Meet the next generation of Google Analytics
As of October 14, 2020, a Google Analytics 4 property (formerly known as an "App + Web" property) is now the default when you create a new property. Universal Analytics refers to the previous generation of Analytics. This was the default property type for websites prior to October 14, 2020. Learn more.
2023 releases
- June 1, 2023
- May 17, 2023
- May 2, 2023
- April 19, 2023
- April 17, 2023
- April 12, 2023
- April 6, 2023
- April 3, 2023
- March 22, 2023
- March 16, 2023
- March 14, 2023
- March 1, 2023
- February 15, 2023
- January 30, 2023
- January 10, 2023
June 1, 2023
Introducing the Business objectives collection
The new Business objectives collection provides a tailored set of reports based on information you provide about your business when you first set up Google Analytics. The new collection provides you with reports that will help you find information that's relevant to your business goals. With this update, GA4 further aligns with Google Ads and campaign objectives.
In your report library, you can change the reports available in the Reports module, including adding topics from the Business objectives collection and removing individual reports. If you have an existing property, you can add topics from the new collection in your report library. The Life cycle collection remains available to all users. Learn more about the new collection.
May 17, 2023
Multiple improvements to the Google Analytics 4 audience builder
We've updated the audience builder to give you more flexibility and control when you create audiences. The update makes new dimensions and metrics available in the audience builder, improves options for controlling event value and event count, and adds the option to match between two dates.
New dimensions and metrics in the audience builder
You can now create audiences using new dimensions and metrics in the Google Analytics 4 audience builder. This addition closes key parity gaps with the Universal Analytics audience builder. The following dimension and metrics are new in the audience builder:
- Item-scoped dimensions
- Item ID
- Item affiliation
- Item brand
- Item category
- Item category 2
- Item category 3
- Item category 4
- Item list name
- Item name
- Item promotion ID
- Item variant
- Item-scoped ecommerce metrics
- Item revenue
- Items added to cart
- Items checked out
- Items purchased
- Items viewed in list
- Event-scoped ecommerce metrics
- Item-list click events
- Session-based metrics
- Low engagement sessions
Low engagement sessions
We introduced a new metric, low engagement sessions. Use the metric to identify users who weren't engaged with your website or app. For example, you might build an audience of users who have more than three low engagement sessions in the last five days. Once you have identified them, you can advertise to them to encourage them to return. For example, retailers might use ad copy that highlights an upcoming sale or event.
Event value can be used on its own
Previously, you could only use the event value parameter to modify a specific event, such as to find only users who have completed "event X" where the event value was greater than 50.
Now, you can use event value by itself without scoping it to a particular event. For example, you might build an audience of users who have any event with a value greater than 50.
Full set of operators for event count
We've expanded operators you can use to build audiences using the event count metric. Previously, only greater than (>), less than (<), and equals to (=) were available, and only when selecting "the most recent time period".
Now, we've introduced the full set of operators, adding the below. These are available both when selecting "at any point in time" and "most recent time period".
- Greater than or equal to (>=)
- Less than or equal to (<=)
- Not equal to (!=)
Match between dates
We have introduced a "between match types" option for dates. For example, you could build an audience of users that visited your website during Black Friday, and advertise to them leading up to Black Friday the following year. The start date and end date are included in the match, so a range of November 24 to November 26 would include the 24th, 25th, and 26th.
May 2, 2023
Funnel reports
You can now create custom funnel reports, enabling you to see the steps users take to complete a task and evaluate how many users drop off between each step. This update gives you the flexibility to create relevant funnels for your specific business purposes and reference the information in Reports. Learn more
Additionally, Google Analytics provides a new User purchase journey report. The new report shows how many users drop off between each step in your purchase funnel, from starting a new session to completing a purchase. Learn more
April 19, 2023
Enhancements to the Home page
In Google Analytics 4 properties, the Home page includes the following new enhancements:
New welcome tutorial
Google Analytics adds a short tutorial to the Home page for new Google Analytics 4 users that introduces key concepts and settings to get you started with your new property.
New banner along the top of the Home page
Editors and Administrators who advertise with Google Ads using Google Analytics data will now see a banner titled "Verify your Google Ads settings" along the top of the Home page. The banner lists the key tasks you must complete to bid against your Google Analytics 4 data. The banner goes away when you mark all the tasks as complete in Setup Assistant.
Improvements to the Suggested for you section
The "Suggested for you" section now provides you with cards that are popular across all Analytics properties (to help new Google Analytics 4 users get started) and cards that you keep returning to.
