Training your teams
Training plays a vital role towards a successful migration. Although it seems overwhelming in the beginning, a step-by-step plan can go a long way. Going through all the steps will be an extensive journey and it’s important that others come along on this journey with you.
Planning team trainings
Using a new platform can be a big shift for individual members of your team from what they are used to. This would require them to undertake different levels of training to help them utilise it to its full ability. However, keep in mind that this training should also be done little and often – no one is going to learn to use a new UI and data model overnight.
When laying out a training plan best suited for your teams, you must carefully consider
- How many individuals will be partaking in the training
- Which teams (marketing, sales, content) are these individuals part of
- If these individuals need a basic understanding or in-depth knowledge of the platform
Laying out training programs
These aspects will shape the breadth and depth of training to be given across your teams. For instance, larger teams with low dependency on GA4 will only require an overview training, incorporating the basics of GA4 and how to navigate the platform. On the other hand, those individuals looking to utilise the platform on a daily basis will require intensive training, covering a few of the key topics below:
- How to use the new UI
- The new data model
- Differences in core metric definitions
- How to use the new toys (and their benefits!)
- How, and where, to rebuild your reports
Setting up GA4 Reporting
While preparing to train your teams, it is equally important to start planning your reporting migration from Universal Analytics to GA4. Unlike UA that brought with it a treasure trove of pre-built reports, GA4 only comes with a handful of simple reports. To unlock its true power, GA4 needs a little more work.
Mapping existing set up
So, whether you’re interested in custom reports in Google Analytics, Data Studio dashboards, or third-party reports somewhere that’s using the platform’s API, all reports will need to be rebuilt to use Google Analytics 4 data. The sooner you set up your reports, the earlier you will be able to monitor and control any data issues that may arise.
It’s also worth keeping in mind where these reports should be rebuilt given the limitations and benefits of GA4, and recognising that some reports can’t just be copied over – there will be dimensions and metrics which won’t be available and there’ll be dimensions and metrics which are a lot different. Nonetheless, with the all-new GA4 interface, we see some exciting new features like Explorations taking centre stage, and some of the older ones are currently absent (e.g. Google Sheets connector).
Migrating Reporting
Understanding your existing reporting set-up will provide transparency on whether some reports are worth moving across and how they map to GA4’s new data structure. Below are a few key questions to ask at this stage that will support you in tracking and mapping all your existing reports:
- What reports exist around the business that need to be updated?
- How do Explorations work and when should you use them?
- What are the benefits and limitations of using the API vs BigQuery or Data Studio connections?
This is one big task. So to keep yourself ahead of the game, look out for a few of the key highlights and limitations of the options available to you, which you can find in our GA4 reporting blog here. This will also help you dive deeper into your data and build up your very own personalised analytics environment at the earliest..
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However, if you still haven’t switched over to GA4, the time to act is now. Although you’ve missed the June 2022 deadline to retrieve year on year data, getting your hands on a GA4 Property still gives you enough time to familiarise yourself and bring everyone in your team onboard.
If you need any help bringing your GA4 up-to-date before UA sunsets this summer, or getting your teams up to speed on how to use the new Google Analytics, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
