Earlier this year, Google announced a new version of Google Analytics 3, which allows you to create data reports and generate insights from metrics for all types of websites. This is Google Analytics 4, or GA4, so that companies can carry out new code line changes, as well as user-centric measurements. To help businesses with the GA3 migration, which will lose its function on July 1, 2023, ACCT by Quality has developed an update that allows it to capture transactional sales data from e-commerce companies, directing them to Google Analytics, with a structure that allows access to this data from the beginning of the user’s journey, until the completion of the purchase of the product he wants. “We already collected this data from all stages of the user journey and took it to Google Universal Analytics, that is, GA3”, comments Izaias Paes, Data and Web Analytics BI coordinator at ACCT by Quality, who also explains that Google Analytics is a tool with the function of showing data details, with access to the structure of numerous reports.
The announcement of the change is intended to make companies aware and prepare them to adapt to the new event-oriented data model and to a different way of analyzing, visualizing and monitoring Google data, since after the update, the history of information will be collected only by GA4.
In the face of a survey carried out by Sebrae, companies that decided not to adhere to new software innovation processes lost 39% of their revenue since the beginning of the pandemic. The same survey found that the quarantine period boosted the digital transformation, due to the restrictions of social isolation, making Brazil occupy the 62nd place in the global innovation ranking.
The ACCT by Quality tool and the possibility of accessing the database
With GA3, companies had automatic access to data from previous years of work, such as, for example, the number of sales that a specific product had and which audiences these sales reached. As the focus of the adaptation to GA4 that Quality is proposing is migration, the offer includes the possibility of maintaining the properties of previous data based on events, since GA4 will only allow access to data history of a maximum of 14 months .
With GA4, the user will be able to customize their reports more comprehensively after Google cancels data retention with GA3, with access to the various types of reports that the company has. “There will be no more backdated data of more than a year and two months. Based on this, we, here at ACCT by Quality, will make available some reports with the update to GA4, opening up customizations with standard reports, looking at GA3 and the options that customers have today, such as, for example, understanding where his customer came from, what device he uses, what transactions he carried out on the site, how much he sold, what was the conversion rate and some data from the checkout steps, in addition to migrating to his account from GA3 to GA4”, reiterates Izaias.
In the GA4 user ID, a key will allow the option of generating a customized cookie for the customer, so that data on their behavior on the site can be kept in that session, which eliminates the need for previous cookies, commonly used in GA3.
The impacts of this change on companies
The coordinator clarifies that if the company decides to migrate to GA4 two months after its implementation by Google, for example, these two months will be without access to the data, because with the delay, its history will be discontinued. “If the company that has a website hasn’t thought about migrating yet, it will have a serious problem when it decides to migrate, so the first impact is in relation to the data itself”, explains Izaias.
According to a survey carried out by Bain & Company, since 2018, 57% of companies in Latin America have been losing market space because they decided not to innovate in digital transformation. This confirms that the lack of updating profoundly affects the competitive context of companies, preventing the adaptation to new solutions to happen more quickly.
For those that decide to migrate before the upgrade takes place, some benefits will be part of the process, such as more time to learn about the new tool, lessening the impact on reports and analytics, growing competitive advantage over companies that leave the upgrade to later and/or who do not intend to upgrade because they do not understand the benefits of the tool.
The lack of access to historical data deprives the company of the chance to know, for example, which product sold more in the last two months, which was more prominent and which generated more revenue, that is, the greatest benefit of adaptation is the importance data for future decision-making.
no-hassle migration
As seen, and as it is a tool that will provide companies with the option of migrating their data according to the time available for learning, the positive side of GA4 is adaptation. “Users will have the opportunity to keep their data and properties on GA3, even the current data, while passing this data in parallel to GA4, because there will be the option to track data from the same site on both properties, so that, at few, take them from GA3 to GA4, until the moment when these users no longer need to follow GA3”, reiterates Izaias.
As for the GA360, a more complete version of the GA3, the end of operations will only take place in October 2023, but this is only for large companies.
In January 2022, Quality acquired ACCT by Quality, an agile software consultancy, specializing in e-commerce, with more than 12 years in the market.
Quality Digital specializes in accelerating its clients’ businesses with high-value creative and innovative digital solutions. The differentiator focuses on the ability to create unique digital experiences across multiple channels.
The company has successful cases in industries, airports, retail, commerce, telecom, health, agribusiness, hospitals, energy generators and distributors, oil and gas, civil construction, insurance, transport, service providers, clinics, financial institutions, large banks and medium-sized companies, in addition to federal and state government institutions, being one of the largest IT companies in Brazil, with more than 1,800 employees, headquarters in RJ, branches in SP, Curitiba and Mexico, Spain and the United States.
Quality is a company certified by ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 and HDI, which values people, its culture and Lean management, strengthening the culture of continuous improvement and the commitment to do more and better.