Migrating to using GA4 site tracking for mozilla.org on April 2nd 2024
George Kaberere
Hi all,
What’s changing: We utilize Google Analytics to monitor how our websites are performing. Starting on April 2nd we shall transition from Google Analytics 3 (GA3) to using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to report on key metrics for mozilla.org. The key metrics that will be affected that are part of our Desktop acquisition funnel are Non Firefox Sessions and Non Firefox Downloads.
Why: This migration is not by choice. Google has a firm deadline whereupon they stop supporting GA3. Though the end of life for GA3 is scheduled for July, a key feature we rely on - Bigquery export - was scheduled to cease sometime in March. We are therefore going to start using the GA4 exports for reporting purposes beginning April 2nd.
Key differences in primary metrics you can expect to see:
We expect to see differences in the two primary metrics of interest to our desktop acquisition funnels, namely:
Non Firefox Sessions: The number of sessions from a browser other than Firefox. This will be approximately 6% higher in GA4.
Non Firefox Downloads: The number of Firefox Desktop Downloads from a browser other than Firefox.
This will range between 18% to 28% higher.
This is due to a combination of factors including: improvement in the data collection / event tracking on the website and switching from counting goal conversions to tracking the event.
We will NOT have the ability to do Year Over Year comparisons for this metric. This will be available starting October 2024.
For a full list of metric differences and additional detail see: GA3 to GA4 Observed Data Differences.
Key Looker Dashboards affected by these changes:
For a full list of where the downstream impacts show up in Looker, see GA3 to GA4 Observed Downstream Looker Impacts
If you’re on this email, it’s because we’ve included you as someone who often uses these Looker views, or who may be a downstream stakeholder getting updates from your teams using this data. Feel free to forward this email freely to any Moz colleagues who we may have missed.
A heartfelt thank you to the GA4 migration team for their tireless effort pulling at strings to make sure we understand and coordinate this change in the different systems. Thank you - Katie Windau, Ilana Segal, Marlene Hirose, Stephanie Hobson, Caitlin Cleveland, Rowan Vasquez, William Durand & Su-Young Hong.
Thanks,
GA4 Migration Team (K)
#ga4-migration-2024