5 new features coming to Google Analytics 4

Google today announced updates to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The coming months will see improved cross-channel reporting and budgeting, AI-generated insights and some integration with Chrome Privacy Sandbox.

What’s new. These are the five new features Google announced:

• Third-party ad data: Users will be able to import advertising data from Pinterest, Reddit and Snap directly into GA4. The non-Google campaign data will be included in the cross-channel performance report and mapped to Analytics traffic source dimensions with metrics like “ads cost,” “ads clicks” and “ads impressions.”
• Cross-channel budgeting: Google will also release a cross-channel budgeting feature in beta. The company says it will include a projections report to track media pacing and projected performance against a target objective, like revenue, across channels. 
• Campaign Manager 360: GA4 will start importing aggregated impressions from linked Campaign Manager 360 accounts into the advertising workspace.
• An AI to call its own: GA4 will also get an artificial intelligence engine built to find patterns in “countless combinations of dimensions and metrics” and report them in plain language. 
• Cookieless measurement: Later this year GA4 will start supporting some Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs “to ensure you can continue to reach your audiences and measure effectively even without third-party cookies.”

Why we care. The ability to add data from Pinterest, Reddit and Snap is a big step forward. Likewise, being able to budget across channels will also be helpful. 

But. There’s still no action on the one thing everyone has complained about since GA4 launched in October 2020: the UI.

What Google is saying. Steve Ganem, director of product management for Google Analytics, wrote in a blog post:

• “Measurement is essential for marketers to understand the impact of their efforts and make more informed decisions. Today, we’re highlighting new features and key investment areas to help you make better business decisions.”

Reminder. Google turns off Universal Analytics July 1. That’s when you will lose access to your UA data and the interface and Google said it will begin permanently deleting all UA data.