GA4 Terminology | A Google Analytics 4 Glossary | Varn

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9 March 2021

GA4 Terminology – A Google Analytics 4 Glossary

With the recent introduction of Google Analytics 4 comes a variety of jargon that you may not recognise. In this blog, we’re going to take a look at some of most used GA4 terminology and discover what these phrases actually mean. 


Anomaly Detection

Within the Explore Section of GA4, you will find the Anomaly Detection model. This makes it possible to identify outliers within your data, which are flagged in Google Analytics for your convenience. You can also configure the detection model to suit your requirements.

Automatically Collected Events

One of the main differences between Universal Analytics and GA4 is the introduction of automatically collected events. No additional tracking is required for these events, they are automatically sent to GA by the global site tag. A full list of these events can be found here: GA4 Automatically Collected Events

Connected Site Tags

There is a feature within GA4 called Connected Site Tags. This feature makes it possible to reuse existing Universal Analytics tagging to create a connected GA4 property. This means that you don’t necessarily have to add more code to your website, in order to enable GA4 tracking – you can simply reuse existing tracking tags instead. 

Custom Dimensions

This is an area in GA4 that contains Custom Dimensions and Metrics. Here, you can use event parameters to create custom dimensions and metrics to be used within your reports, making labelling and understanding your data much easier.

Data Deletion Requests

Sometimes when testing GA integration or conversion tracking, you may send data to Analytics that you later need to remove, in order avoid skewing site statistics. GA4 has a request function, the Data Deletion Request, which you can use to delete this data from the Analytics servers. You can find recent requests within GA > Property > Data Deletion Requests. 

Data Stream

Data Stream refers to the flow of data between your website or application and Google Analytics. Within GA4, there are three different types of data stream you can use to carry website statistics to GA – Web (for websites), Android (for Android applications) and iOS (for iOS apps).

Debug View

In GA4 their Debug View allows you to test conversions and monitor events in real-time, in order to check that your tracking and reporting is working as it should. You can see events and conversions at the moment they are triggered.

Engaged Sessions

This is a term used quite frequently throughout Google Analytics 4. Rather than counting all sessions within a site, GA4 focuses on engaged sessions – those where the session either lasted at least 10 seconds, had one or more conversion events, or had two or more page views. Therefore sessions in GA4 are likely to be lower than those in Universal Analytics, but they are arguably a much more valuable metric to measure.

Enhanced Measurement

Enhanced Measurement affects only web data streams in GA4. This feature enables a number of different events, allowing you to measure a larger number of interactions between website visitors and your content. Click here to take a look at the full list of enhanced measurement options available within GA4.  

Explore

The Explore section of GA4 is an area where users can use tables and graphs to visualise their data using highly customisable and flexible tables and graphs.

Life Cycle

The Life Cycle section of GA4 contains reports that help analyse data by the stage your customers are within the overall purchase journey. Within this section you will find reports on user acquisition, engagement, monetisation and retention.

Monetisation

The monetisation reports in GA4 makes it easier to analyse purchase activity on your website/app. This is where you’ll find the data previously stored in the Conversions > E-commerce area of Universal Analytics, such as ecommerce conversion rates, product promotions, coupon uses and more.

Tech

The updated Tech section of the Google Analytics profile contains data previously found within the Audience report – specifically statistics regarding user platform, operating system, app version and screen resolution. You can easily see reports mapping users by platform, OS, device and more.

User Snapshot

User Snapshot is a feature of GA4, one which allows you to explore individual users and their real-time engagement with your website and/or application. Rather than just grouping all real-time data into one group, you can find out behaviour and engagement data associated with individual users who are visiting your site. 


If you need help setting up Google Analytics 4 or are still unclear about some of the terminology used within this new profile, get in touch with the GA qualified professionals at Varn. We would love to hear from you. 

For a glossary containing some of the original terms used by Universal Analytics, take a look at this useful post: GA terminology by Leadfeeder. If you are new to GA4, you may also like to take a look at our recent below:

Article by: Aimee, Head of Innovation More articles by Aimee

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