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GA4’s Report Card; Consumers are Missing Universal Already
Digital marketing turned a corner in July 2023 when Universal Analytics rode into the sunset and GA4 stood up to take its place. Genius Monkey covered the major difference between UA and GA4 in in a July 2023 article. Now – after one whole year of nothing but GA4 – how does the new system hold up compared to Universal Analytics? Short answer: not great.
The internet is rife with reports of missing features, bugs, and data tracking issues that make GA4 very difficult to work with. This is on top of the fact that GA4 did not allow businesses to transfer data over from UA, so businesses need to start from scratch collecting usable information from their consumers.
Some specific reported problems:
- The free version of GA4 has data caps on large store events, which can let consumers slip through the system without leaving any data to leverage
- GA4 boasts some in-depth tracking, but users often have to click through reports within reports to find the metric they want to see; UA allowed users to build overview pages displaying selected key metrics
- Surely you can just add that metric to your dashboard for easy access, right? WRONG. You choose your “business goals” while setting up your account, and if Google doesn’t feel a certain metric doesn’t match your goals, you cannot add select reports to the dashboard.
Many of the problems have work-arounds and third-party plugins that take care of the issue – Genius Monkey users can integrate our unique view-through reporting with their GA4 suite, for example – but these problems should not exist in the first place.
A reported 14 million websites around the world use GA4, which represents about 88% of all sites that use website analytics. We can only hope that Google will take the time to restore features and stability to their widely-used (if not wildly popular) analytics platform.
Google Privacy Sandbox is Improving, but Needs Further Changes
A few months ago, IAB delivered a scathing review of Google’s privacy sandbox, calling it “simply dysfunctional” and causing quite a stir. In a rare move, Google themselves issued a statement in response and – while generally denying all the negative aspects of IAB’s controversial report – promised to improve the Sandbox experience for advertisers. Five months later, and the wider internet has its own collective opinion on the platform: still not great, but could easily get better.
The major problems with the current Sandbox can be boiled down to consumer data and Google’s position as an internet juggernaut. Despite the drama surrounding their alleged death, third-party cookies are still kicking and many advertisers are still relying on them for targeted advertising. Many testers report that the Privacy Sandbox doesn’t offer good enough alternative solutions for said advertisers, saving such information for the proprietary Google Ads Manager.
As such, Google stands to drastically increase its Ads Manager market share to nearly 83% should it decide to suddenly switch off cookies. Publishers’ revenue would drop an estimated 60%, and the entire programmatic industry would require a massive shift toward other sources of consumer data. Genius Monkey is already prepared for such a shift, but the problems don’t end there.
The Privacy Sandbox also seems to drastically increase load times and website latency. With the customer experience getting a lot worse, testers have reported significant drops in impressions and engagements.
It’s not all doom and gloom; citing improved privacy for users, a surprising success story for Yahoo, and Google’s efforts to make changes thus far, several major companies are optimistic for the future of the Sandbox. We’re still in the testing phase, and it seems advertisers will still have some time to transition before third-party cookies are completely gone.
Google’s Privacy Sandbox can certainly have a big impact on many advertisers, but it’s unlikely to fully reinvent the programmatic advertising industry. New technologies and methods are in constant development, and there’s no better way to be prepared for the future than working with a platform that ever remains on the bleeding edge of adtech.
Genius Monkey: Way More than Programmatic Ads
Sure, we’ll place your ads, but only after helping you craft a campaign designed to maximize the number and quality of leads while minimizing cost. By taking advantage of our industry-leading customer reports, you can see exactly how well your targeted ads are working for your business, and you’ll want even more.
Ready to evolve your marketing strategy to the next level? Get in touch with the Genius Monkeys today!
