GA4 Users Defined: Active Users vs. Total Users vs. New Users and Returning Users

Updated: 12/6/24 Users are unique individuals who are doing things on your website or app. In this article, we’ll define GA4 users and demystify Active Users vs. Total Users vs. New Users vs. Returning Users.

We’ll also show how to build an audience of returning users. There’s also a handy 1-page PDF with all of the consolidated information on all the user groups.

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Regex for GA (For Dummies)

Are you an absolute wizard with regular expressions in GA4? If so, this blog is almost certainly not for you. If, however, you are are new to regex and / or GA4, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the  (hopefully) practical guide to regex for GA4. We’ll learn about some regex basics and review 4 specific ways we can use regular expressions in Google Analytics 4.

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GA4 Engagement Rate Explained

Updated: 11/8/23 The GA4 engagement rate metric is a helpful way to measure your site’s traffic quality. But what is it, exactly?
To understand engagement rate, we also need to understand what makes an engaged session and how it’s related to bounce rate. The good news is we can do all these things. So, let’s go do it!

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GA4 vs Universal Analytics – 2023 Update

UPDATED: 8/22/23 It’s 2023 and there are big changes in the world of digital analytics. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is replacing Universal Analytics (UA or GA3). Google has stopped processing new hits in Universal Analytics properties beginning on July 1, 2023. Some of us are excited and some are lamenting the end of UA, but it is a major impact for all.

So let’s dig in and explore the most important differences of GA4 vs. Universal Analytics.

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Google Analytics Conversion Tracking in GA4

Google Analytics conversion tracking is different in GA4 compared to Universal Analytics. In many ways, the process of setting up conversions is actually far simpler in the new version of Google Analytics. Let’s check it out in this guide.

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Google Analytics Tutorial For Beginners

Are you ready to learn about Google Analytics 4? This 1 hour Google Analytics tutorial for beginners will get you going with understanding theory and putting that into action.

Let’s do it!

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GA4 Account Hierarchy

The Google Analytics account structure is much different in GA4 compared to UA. The Account -> Property -> View arrangement of Universal Analytics is gone. We now have Account -> Property -> Data Stream in the GA4 account hierarchy.

But Data Streams don’t function anything like Views did. Let’s learn how it all works.

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GA4 Subdomain Tracking Explained

GA subdomain tracking works very differently than cross subdomain tracking in Universal Analytics. The good news is that tracking across subdomains is one of the places where GA4 has a big advantage over UA.

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Google Analytics Definitions: GA4 Defined in 2024

[Updated 3/22/24] There is a lot going on with Google Analytics. This is even more true with GA4 which introduces some new terms. So let’s jump in to this list of Google Analytics definitions and get rolling!

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CSS Selectors in GTM and Element Visibility Trigger

Updated 11/21/24 – It’s possible to create Google Analytics event data based on what is visible on the screen. We can do that with the element visibility trigger in GTM. And to use element visibility, we also need to know how to use CSS Selectors. This is a non technical guide about CSS Selectors and the element visibility trigger for any non-developers out there. 

There’s also a bonus resource at the end of this guide if you want to see another handy application for CSS Selectors in Google Tag Manager.

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