Basically Universal Analytics uses data measurement based on session and page views. A session is when a user navigates to a page in the website for a time period. Universal Analytics have different hit types such as page views, ecommerce transactions, social and events. On the other, in GA4, data measurement is based on events and its parameters. Here any interaction is considered as events.
What is an event?
An Event is an user interaction with the web page or app of a marketer. Events are used to learn the user behavior and their journey through the page or app. By tracking the traffic of the user we can enhance our business in a smart way.
Events of UA and GA4
UA uses session and pageviews for the data collection. It depends on the cookies that are stored in the browser of the user to track the user, when a session starts. Every hit made in the session is recorded and automatically collects data for pageview also.
UA allows sending four specific parameters , namely Event Category, Event Action, Event Label, Event Value along with every event hit. These parameters give additional information for analyzing the event.
GA4 does not have these parameters but you can send additional information like when, where , why and how the event is triggered and logged.
The general diagrammatic understanding of GA4 and UA
UA dimension with example
- Event category : video
- Event action : user interaction in Play the video, eg. Pause
- Event Label: title of the video eg: vlad and nikki
- Event value: videos current time in seconds when action occurred
GA4 dimension with example
- Event name: videos
- Event_action : user interaction in Play the video eg, Pause
- Event_label: : title of the video eg: vlad and nikki
- Event_value : videos current time in seconds when action occurred
In GA4 we can send 500 distinct events and each event can have upto 25 parameters.
GA4 also depends on cookies for monitoring user behavior along with google signals. These signals are Accurate in cross-device reporting and have the ability to create cross device remarketing audiences. Everything that takes place during a user’s visit in a web or an app is considered as an event.
From the google document, the following list shows the different hit types of UA and its GA4 data as events.
GA4 has 4 types of events
- Automatically collected events
- Enhanced Measurement events
- Recommended events
- Custom events
Automatically collected events
These events are automatically tracked in GA4 , when a trigger happens in the site or app. It does not need any extra coding to collect the information. Some of the automatically collected events include
- first_open – This event is triggered when the user opens an app for the first time.
- In_app_purchase– When a purchase is happening in the app, this event is triggered.
- page_view – This event is triggered when a web page loads.
- screen_view– When a change of screen view occurs, this event gets triggered.
- session_start– When a user starts a new session , this event is triggered.
Enhanced Measurement events
These events are tracked when you enable the events for measurement. Before you use this type of event measurement, you should be clear enough to know what data you are going to retrieve from that event. Some of the enhanced measurement events are
- outbound_clicks– When a user clicks the link , it takes away from the current page and this event is triggered.
- site_search– When a user performs a search for a site, this event is triggered.
- video_engagement – Videos with js api parameters are tracked as events.
- file download– When a user clicks the download link, this event gets triggered.
Recommended Events
These events help to get additional datas, for generating more clearer reports. It is purely recommended by google with its predefined name and parameters. Based on the website tracking, it recommends certain events that maybe useful
Eg: Add_to_cart, begin_checkout, add_payment _info etc.
Custom Events
Based on the requirement of your site or app, you can customize the events and its parameters to fetch information. In GA4 we can send 500 distinct events and each event can have upto 25 parameters.