Since Google Universal Analytics (UA) transitioned into Google Analytics 4 (GA4), publishers have run into head-scratching issues: metrics have changed or disappeared, reports don’t look the same, and pageviews and users have inexplicably decreased.
To save confusion, we’re breaking down the answers to a few commonly asked questions about the analytics platform by publishers:
What are GA4 metrics?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) metrics are quantitative measurements that provide insights into the performance of your website or app. These metrics encompass various aspects such as averages, ratios, percentages, and more.
Here are definitions of some of the most common GA4 metrics:
- Sessions: The number of sessions that have started on your website or application. A session starts when a user opens your website on any device, and ends after 30 minutes of user inactivity. During an active session, users can open and close your website within their browser tabs. However, if there have been 30 minutes since they’ve engaged with your website, a new session will start. Also, if they visit your website on a different device it will get counted as a separate session. Therefore, there may be more sessions than users.
- Bounce rate: The percentage of sessions that were not engaged, meaning a user stayed on the website for less than 10 seconds, did not trigger a key event (that you have previously defined), or has less than 2 pageviews or screen views.
- New users: The number of first-time visitors.
- Average engagement time: How long users actively interact with your website or app while it’s in primary focus on their browser.
These, among other metrics, are essential for understanding user behavior, identifying trends, and optimizing your online presence effectively.
What is the difference between metrics and dimensions in GA4?
Metrics alone don’t paint the full picture. Understanding dimensions is equally vital. Together, metrics and dimensions form the cornerstone of insightful analytics reports and explorations, empowering publishers to make informed decisions and enhance their online presence effectively.
In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), metrics and dimensions serve distinct purposes:
GA4 metrics
- Metrics are quantitative measurements that represent specific data points or values.
- They provide information about the performance or outcome of user interactions on your website or app.
- These are usually numbers that can be combined to offer statistical analysis.
- Metrics help you understand the quantitative aspects of user behavior and website/app performance.
GA4 dimensions
- Dimensions are qualitative attributes or characteristics of your data.
- They provide context to your metrics by organizing and categorizing your data based on different criteria.
- They describe the various aspects of user behavior, demographics, interactions, and other properties.
- Examples of dimensions in GA4 include user geographic location, device type, traffic source, page title, and event name.
- Dimensions allow you to segment and filter your data, enabling you to analyze and understand your audience and their interactions in more detail.
In summary, metrics provide quantitative measurements of user behavior and performance, while dimensions offer qualitative context and organization to the data by describing different attributes and characteristics.
What happened to Unique Pageviews?
GA4 got rid of Unique Pageviews, a common metric in Universal Analytics. Unfortunately, there isn’t an exact substitute.
Let’s say within one session (all in the same visit), I clicked to view a specific article about the city council two times and I clicked to view the About page three times. Under UA, the overall Pageviews would be five, but the Unique Pageviews would just be two, one unique pageview for each page.
In GA4, neither Users nor Sessions truly captures the same thing as unique pageviews. The Session count would be one, since this occurred all in the same visit. The User count would also be one, since I’m one person.
| Metric | Universal Analytics | Google Analytics 4 |
| Pageviews (UA)Views (GA4) | 5 | 5 |
| Unique pageviews | 2 | No longer reported |
| Users | 1 | 1 |
| Sessions | 1 | 1 |
It’s best to think about what you’re really looking for. Overall Pageviews is still a valuable metric; it’s important to see which articles are getting more play, even when it’s the same person returning multiple times. If you just want to know how many people saw the page, looking at Users is your best bet.
How do I dive deeper into acquisition?
The interface was a bit more user-friendly in UA, where you could easily click on a default channel group to see more details. Never fear, there’s a workaround in GA4.
From the homepage, navigate to the left menu and click Reports → Acquisition → either User Acquisition or Traffic Acquisition, depending on if you’re interested in looking at Users or Sessions.
Let’s say you wanted to see the top articles that came from Organic Search. First, add a new column for the article URLs. Click the blue plus sign and add “Page Path and Screen Class.”
Next, filter down just to Organic Search. Click the Search bar at the top and type in “Organic Search.”
Hooray! Now we know that, when people find the Indiegraf site through search, they most commonly click to view our homepage and About Us page.
You could also search by the article. By typing in the URL to our guide to how publishers can respond to Bill C-18, I learned that the majority of folks came in through email.
If you want even more granular data, click the gray downwards arrow next to “Session default channel group.” You can change the column to Session Source / Medium to drill down on the exact referral platforms (Google, Facebook, Flipboard, etc.)
Why is my performance lower in Google Analytics 4 compared to Universal Analytics?
If you are in the process of setting up Google Analytics 4, it is important to keep in mind that the measurements of some GA4 metrics may differ from those in Universal Analytics. Google doesn’t encourage comparing numbers between the two. Even though both properties serve the same purpose, it is best to treat them as separate entities that should not be directly compared.
One example of this is Users: In UA, the default Users metric shown on the homepage is Total Users. In GA4, the default Users is actually Active Users, or number of users who have an engaged session. By glancing at the homepage, it may appear like your number of Users have gone down, but it’s just the difference in calculation.
Across the board, GA4 identifies and filters out bot traffic much better — which causes lower numbers — but you’ll get a more accurate snapshot of the number of real humans reading your work.
Still have questions?
Our team of audience strategists can help you demystify Google Analytics. Book a meeting with us to see how we can help.
