How to Transition to Google Analytics 4

Universal Analytics is officially history, making the switch to Google Analytics 4 an urgent reality, not just a suggestion on your to-do list. If you haven't made the move yet, your old analytics property has stopped processing any new data from your website or app. This guide will walk you through exactly how to transition to GA4, step-by-step, ensuring you don’t lose momentum or valuable tracking capabilities in the process.

Why Is Universal Analytics Being Discontinued?

Universal Analytics (UA), the version of Google Analytics most of us have used for years, was built for a web dominated by desktop computers and independent sessions. Today's user journey is much more complex, spanning multiple devices and platforms, from your website to your mobile app. Google created GA4 from the ground up to address this modern reality.

While the change is mandatory, GA4 offers some significant advantages:

• Event-Based Model: Unlike UA's session-based model, GA4 tracks every interaction (a page view, a button click, a form submission) as an event. This gives you a much more flexible and granular view of user behavior.
• Cross-Device and Cross-Platform Tracking: GA4 is designed to unify user data from your website and mobile app into a single property, providing a complete picture of the customer journey.
• Enhanced Privacy Controls: GA4 operates without relying on cookies and includes features like IP anonymization by default, helping you stay compliant with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
• AI-Powered Insights: With built-in machine learning, GA4 can automatically surface trends and predict user actions, like the probability of a user churning or making a purchase.

In short, GA4 isn't just a new interface, it’s a necessary evolution for understanding user behavior in today's digital landscape.

Before You Begin: A Quick Pre-Migration Audit

Jumping straight into the setup without a plan can lead to confusion and missing data. Taking 30 minutes to do a quick audit of your current Universal Analytics setup will make the entire process smoother.

1. Take Inventory of Your Current Tracking

Open your Universal Analytics property and make a simple list or spreadsheet. You don't need to be overly detailed, just capture the essentials:

• Goals: What are you tracking as conversions? (e.g., 'Contact Form Submission', 'Newsletter Sign-up', 'Purchase Confirmation').
• Custom Events: Go to Behavior > Events > Top Events. Note any custom tracking you have set up, like PDF downloads, button clicks, or video plays. Pay attention to the Event Category, Action, and Label, as you'll be mapping these to GA4's new structure.
• Custom Dimensions & Metrics: If you have more advanced tracking, check Admin > Custom Definitions to see if you have any custom dimensions (e.g., 'User Login Status') or metrics that you need to recreate.
• Linked Accounts: Note any connections to Google Ads, Google Search Console, or other platforms. You'll need to re-link these in GA4.

2. Decide What Tracking Is Still Relevant

This transition is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. Review your inventory and ask yourself: Do we still need to track this? Some events you set up years ago may no longer be relevant to your current business goals. Ditching obsolete tracking will simplify your new GA4 setup and make your data cleaner.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Transitioning to GA4

Ready to make the switch? Let's walk through it one step at a time. The process involves creating the new property, installing the tag, and then reconfiguring your tracking to match GA4's new model.

Step 1: Create Your New GA4 Property with Setup Assistant

Google has made this initial step incredibly simple with the GA4 Setup Assistant. It creates your new GA4 property alongside your existing Universal Analytics property - it does not replace or delete your old one yet.

1. Log into your Google Analytics account.
2. Click on Admin (the gear icon) in the bottom-left corner.
3. In the 'Property' column, make sure your existing Universal Analytics property is selected.
4. Click on GA4 Setup Assistant. It should be the first option in the column.
5. Click the blue "Get Started" button under "I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property." A pop-up will appear.
6. The wizard automatically creates your new property for you. For most users, you can just click "Create property". If your site uses the global site tag (gtag.js), you might see an option to "Enable data collection using your existing tags," which allows GA4 to collect data without you having to re-tag the site immediately.

That’s it! Your GA4 property is now created. You'll see a success message and can now navigate to your new property.

