Evolving Attribution, from UA to GA4
Jacob Kent and Jason Katz • July 21, 2022 • MarTech & Personalization, Paid Advertising & Digital Marketing
The digital ecosystem is a thing of perpetual flux; therefore, it is not surprising that many internet conventions have become obsolete over the years. One convention that has endured is UTM parameter attribution. When it comes to understanding your organization’s online presence it is crucial to establish ways of tracking and collecting information about your audiences.
With the transition to Google Analytics 4, there are important updates that depart from Universal Analytics. Organizations are rethinking the best practices for building complete datasets that encompass their digital marketing strategies.
By properly setting up UTM attribution, businesses from startups to Fortune 500 companies are able to make business decisions about deploying substantial marketing budgets sometimes as large as hundreds of millions of dollars to maximize ROI and/or progress to each subsequent round of funding. With the stakes so high, there is little room for error and therefore it is important to understand how to instill valuable UTM parameter attribution within your organization.
Background
In April 2005, Google purchased Urchin, a software company out of San Diego, CA, for approximately $30 million (Ecommerce Times). Urchin’s claim to fame is UTM or Urchin Tracking Module, a method of tracking, collecting, and recording information regarding how internet users are navigating between digital advertising campaigns and the websites they promote.
Currently, 64.8% of all websites use web analytics software with Google Analytics being used on 55.7% of all websites. With a dominant market share of 85.9% (w3techs), UTM parameters have become the global standard for tracking digital marketing. Marketing automation companies such as Pardot, Salesforce, Mailshake, Mailchimp, Parse.ly, Autopilot, and Hubspot have built their software around UTM parameters. Ad platforms like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn have done so as well. UTM parameter attribution is firmly secured in the core of digital marketing.
UTM originally used five standard attribution parameters.
Each parameter is attached to the URL allowing for the concise and accurate transfer of data. Think of each parameter as a different train car attached to the end of a train or URL in this case. Each UTM train car carries a specific piece of information related to how a user is accessing a particular URL, website, or app. There are also Custom Dimensions in Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 which allow for custom URL parameters to be ingested alongside standard UTM parameters.
From Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4
The transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics started July 1, 2023 and is mostly completed by August 31, 2023 except for Google Universal Analytics 360 paid users. New data is no longer being captured in Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics users are now required to use Google Analytics 4 to access free analytics software offered by Google.
Along with the transition, Google has made many important updates:
1) Announced the expansion of UTM parameters to include three new parameters in Google Analytics 4.
The eight total UTM URL attribution parameters are deployed inconsistently across Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4. In Google Analytics 4, six are currently up and running. UTM Content and UTM Term were introduced many months after the initial three, while UTM Creative Form and UTM Marketing Tactics still have yet to be introduced.
2) Making UTMs scope specific, meaning that they are Session or User specific now.
A Session is a site visit with all activity included until 30 minutes of inactivity. If you visit a site, get coffee for 10 minutes, browse again, then get a salad, browse again, then go take a shower and return 35 minutes later - only after your shower does that session end.
A User is a site visitor; the User can have many sessions as long as the GA4 cookie doesn’t expire subject to browser rules so User data will be least reliable for Firefox and Safari, more reliable for Google Chrome - coincidence, I think not.
So when you try to look at UTMs in Google Analytics 4, you’ll need to choose Session-scoped UTMs in Session-scoped reports and vice versa in both preconfigured modules as well as explore module where you can build your own reports, which must be configured for Session- or User-scoped but don’t try to do both; or you can try, but hint hint, it won’t work.
This change takes a while to get used to.
3) Didn’t announce the changes to data retention, which by the way, changed from perpetuity in Universal Analytics to a 2-month default in Google Analytics 4.
There is an option to extend to 14 months buried in the settings. If you’d like to more, you’ll need to link to a Bigquery project and then use a data visualization layer like Looker Data Studio, PowerBI, or Tableau. Sound easy? Nope. The opposite. It’s powerful. But much less accessible to the average user.
What Happened?
Google is making roadmap prioritization decisions such as adding features of transmitting data streams to Big Query, which has an impact on UTM parameter handling and retention in Google Analytics 4. With many things at stake there may be complex factors affecting the building UTM parameter such as time and resources that may not be available, or are currently better spent elsewhere and on different features. With Google Analytics on nearly 60% of all websites, it is vital that Google create the best user experience while also making a product that generates revenue.
It is curious that Google Analytics 4 was built from the ground up without the complete set of announced UTM parameters that are harder to access; and it chose to introduce UTM Source Platform before others with only one default value - and can you guess which one? “Google”. Perhaps Google product managers or higher ups got tired of staring at Facebook’s platforms monopolizing UTM Source while Google was in UTM Medium in Universal Analytics.
Although some of these limitations exist currently, it does not mean that they will not be addressed by Google Analytics 4 in the future. But when will the new UTM parameters be added? When will querying UTM data become friendlier without constantly deciding between session and user scope? And when will they accept the higher data storage costs - another business Google owns - for more than 14 months of data retention and actually make it the default, the decent thing to do? Each of these questions have large implications and with so much money on the line, it is important to be able to strategically navigate web analytics with Google Analytics 4 during this period of uncertainty.
What To Do?
There are at least three main options while four of the eight UTM parameters remain unavailable in Google Analytics 4:
Option 1
Be patient, include all the attribution in the six UTM parameters Google has already made accessible in Google analytics 4. Trust that Google will eventually add the missing UTMs at which time you can create a cleaner set of distinct attribution data using the two new UTMs, maybe even more. You never know what the Google Analytics 4 Product Management team will decide.
Pros: Least resources, time, and monetary investments
Cons: Cleaner and more complete datasets start later, if at all, in Google Analytics 4; placing full trust in Google
Option 2
Regarding the missing standard parameters, you can create custom dimensions for UTM Creative Format and UTM Marketing Tactic in Google Analytics 4.
Pros: Complete UTM datasets in Google Analytics 4
Cons: More resources, time, and monetary investments; Google Analytics 4 data access limitations still exist.
Option 3
Switch from free to paid analytics software to avoid the evolving Google Analytics 4 product roadmap. Sometimes the “free” scenario does not always use the least resources when it comes to the amount of time and money invested to be able to properly use the “free” option.
Pros: More freedom and customization of data analytics; and most importantly, full data ownership.
Cons: Most resources, time, and monetary investments; time to learn new software or application; possible loss of historic data when transitioning
Conclusion
With certain UTM parameters, user/scope access, and data retention up in the air during the transition to Google Analytics 4, it is important that your organization formulate proper UTM attribution parameter conventions that are accessible throughout your tech stack to provide insight into your customer base and can be used to understand your ROI. Here at Growth Marketing Advisors we help clients navigate through these different options based on the resources available and how applicable each may be to your organization. Through understanding client goals we are able to hone in on key metrics driving your digital marketing strategies and establish enduring conventions to get the most out of the data your organization collects.