Google Analytics is soon changing for everyone. Especially since Google dropped the hammer on 14th October, 2020 regarding the launch of their all-new analytics property called Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

GA4 is more forward-looking than UA. The new version is built with integral machine learning models, AI-based predictive data, and cross-device measurement capabilities.

GA4 is the answer to data privacy and user engagement tracking challenges in a cookie-free world.

With an event-based measurement model, no-hit limit, and a FREE BigQuery connection, the upsides to upgrading to GA4 are huge!

If you’re a data-driven marketer, analyst, or product manager relying extensively on GA reports and intelligence, this is the time to act.

But first, let’s understand why a lot of big organizations are skeptical about making this shift.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is, most of us have years of data loaded into UA and so, migrating to GA4 seems risky. The reality is that sooner or later, Google will dump UA. It’s only prudent to make a move to GA4 early.

But due to factors like manpower crunch, lack of expertise, or knowledge, migrating to GA4 is not so straightforward. In such cases, we’d suggest planning for a dual tagging setup. With dual tagging, you will be able to collect data in both your UA and GA4 properties simultaneously.

So by the time GA4 evolves, you will have enough historical data to confidently make the switch to GA4 completely. And while that happens, you do not risk losing your UA data in the process and you are future-ready.

You can refer to this insightful step-by-step guide by Himanshu detailing how you can upgrade to GA4.

Now that your GA4 property has been set up, it’s time to migrate existing UA tags to GA4. If you have implemented UA using Google Tag Manager (GTM), migration would be a lot simpler (Find out more about GTM). Your existing GTM container may have several UA tags that need to be manually copied and pasted into the GTM container associated with the new GA4 property.

Remember, you need to use GA4 event naming conventions and convert custom dimensions into event parameters attached with tags, and keep an eye on the event parameters limits and more.

Sounds confusing, right?

Manual workaround to migration does get challenging. Especially if you’re an organization having multiple websites, several hundred tags, triggers, and variables.

Here are some of the challenges:

1. Time consuming

Migrating your tags from UA to GA4 by copy-pasting each UA tag can be a tedious task when you have scores of tags on more than one website and multiple GTM containers.

2. Human errors

Manual migration increases the risk of human errors. These errors could put you at risk of collecting incorrect data into your GA4 property. On top of it, it leads to more debugging time and repetitive work.

3. Complexity in tagging

You’ll be dependent on your developer or a GTM specialist to migrate certain tags that have custom dimensions, referenced with multiple triggers. You also need to ensure deploying GA4 best practices for event naming conventions and limits.

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We Have an Automagical Solution To This Challenge

We’ve faced these aching problems many times with several projects and now
we’ve come up with an automagical solution. We call it Tagmate!

Tagmate automates web tagging with 100% accuracy. Simple. If you’re a marketer, developer, or agency owner, Tagmate is exactly what you need to save development hours and money. There is a dedicated migration module that helps you migrate your tagging setup from UA to GA4.

You get a guided workflow to install a GA4 config tag (what’s this?) and sequentially migrate basic, advanced, and miscellaneous tags from GA3 to GA4 in an existing or new Google Tag Manager container:

1. Basic tags

Standard tracking tags such as page load time, page view, CTA click tags, etc., that are industry generic

2. Advanced tags

Similarly, advanced tags such as ecommerce event tags like Add-To-Cart, Checkout, purchases, etc., or Form Submit tags that are industry-specific.

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3. Miscellaneous tags

All other tags except for basic and advanced tags are placed as miscellaneous tags. These tags can be like – adblocker identifier, internet speed tracking, custom HTML tags, etc.

When you explore and select the tags to migrate, Tagmate automagically does all the heavy-lifting in a single click.

Tagmate follows the best practices of event creation in GA4 under the hood like:

A. GA4 event naming conventions

GA4 comes with complex naming parameters that can get hard to remember and execute. With Tagmate, these fields are pre-filled so that you do not have to manually type or copy thus limiting the scope of errors.

B. Limit to event parameters

In GA4, there is a limit to the number of event parameters that can be tagged to a single event. So if there are more than 20+ custom dimensions attached to a single UA tag, then Tagmate allows you to choose the first 20 dimensions to be ported as event parameters for migration.

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C. No developer needed

With Tagmate being a click UI tool, you don’t need a developer or a GTM specialist. It reviews the configurations of the migrated tag before pushing into GTM containers and freeing you up from review cycles.

Once you migrate your tags, you will land on the Tagmate dashboard where you can check whether the tags have been migrated or pending migration. After the GTM container is published with the migrated tags, the dashboard will reflect a published status as well.

You now have successfully migrated your UA tag to GA4 tag with 100% accuracy and zero coding expertise. On top of that, you’ve saved a ton of development time and cost. You can now focus on the next big innovation!

Take a look here to know just how easy it is to migrate tags with Tagmate.

Angel One (formerly known as Angel Broking), a retail broking firm has been one such enterprise that has largely benefited from Tagmate. With Tagmate, Angel One was able to migrate its tag setup from UA to GA4 in hours instead of days. This helped the organization save 80% of development time and 82% of the cost.

Find out more about how Tagmate drove value for Angel One.

Wait, that’s not all…

Now you can power through your tag migration and save time and effort in bundles. But Tagmate’s superpowers go beyond just migration. Let me tell you about three other labor-saving use cases that Tagmate offers.

If you’re looking to implement fresh UA or GA4 tags on your site for standard events like form submission, video engagement, enhanced ecommerce, and more, Tagmate can do that automatically for you. Simply select the relevant templates directly Push-To-GTM.

If you’re looking to level up your marketing game thick and fast, Tagmate offers pre-built templates to track Google Ads and Facebook Ads conversion pixels. Just select the Marketing Pixels module and you’re set!

Best of all, Tagmate also offers industry-first GA4 custom implementation through its Chrome extension. Once you’re set up with the extension, simply point, click, and Push-To-GTM. And it’s done. Yes, it’s that simple. Take a look at how ridiculously easy it is to implement custom events through the Chrome extension.

To encapsulate the gist of this article, I’d like to stress the importance of tag migration from UA to GA4 for businesses. This way, you’re not only creating a strong foundation for historical data but also making your business ready for the future. This transition will also help you make business decisions based on metrics that are oriented ahead of time.

That’s where Tagmate comes in and provides you with a well-rounded solution to all your tracking requirements. With Tagmate, not only can you migrate but also implement a fresh set of tags, marketing pixels, and even custom events with the Chrome extension. It’s fast, easy, and most importantly, accurate. In the process, you get an organized GTM container to lay a strong data foundation for your business.

To know more about Tagmate, visit our website and check out our YouTube channel for how-to videos.

Happy Reading!

About the author 

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Ram Vala

I’m the Product Manager at Tagmate. I have over 6 years of experience in SaaS and Enterprise product management and have co-founded products in the hospitality industry. I’m a certified Yoga coach and I create health and wellness content to improve the lives of the community.