Step 2: Install the GA4 Tracking Tag

Your new property exists, but it isn't collecting any data yet. To start, you need to add the GA4 tracking tag to your website. You can do this through Google Tag Manager (GTM) or by adding the code directly to your site.

First, find your "Measurement ID" from GA4. It starts with "G-".

• Go to your new GA4 property.
• Navigate to Admin > Data Streams.
• Click on the data stream for your website. Your Measurement ID will be in the top right. Copy it.

Method 1: Using Google Tag Manager (Recommended)

GTM is the easiest and most flexible way to manage your analytics tags. If you already use GTM, this will be quick.

1. In your Google Tag Manager container, go to Tags > New.
2. Name your tag something clear, like "GA4 Configuration."
3. Under Tag Configuration, choose Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.
4. In the "Measurement ID" field, paste the ID you copied from your GA4 data stream.
5. Under Triggering, select All Pages.
6. Click Save.
7. Preview your changes to make sure the tag fires correctly, then hit Submit to publish your GTM container live.

Method 2: Adding the Tag Manually

If you don’t use GTM, you’ll need to add the GA4 tag directly into your website's code. In your GA4 Data Stream settings (where you found your Measurement ID), look for the "View tag instructions" button. You'll find a JavaScript snippet that needs to be placed immediately after the <head> tag on every page of your website.

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [],
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments),}
  gtag('js', new Date()),

  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX'),
</script>

Step 3: Recreate Your UA Events as GA4 Events

This is where the conceptual shift from UA to GA4 really happens. UA events were rigid, with three required fields: Category, Action, and Label. GA4 is much more flexible, using only an Event Name and optional Parameters (key-value pairs that add context).

Example Migration: Tracking a CTA Button Click

• In Universal Analytics, you might have had:
• In GA4, this becomes a new custom event with parameters:

This new structure is more descriptive and flexible. Instead of creating hundreds of different event names, you can have one event like cta_click and use parameters to differentiate which button was clicked and where.

If you're using Google Tag Manager, you will need to create new "GA4 Event" tags that correspond to your old UA event triggers. Make sure you link these event tags to your main GA4 Configuration tag.

Step 4: Turn Important Events into Conversions

What Universal Analytics called "Goals" are now simply "Conversions" in GA4. And thankfully, setting them up is much easier. Any event you send to GA4 can be marked as a conversion.

1. In your GA4 property, go to Admin > Conversions.
2. In the "Existing events" table, you will see a list of event names your website is already sending.
3. Find the name of the event you want to count as a conversion (e.g., 'form_submission' or 'purchase').
4. Simply toggle the switch in the "Mark as conversion" column to 'on'.

The system will start treating that event as a conversion from that point forward. No complex setups with destination pages or event conditions are required, unless you want more advanced conversion tracking.

Don't Forget About Your Historical Data

This is critically important: Your historic Universal Analytics data does not transfer to GA4. The systems are built on entirely different measurement models, so there is no way to merge them. Google will eventually delete all Universal Analytics data.

Before that happens, you should export your key historical reports from Universal Analytics. You can export them as PDFs, Google Sheets, or CSV files. Consider archiving reports like:

• Audience demographics and location data
• All-time traffic acquisition channel performance
• Landing page performance
• Monthly and yearly goal conversion reports

Having these on hand will be valuable for future trend analysis and YoY comparisons.

Final Thoughts

Transitioning from Universal Analytics to GA4 is no longer optional, but it doesn't have to be a painful process. By following a structured approach - creating the property, installing the tag, and methodically migrating tracking for your key business outcomes - you can set your organization up with a more powerful and future-proof analytics foundation.

Of course, getting your data into GA4 is just the beginning. The real challenge is turning that data into actionable insights without spending all day wrestling with the new reports. To simplify this, we built a tool that connects securely to your GA4 property. With it, you can use plain English to ask questions, create custom dashboards, and pull real-time reports in seconds. If you’re looking to get immediate answers from your new GA4 data without the steep learning curve, you might find Graphed incredibly helpful.