4 is more comparable to UA's 'Users.'
• Pageviews: This is mostly comparable, though GA4’s ‘Views’ also include app screen views. For a website, they should be very close.
• Bounce Rate vs. Engagement Rate: UA’s ‘Bounce Rate' (percentage of single-page sessions) is gone. In its place, GA4 has ‘Engagement Rate,’ a much more useful metric that measures the percentage of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, had a conversion event, or had at least two pageviews. They are essentially inverse concepts.
• Goals vs. Conversions: In UA, you configured ‘Goals.' In GA4, every important action you want to track is marked as a 'Conversion' event. They serve the same purpose but are much more flexible in GA4.

Understanding these differences is key to not getting tripped up when analyzing long-term trends. Don't panic if numbers look different, focus on the broader trends and patterns instead of exact numerical matches.

Final Thoughts

Although you can't push your old Universal Analytics data directly into GA4, you have powerful and accessible ways to export it, save it, and use it for historical reporting. By exporting your key reports into spreadsheets and using a tool like Looker Studio to blend that data with your new GA4 feed, you can maintain a continuous view of your performance across the transition.

The whole process of exporting CSVs, managing spreadsheets, and piecing together reports is exactly the kind of manual data wrangling we built Graphed to eliminate. At our company, we connect all your scattered data sources - like Google Analytics, advertising platforms, and your CRM - into one place. Instead of spending hours building reports, you can just ask questions in plain English like, "show me a dashboard comparing my traffic and conversions month-over-month for the past two years," and get a live dashboard instantly. If you’re ready to stop juggling data and start getting answers, you should give Graphed a try.