Digital Marketing Academy · Lesson

GA4 vs Universal Analytics

The event-based shift.

Why GA4 Replaced UA

Universal Analytics (UA) stopped processing new data on July 1, 2023. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is now the only supported version.

The shift was not a redesign. GA4 uses a completely different data model built for privacy, cross-device tracking, and a cookieless future.

Understanding the differences prevents wrong assumptions when reading reports you migrated from UA.

Sessions vs Events

UA was session-based. Everything rolled up into sessions, and hit types (pageview, event, transaction) were separate concepts.

GA4 is event-based. Every interaction is an event with parameters, including page_view itself. This unifies web and app data under one schema.

UA hit types:
  - pageview
  - event (category / action / label)
  - transaction
  - social

GA4 model:
  - everything is an event
  - page_view  -> event
  - purchase   -> event
  - scroll     -> event
  - parameters carry the detail

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