ARTICLE

Everything to know about Google Analytics GA4

By the BlackDog Internet Marketing team

Leisure Marketing

Image created using generative AI

Google has sunset Universal Analytics (GA3) in favor of GA4

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital analytics in tourism marketing, the transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is no longer on the horizon—it has already happened, reshaping how businesses track and analyze data. Universal Analytics (UA), the predecessor to GA4, offered an extensive data repository with indefinite data retention and a familiar user interface. However, GA4 introduces a paradigm shift, emphasizing customer privacy and cookieless tracking while presenting distinct features. Notably, GA4 retains data for only 14 months and offers a redesigned user interface.

As we explore this transition, we’ll examine how tourism brands can navigate its implications and highlight how BlackDog Advertising’s RETRIEVER/ROI® dashboard provides a comprehensive solution for managing and leveraging data in the Google Analytics era for attraction marketing.

Why embracing Google Analytics 4 is crucial for tourism marketing

For tours, attractions, and museums, data tracking is more than just analytics—it directly impacts sales and revenue. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, sales are won or lost online. BlackDog Advertising’s RETRIEVER/ROI® dashboard empowers brands with advanced data tracking and cookieless solutions, making it an invaluable tool in this new analytics landscape.

Understanding how specific tourism marketing channels and campaigns perform enables brands to make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively. Historical data is particularly crucial in tourism marketing, where seasonality and recurring events heavily influence customer behavior. With BlackDog’s RETRIEVER/ROI®, brands can track key metrics like conversion rates, traffic sources, and campaign performance while accessing a centralized dashboard that consolidates data from multiple channels into a streamlined report.

By integrating BlackDog Advertising’s industry leading RETRIEVER/ROI® dashboard, brands gain long-term data retention beyond GA4’s 14-month limit, providing critical insights into trends and seasonality. This comprehensive view allows businesses to identify patterns, optimize future tourism marketing efforts, and remain agile in response to changes in customer behavior or external market factors.

Cost-effective data backup solutions with BlackDog Advertising

In the travel industry, particularly in tourism marketing, year-over-year (YOY) data is essential for making informed decisions. The limitations of GA4’s 14-month retention period, coupled with unforeseen challenges like natural disasters or economic shifts, make robust data storage strategies crucial. Reliable data backup solutions ensure tourism brands retain access to critical historical information, allowing for meaningful comparisons and strategic adjustments even in times of uncertainty.

Here are four alternative solutions BlackDog Advertising recommends to help brands preserve their valuable data if they are not using our RETRIEVER/ROI®:

  1. Google BigQuery (paid):
    Google BigQuery offers a scalable and advanced data warehouse solution, ideal for storing and analyzing large volumes of data. This paid service allows tourism brands to securely back up historical Google Analytics data while retaining access to valuable insights for strategic decision-making. Its robust query capabilities make it a go-to option for businesses with extensive datasets looking to analyze long-term performance trends.
  2. Export important data into spreadsheets (free):
    For budget-conscious brands, exporting Google Analytics data into spreadsheets is a simple yet effective method of data preservation. By regularly exporting key metrics—such as weekly revenue and sessions by source/medium—brands can create their own organized archive. This no-cost solution ensures access to historical information, enabling meaningful YOY comparisons without relying solely on GA4’s retention capabilities.
  3. Tracking weekly revenue and sessions by source/medium:
    Tourism brands should prioritize tracking and storing essential metrics like weekly revenue and sessions by source/medium. This granular level of data aids in YOY comparisons and provides insights into tourism marketing channel performance. Analyzing these patterns helps brands fine-tune their attraction marketing strategies for optimal results during peak and off-peak seasons.
  4. Third-party data warehouses (paid):
    Third-party data warehouses provide another reliable option for safeguarding historical information. These external services specialize in secure data storage and management, ensuring that tourism brands maintain access to historical insights beyond GA4’s limitations. Many platforms also support advanced integrations, enabling seamless connections with other analytics tools.

 

BlackDog’s RETRIEVER/ROI® platform includes all of the above four items at a fraction of the cost:
At BlackDog Advertising, we developed RETRIEVER/ROI® to address the specific challenges faced by tourism brands in data retention and analytics. Unlike GA4’s limited 14-month retention period, RETRIEVER/ROI® offers unlimited data storage, preserving historical insights for at least five years. This platform integrates data from multiple sources, including CRM systems, social media, paid media, and offline conversions. Additionally, it provides:

  • Consolidated reporting dashboards to simplify complex metrics into actionable insights.
  • Year-over-year comparisons across multiple years for more informed decision-making.
  • Automated reporting to deliver customized insights directly to your inbox.

With BlackDog’s RETRIEVER/ROI®, tourism brands can confidently navigate GA4’s limitations while accessing long-term, data-driven insights to enhance their attraction marketing strategies

Setting up GA4 for conversion tracking success

Ensuring the correct setup of Google Analytics 4 is essential, particularly for conversion tracking. Although the transition to GA4 has already occurred, proper configuration remains crucial for maximizing its potential. While GA4 offers a built-in setup checklist, BlackDog Advertising provides additional strategies to enhance your analytics setup and support your attraction marketing efforts:

  • Compare your revenue
    GA4’s conversion tracking can sometimes yield discrepancies, so it’s important to validate accuracy. Compare revenue data from GA4 with your point-of-sale (POS) system and historical Universal Analytics (UA) reports to ensure consistency and identify any tracking gaps.
  • Verify traffic consistency
    Check GA4 traffic data against benchmarks established in UA. If significant differences arise, investigate potential causes and adjust settings accordingly to maintain reliable insights.
  • Address “not set” data issues
    Encountering “(not set)” in your GA4 reports is common. Utilize Google’s support resources or contact BlackDog Advertising to troubleshoot and resolve these data gaps effectively.
  • Ensure conversion tracking across ad platforms
    After setting up GA4, ensure that all your conversion tracking in Google Ads and other advertising platforms is still firing correctly to maintain accurate performance data.
  • Set data retention to 14 months
    In GA4 settings, make sure you select a data retention period of 14 months. The default setting may be much less, so it’s crucial to review and adjust this setting for adequate historical data storage.
  • Customize your reports
    If you don’t see your favorite report from Universal Analytics in GA4, don’t worry! Take advantage of GA4’s flexibility by setting up custom reports that cater to your specific analytics needs.

By following BlackDog Advertising’s tips, tourism brands can ensure a smooth and accurate transition to GA4, making the most out of this powerful analytics platform to drive informed decision-making and attraction marketing strategies.

Harness data-driven attraction marketing with BlackDog Advertising

The transition to Google Analytics 4 brought significant changes, but BlackDog Advertising ensures tourism brands are well-equipped to adapt. Our proprietary RETRIEVER/ROI® platform provides unmatched tools to address GA4’s limitations, offering advanced tracking, comprehensive data integration, and long-term storage to secure valuable insights. By partnering with BlackDog Advertising and utilizing RETRIEVER/ROI®, tourism brands can confidently harness the full potential of data-driven attraction marketing, transforming analytics into actionable results that drive growth and success.

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