Dismiss suggestions, insights, and recommendations
If Analytics surfaces a card in the "Suggested for you" or "Insights & recommendations" section that isn't relevant to you, you can dismiss the card by clicking the thumbs down button. Based on your input, Google Analytics can better curate the Home page for you in the future.
When you click the thumbs down button, Analytics will now remove the card from your Home page and you won't see the card again for the next 30 days. Note that the card will remain in view for the remainder of your session if you don't submit the feedback form that appears after you click the feedback button, but the card will be removed in future sessions.
You can still access all insights and recommendations from the Insights Hub, including the ones you dismissed.
Open the Setup Assistant from anywhere
Google Analytics 4 properties now include an action button to the bottom right of each page. When you hover over the button, you will see the number of tasks you have marked as complete in Setup Assistant. When you click the button, Analytics opens Setup Assistant so you can continue to complete the key setup tasks.
April 17, 2023
Upgraded attribution for web conversions imported into Google Ads
Google Ads now imports fractional, cross-channel web conversion credits from Google Analytics 4 properties, leading to more accurate measurement and better optimization.
Previously, web conversions were imported from Google Analytics 4 on a cross-channel last click basis and then attributed in Google Ads based on the attribution model you selected in your Google Ads account. This means that if the last click was not from Google advertising, then no conversion was imported into Google Ads. Today, with this upgrade, fractional cross-channel conversion credit will be imported into Google Ads (even if the last non-direct click was not Google advertising). For example, if data-driven attribution is selected for an imported conversion action, then all fractional, attributed Google credits as seen in Google Analytics 4 reporting will be imported into Google Ads regardless of the last touchpoint.
Learn more about importing conversions
April 12, 2023
Conversion counting method
The new counting method setting for conversion events in Google Analytics 4 properties allows you to decide how you want to count conversions. You can choose either Once per event (recommended) or Once per session (legacy). Most users should select Once per event. Select Once per session if it’s important for your Google Analytics 4 conversion count to closely match the conversion count in the corresponding Universal Analytics property.
April 6, 2023
First-click, linear, time-decay and position-based attribution models are going away
Google Analytics will be sunsetting first-click, linear, time-decay and position-based attribution models from the attribution reports, property-level reporting-model setting, and Admin API. Starting in May, newly created properties will no longer be able to select these models. Starting in September, we will sunset these models for all other properties. Cross-channel data-driven attribution, cross-channel last click, and Ads preferred last click will continue to be available.
Rules-based attribution models assign value to each advertising touchpoint based on predefined rules. These models don’t provide the flexibility needed to adapt to evolving consumer journeys. Data-driven attribution uses advanced AI to understand the impact each touchpoint has on a conversion. That's why we made data-driven attribution the default attribution model in Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads. For these reasons, first click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models across Google Analytics 4 will be going away.
Learn more about attribution in Google Analytics 4
April 3, 2023
Modify and create events using regular expressions
Google Analytics 4 adds two new options when creating or modifying an event in Google Analytics. The new options enable you to define conversions using regular expressions (regex) for web data streams. With this update, you will now be able to migrate destination and event goals that use regex from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.
March 22, 2023
Increased Number of Properties and Sub-Properties in an Account
Google Analytics has increased the number of Properties allowed in an account from the previous default value of 100 to 2000 (learn more). This change will allow for more flexibility in organizing properties and removes the need to request an increase from support. In addition, a new limit on the number of subproperties allowed on a property was introduced (learn more). This limit is set at 400; it may be increased via a request to support. These requests will be closely scrutinized and approved on a case by case basis.
March 16, 2023
Item-scoped custom dimensions
We are excited to announce that Google Analytics will now process item-level custom parameters from the ecommerce events on your website or app, which can be registered as custom dimensions and used in explorations.
Item-scoped custom parameters let you collect more information about items on your website or app, beyond the predefined parameters offered by default. For example, you can send item-scoped custom parameters to collect information about an item's color, size, product rating, and in-stock status.
You can register up to 10 item-scoped custom parameters for standard properties and 25 for Analytics 360 properties as custom dimensions.
March 14, 2023
Happy Pi Day
Custom channel groups
Google Analytics now lets you create custom channel groups, either from scratch or by using Google’s default channel group as a starting point, so you can create and customize your own channels. Custom channel groups are available to all clients and you can use them across custom reports and explorations to see a current and historical views of your campaign channels.
