Google announced a bunch of updates for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) today. They include a big improvement for the Setup Assistant, real-time behavioral modeling reports, more customization features and a new homepage design.

• Setup Assistant: Currently the user has to create a new property in GA4 for each Universal Analytics (UA) property and then configure the data collection and privacy settings. The updated version of Setup Assistant — expected early next year — will automatically do this and enable Goals and Google Ad links. 
• Behavioral modeling: This is designed to fill in the gaps in understanding customer behavior when/if cookies go away. Expected to go live soon, this feature will provide real-time info on customer behavior while respecting privacy.
• Data-driven attribution: DDA will add custom channel grouping which enables cross-channel comparisons of cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend.

Dig deeper: GA4: What marketers need to know for a successful transition

• New homepage design: This went live today. According to Google’s marketing blog, it “is personalized for customers, highlighting key top line trends, real-time behavior and their most viewed reports.” The company has also added a feature that uses machine learning “to look for trends and insights and surfaces them directly to advertisers on the home page.
• Campaign Manager 360 integration: Expected soon, this will provide marketers with a more complete picture of their advertising performance alongside web / app behavioral metrics.

And speaking of Campaign Manager, Google is delaying its phaseout until July 2024 to give enterprise customers more time to migrate to GA4. UA’s phaseout in July 2023 is unchanged.

Why we care. Google promised it would continue rolling out GA4 improvements and they are delivering. The Setup Assistant change will make life much easier for those migrating from UA. The other changes represent big adds to an already impressive product.

Getting started with Google Analytics 4

Catch up on the entire series: