Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is here. Here's why this is awesome, what you need to know about GA4 and what you need to do NOW as an eCommerce business/marketer

Predictive Insights and Metrics) A new and improved machine learning kernel is the foundation of GA4 and will help you surface concrete insights and suggestions from data. E.g. a trend prediction based on your products. Imagine if you were able to predict the surge of face masks.

Better Audience Insights) The new kernel will also predict churn rates, revenue, and LTV of custom audiences. This will help you understand WHY a segment churns more, buys more, etc., and help you allocate your $$ more efficiently toward low-churn, high-revenue segments.

Deeper Integration with Google Ads) You will be able to create even more custom audiences across YouTube, apps, and more. This means you can track conversions from YouTube in your app or stop marketing campaigns based on actions on YouTube.

Cross-Device Measurements) Data centralized around a user ID, not fragmented by device/platform. This will give you a better view of your customer's interactions. You will e.g. be able to see if a customer finds you via an app, later installs your app and make a purchase in-app.

Analytics in a cookie-less future) GA4 is designed for a future both with and without cookies by, in the future, including machine learning modelling to fill in gaps where data (cookies) may be missing.

Your next steps) GA4 is the future and Google will only develop GA4. I suggest you set up a GA4 property and run a parallel GA4 + legacy setup. GA4 is a new version, not an update, and will not work with everything else out of the box. Run parallel until everything works 100%.

It's important that you set up the new GA4 property NOW. Historic data is NOT available in new GA properties, so you need to start collecting data in the new GA4 property ASAP.

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