22 March 2022

Universal Analytics sunset date confirmed and GA4 migration

Sunset

If you’ve recently logged into your Universal Analytics property you may have noticed a new UI notification appear at the top of your reports which looks something like this:

Standard Properties Message: Sunset date: 1st July 2023

GA - UA Sunset message

360 Properties Message: Sunset date: 1st October 2023

GA360 Sunset message

Back on the 15th of October 2020 Google officially launched Google Analytics 4. Since that time, Google has been busy moving GA4 closer toward full feature parity with Universal Analytics and in some instances exceeding the previous products capabilities.

For some time now, we at Louder have been advising clients to adopt Google Analytics 4 by way of dual tagging (Universal Analytics + GA4 data collection) to stay ahead of the curve.

Since Google Analytics 4 has a completely new data structure, database schema, reporting UI and set of metrics, this means that there is no direct upgrade path from Universal Analytics → GA4. Rather you must migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Our experience to date is that migration can be quite an involved process which will require some considered planning and depending on the size and complexity of your existing implementation and integrations with other 3rd party platforms, moving across may be a multi quarter project. Therefore we highly recommend starting on your Google Analytics 4 adoption journey as soon as possible.

As certified Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager partners, Louder is in a unique position to be able to help your business navigate the shifting measurement landscape. Therefore If you’d like further information, help or advice around the migration process, please reach out to our team.

Google Official Blog Post on Universal Analytics sunset.

What to expect from the Universal Analytics sunset.

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About Gavin Doolan

Gavin specialises in web analytics technology and integration. In his spare time, he enjoys restoring vintage cars, gardening, spending time with the family and walking his dog, Datsun.