The Beauty (and Complications) of GA4 Audiences
+ Single-Count Sessions Conversions (if You Want)
Welcome to Part I of Edition No. 51 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Contents
Tip: Single-Count Sessions Conversions (if You Want)
Analysis: GA4 Audiences You Should Use (and Why)
Tip: Single-Count Conversion Sessions (if You Want)
When Google Analytics 4 launched, there was no limit to the number of times in a given session a user could “convert” on any particular event.
As of Wednesday, that’s no longer the case.
You now have two counting method options for GA4 conversions: Once per event (recommended by Google) and Once per session (the “new” addition, which is how things were done in Universal Analytics).
From Google:
Once per event: This setting means that Google Analytics 4 properties count an event as a conversion every time it occurs.
Example: A user completes 5 conversions in one session. This setting counts 5 conversions.
This option is recommended because it reflects the behavior of users on your site or app, and allows you to distinguish between sessions where multiple conversions occurred and sessions where only one conversion occurred.
Once per session: This setting means that Google Analytics 4 properties count an event as a conversion only once it occurs within a particular session.
Example A user completes 5 conversions in one session. This setting counts 1 conversion.
Once per session is how Universal Analytics properties count goals. Select this option if it’s important for your GA4 conversion count to closely match your UA conversion count. Otherwise, select Once per event.
So how do you change this?
Go to Admin
Click Conversions in the Property column
Click the three vertical dots next to the conversion event you want to adjust
Click Change counting method
Choose your preferred option and click the blue Save button
You probably want to use the recommended “Once per event” unless you have a good use case.
Did you find this tip useful? Share it to help spread the word.
Analysis: GA4 Audiences You Should Use (and Why)
I recently wrote a blog post on audiences in Google Analytics 4. It provides a detailed overview of what audiences are in GA4, and how they differ from those in Universal Analytics.
Here, I want to expand on one particular section – GA4 audience examples – and give more details and ideas that I hope you’ll find useful as you build out your dashboard.
I’m going to particularly focus on audience ideas for news and content marketing websites, and less on what Google tends to focus on in its documentation: e-commerce and gaming sites.
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