You can edit the names of channels to fit your company preferences, adjust the criteria for any channel, and add or remove channels to enable broader or more specific views of your channel data.
March 1, 2023
User Access Management for Analytics Features in Google Ads
In the next few months, the Google Analytics 4 audience builder will be embedded in Google Ads to simplify Google Analytics 4 audience creation and apply them to yourGoogle Ads campaigns. To enable this feature, a new model for cross product access management is being introduced for Google Ads. This model enables a Google Analytics 4 property Admin to set the explicit permissions available to users in a linked Google Ads account. The Google Analytics admin can assign roles to the different permissions in Google Ads (e.g. Administrator, Standard, Read only). The assigned roles will determine access to Analytics features embedded into Google Ads, such as creating Analytics audiences from within Google Ads. Learn more about user access for Ads integration
February 15, 2023
Improvements for large scale data
Google Analytics introduces the following new features that enhance the reporting experience, especially for properties with large and complex data:
- Data quality icon at the individual card level: Previously, the Data quality icon appeared at the top of the Reporting snapshot report and the overview reports. However, different messages can apply to different cards. With this update, Google Analytics more precisely shows which messages apply to each card in a report.
- A new "(other)" row message in the data quality icon: The "(other)" row appears when a report is affected by cardinality limits, which results in the less common data beyond the limits grouping into an "(other)" row. In this new message, you now have several ways to reduce or eliminate these cardinality limits.
- All properties now have a one-click option to create the same report in Explore. The "(other)" row never appears in Explore because it uses raw, event-level data.
- Google Analytics 360 properties also have access to expanded data sets, allowing you to flag up to 100 reports per property as high priority. Google Analytics permanently removes the "(other)" row from the reports you've flagged.
- New sampling controls for Google Analytics 360 properties: The following new sampling controls allow you to adjust the level of precision and speed in your explorations:
- More detailed results: Uses the maximum sample size possible to provide results that are the most precise representation of the full data set
- Faster results: Uses a smaller sampling size to give faster results (option selected by default)
Learn more about these new features
January 30, 2023
Improved search for properties and accounts in Google Analytics 4
We've updated the search bar at the top of Google Analytics to allow you to find information about your current property or account, and to navigate to the other Google Analytics 4 properties you have access to.
Find data stream details
The following search terms allow you to open the details for a web or app data stream in the property you are using:
- the keyword "Tracking"
- a web stream measurement ID (i.e., "G-XXXXXXX")
- an app stream ID (i.e., "XXXXXXX")
Find the current property and account settings
The following search terms allow you to open the settings for the property you are using:
- the keyword "Property"
- the current property ID or property name
The following search terms allow you to open the settings for the account you are using:
- the keyword "Account"
- the current account ID or account name
Go to other Google Analytics 4 properties
The following search terms allow you to navigate to a different Google Analytics 4 property from the one you are using. Analytics shows you up to 7 properties that match the search query.
- the property ID or property name of the other property
- a web stream measurement ID (i.e., "G-XXXXXXX") in the other property
- an app stream ID (i.e., "XXXXXXX") in the other property
Learn more about search in Google Analytics 4
January 10, 2023
Introducing new ecommerce dimensions and metrics
Google Analytics now provides an item-scoped and event-scoped version of each ecommerce metric, enabling you to analyze information about your products or services and separately analyze important ecommerce interactions.
For example, you can now easily analyze Items purchased by item name, which shows the number of times each item was purchased. You can also now see Items purchased and purchases by country, which shows you the number of items purchased and the number of purchases for each country.
You can now find the following ecommerce dimensions and metrics in Explorations and the Data API:
- Item affiliation
- Item variant
- Items added to cart
- Items checked out
- Items clicked in list
- Items clicked in promotion
- Items viewed
- Items viewed in list
- Items viewed in promotion
- Shipping amount
- Shipping tier
- Tax amount
Analytics also renames the following metrics:
- Add to carts (previously called Add-to-carts)
- Item-list click events (previously called Item list clicks)
- Item-list view events (previously called Item list views)
- Item view events (previously called Item views)
- Items purchased (previously called Item purchase quantity)
- Promotion clicks (previously called Item promotion clicks)
- Promotion views (previously called Item promotion views)
Note: When you use an item-scoped dimension in an exploration, such as "Item ID" or "Item category", be sure to use item-scoped metrics such as “Items purchased” rather than event-scoped metrics, such as “Purchases”. The former will give you the count of items. The latter will give you a count of purchase events.