We’ve been using GA4 for our clients for nearly a month now and have noticed how its wealth of information is enhancing our customer tracking experience and changing the way we view PPC. So we wanted to share some of our tips and tricks because y’know we’re nice like that.
3 Key Benefits of GA4
GA4 brings a host of benefits that will supercharge your PPC campaigns. It can tell you exactly how a customer comes to purchase from your site, which device they used and how long it took them to make the decision.
Enhanced Measurement Reporting
Previously, Google Analytics would only track page views by default meaning you would miss out on how people were interacting with your site. With GA4, you can get more right out of the box. Enhanced measurements are a collection of features that allow you to track more events automatically. This includes:
- Outbound link clicks
- Interactions with YouTube video plays
- File downloads
- Site search
With the ability to track more from the offset, there are loads more that can be imported into your Google Ads account as micro-conversions, providing insight into how your ads’ audiences are interacting with your site. This then gives you greater insight into where your ads need to change to help your business grow. Helpful, right?
Cross-Device Insights
With GA4, we can seamlessly track user interactions across devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. This cross-device tracking capability gives us a holistic view of your customer's journey, ensuring we optimise your PPC campaigns for each device and deliver a consistent and personalised experience.
Enhanced conversion tracking is an additional feature that can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurements and unlock more powerful bidding. It sends hashed first-party conversion data to Google in a privacy-safe way. Essentially, we’re using customer data to track them across different browsers that we couldn’t previously track - such as Safari or Firefox. With enhanced conversions, you can recover conversion data that wouldn’t have been measured and improve bidding optimisation through better data collection whilst respecting a customer’s privacy.
AI-Driven Insights
Google’s AI uses machine learning and conditions set up by you to help you understand your data and how to act on it. GA4 provides two different types of insights:
- Automated Insights
- Custom Insights
With automated insights, Google detects unusual changes or trends emerging in your data and notifies you within the insights dashboard. This can be things like a spike in the source of traffic, location or which channel was driving the most conversions.
On the other hand, custom insights are conditions created by you which will trigger when certain changes are detected in your data. You can create 50 custom insights per property and be notified of things such as when you reach a certain number of conversions within the hour or when user numbers have decreased by a certain percentage.
With better-defined insights into your data, you can save time and improve campaign performance with your PPC account which could help your business grow and keep you ahead of the competition.
3 Key Changes between UA and GA4
Change can be scary but it can also be a good thing, especially when it comes to GA4 and your PPC campaigns. We’ve put together some of the biggest changes we’ve noticed since using GA4.
Event-based Tracking
GA4 shifts from traditional pageview-based tracking to event-based tracking. This means we can track specific user actions like clicks, form submissions, video views, and more. This level of granular tracking allows us to understand user engagement and optimise your PPC campaigns based on meaningful interactions.
The more conversion data you have in your Google Ads account means more audience signals for Google’s machine learning to work with. It can make your account more profitable, give you better insight into your customer base and help make important decisions and improvements within your account.
Streamlined Reporting
GA4 introduces a new reporting interface that simplifies data visualisation and analysis. You have access to clear and intuitive reports, enabling us to identify the performance of your PPC campaigns, uncover valuable insights, and make data-driven decisions to drive better results.
It’s easier than ever to see how PPC is working alongside other channels. With GA4’s new reporting options, you can make changes in your account and see the effects that they have on the wider business. They’re fully customisable, which means if there’s something that you want to see then you’ll be able to see it in GA4.
Define Custom Audience Segments
Using GA4’s event-based tracking, it’s now easier than ever to define your custom audience segments. Building a strong remarketing list is a necessity for today's advertisers and it's made even easier with how GA4 collects data. Setting up remarketing audiences in universal analytics (UA) was useful but it didn’t allow you to get super specific with the people you wanted to segment. With GA4, custom audiences can be as specific or as broad as you need them to be. For example, if you wanted to look at people who have spent more than £100 more than once over the past 3 months, you could.
Remarketing is a great way to make sure your company stays at the forefront of a customer’s mind and GA4’s new approach to audience set-up can definitely help you do that.
So, What About PPC?
This all sounds great, but what does it actually mean for your PPC strategy?
Informed Budget Allocation
Accurate data from GA4 helps us understand which channels, keywords and campaigns are driving the most conversions. With this knowledge, we can allocate your PPC budget more effectively, focusing on the areas that deliver the highest ROI and eliminate wasteful spending.
Optimised Campaign Performance
Accurate data enables us to identify underperforming PPC campaigns or ad variations. By using GA4 insights, we can make data-driven optimisations, such as adjusting ad messaging, refining targeting parameters, or modifying landing pages. These optimisations could lead to improved campaign performance, lower cost per click, and higher conversion rates.
Google Analytics 4 is a game changer for PPC tracking and optimisation. By harnessing its advanced features, we can unlock valuable insights, fine-tune your PPC campaigns and drive tangible business results. Embracing accurate data and leveraging GA4 will set you on the path to PPC success.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about how GA4 can elevate your PPC efforts, feel free to give us a shout! We’re here to help you stay ahead of the curve. We want to hear about your PPC goals so why not book a call with our experts?
