Our Head of Innovation, Sam Gabell, shares his thoughts on Google’s announcement to sunset Universal Analytics and what it means for marketers.
Last week, Google announced that the current version of Google Analytics, known as Universal Analytics, is going to stop functioning from mid-2023, replaced by the newer Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 offers significant improvements over the outgoing version, delivering better insights within an analytics landscape that is more privacy focused.
What does this mean for your data?
According to Google, from July 1st, 2023, no new data will be collected for any website or app still using Universal Analytics.
From that date you’ll be able to access any historic data from your Universal Analytics properties for at least six months.
As July 1st, 2023, approaches, Google will confirm exactly how long businesses have to access their historical data collected over the last 10 years.
Until such time, businesses should be aware that they may only have 15 months to take ownership of this precious resource for comparative insights before Google removes access.
What should you do now?
If you have not yet setup GA4 to run alongside Universal Analytics, the time for action is now. By keeping UA and implementing GA4, businesses can maintain the familiarity of their current analytics while also starting the important journey of collecting comparative data under GA4’s new, data model.