Migrating things from UA to GA4
This page is a work in progress.
Reports and dashboards using Universal Analytics (UA) data will have to be migrated to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data if they are to remain functional.
Migrating a Looker Studio report
High level steps:
- Make a copy of the report being migrated, or export a PDF/other copy so that you have a reference. If you want to maintain the report URL you will want to edit the original to use GA4 data, but it is helpful to have a copy or reference so that you know what all the tables contained and what filters were used
- In the report you want to migrate to GA4, add the GA4 data source. This can be done using the default Google Analytics connector (in the menu, following ‘Resource’ > ‘Manage added data sources’ > ‘Add a data source’ > ‘Google Analytics’), and selecting the correct GA account and GA4 dataset
- Switch your tables and visualisations to use the newly added GA4 data source. When you do this your tables will break or start to show information very different to what they originally displayed
- Go through each table and chart and switch the dimensions and metrics to the correct GA4 equivalent. In some cases these will be very similar (have the same name etc) to the previous UA dimensions and metrics, but in some cases you will need to find an alternative metric as not all the same dimensions and metrics exist in UA and GA4. You may also need to familiarise yourself with the GOV.UK GA4 data structure if you are interested in specific events
- Test and check the report. Comparing it to the UA version can be interesting but in many places the numbers will be quite different, so you should not expect the GA4 and UA versions to look the same in all places
UA to GA4 dimension and metric exchange
An incomplete list of some commonly used dimensions and metrics in UA and what their GA4 equivalent might be:
| Field in UA | Field in GA4 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Previous page path | Page referrer | These two dimensions are technically quite different |
| Event Category | - | Event Category no longer exists |
| Event Action | - | Event Action no longer exists |
| Event Label | - | Event Label no longer exists |
| Pageviews | Views | The ‘Views’ metric in GA4 would also cover screen views if we were collecting app data into the property. You can also get the total page views number if you use the ‘Event count’ metric and filter to the event name ‘page_view’ |
| Unique pageviews | Sessions, when used against a page dimension | There is no ‘Unique pageviews’ metric in GA4. The closest equivalent if you are trying to get a figure for the number of sessions in which a user viewed a page is ‘Sessions’ |
| Total Events | Event count | |
| Unique Events | - | |
| Sessions | Sessions | The total number of sessions in GA4 will be equivalent (though different) to the total number of sessions in UA |
| Users | Total users | |
| Time on Page | User engagement | These two metrics are collected/calculated in quite different ways |
This page was last reviewed on 16 May 2024.
It needs to be reviewed again on 16 November 2024
.
This page was set to be reviewed before 16 November 2024.
This might mean the content is out of date.