Understanding how users engage with your website or app is everything. It’s the key to uncovering hidden opportunities, fine-tuning content, and fuelling smart optimisation. While Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has become a fundamental tool in the digital analytics landscape, the real value lies not in what it is, but how you leverage its power to drive tangible results.
Our Head of UXC, Amy Cheng, has distilled years of expertise into a comprehensive eBook, Unlocking GA4: The Future of Data-Driven Optimisation. In it, she shares actionable strategies for digging deeper into user behaviour, boosting website performance, and making smarter decisions through rigorous testing.
The Big Takeaways
If you’re short on time, here’s the essence of how we leverage GA4:
- Events over Sessions: We use GA4’s event-driven tracking for a deeper, more actionable understanding of user behaviour.
- Cross-Platform Unity: GA4 enables us to unify data across web and app for a truly holistic customer view.
- Predictive Power: We harness built-in machine learning to forecast user actions, informing proactive optimisation strategies.
- Precision A/B Testing: GA4 improves our ability to validate hypotheses with precise, event-based data.
- Granular Data Segmentation: We use segmentation to unlock personalisation opportunities and drive significant performance gains.
- Privacy-First Approach: GA4’s controls help us ensure data collection is compliant and respectful.
How GA4 Fuels True Optimisation
GA4 isn’t just a newer version of analytics; it’s a fundamental shift in how we understand user journeys. While its predecessor, Universal Analytics, focused on sessions, GA4 tracks every interaction as an event. This event-driven model provides a granular, action-focused view of how users interact with digital platforms, so it’s about understanding the full user journey, from their first tap to their last click.
This is why GA4 is our go-to for modern data analysis and optimisation:
- Event-Driven Insights: Every interaction, click, scroll, download, and form submission is captured as a standalone event. This shift enables us to gain far deeper insight into exactly what users are doing and precisely where they might drop off in a critical path.
- Unified Cross-Platform View: We know users rarely stick to one device. GA4 seamlessly stitches together activity across web and app experiences, offering a unified view of customer behaviour. This means we can analyse the complete journey, no matter where it starts or ends.
- Actionable Predictive Analytics: Thanks to built-in machine learning, GA4 can forecast future user actions, such as their likelihood to purchase or churn. This is data-backed foresight, a digital crystal ball, if you will, that helps us proactively plan optimisation strategies.
- Privacy-First Framework: With the evolution of data privacy laws, such as GDPR and CCPA, GA4 offers robust tools for managing data collection and retention. This ensures we help our clients stay compliant and respectful of user consent, building trust with their audience.
Our Approach to A/B Testing with GA4
Having data is one thing; knowing how to use it to drive improvements is another. At Yoghurt Digital, A/B testing is a cornerstone of our optimisation philosophy, and GA4 helps us execute these tests smartly by connecting user behaviour with real-time performance metrics.
What is A/B Testing? It’s a head-to-head match between two ideas: Version A (your existing design) vs. Version B (your proposed change). We tweak one element, perhaps a headline, an image, or a call-to-action, run both versions simultaneously, and rigorously analyse which performs better.
GA4’s event-based data model makes this process smoother and more powerful, allowing us to:
- Track Micro-Interactions: We can monitor detailed actions like clicks, hovers, and scroll depth, providing deeper context than just page views.
- Define Custom Conversion Events: We set up specific events tied directly to business goals, ensuring our testing is always focused on measurable outcomes.
- Integrate Seamlessly: We integrate GA4 with leading experimentation tools like Google Optimise or Firebase, creating a fluid environment for running and analysing tests.
With GA4, our A/B tests go beyond cosmetic changes. We uncover precise patterns in user engagement, segment audiences to understand nuances, and leverage data segmentation to craft hyper-targeted hypotheses. In true Yoghurt Digital fashion, we make sure every test is driven by data, not just intuition.
A Case Study to Unpack User Behaviour
To illustrate the power of combining GA4 with A/B testing, let’s look at a real-world example from our work with a client we’ll call “Apparel Online.”
The Challenge: Apparel Online was struggling with a low add-to-cart rate on their product pages. We hypothesised that a product page redesign could potentially lead to increased conversions.
Our A/B Test Setup: To validate this, we conducted an A/B test using VWO with a crucial GA4 integration to gather a better level of data. We supported Apparel Online in designing two distinct product page versions:
- Version A (Existing): Featured a sizable product image, a comprehensive product description, and the “Add to Cart” button at the bottom of the page.
- Version B (New Layout): Introduced multiple smaller product images, a more concise product description, and a prominently positioned “Add to Cart” button at the top of the page.
The Initial Analysis, A Puzzling Result
After several weeks, our examination of the “Add to Cart” events showed a clear difference: Version B exhibited a substantial increase in “Add to Cart” button clicks, surpassing Version A by over 100%.
However, the analysis revealed a contrasting scenario when it came to revenue generated. Despite its higher “Add to Cart” engagement, Version B yielded significantly less revenue compared to the original Version A, with a decrease exceeding 20%.
This presented Apparel Online with a challenging situation: how could they justify implementing a design that generated more clicks but less revenue? In search of further insights, we leveraged GA4’s powerful capabilities to delve deeper.
Our Deeper Dive with GA4, Uncovering “Why”
Using GA4’s event-driven data and segmentation capabilities, we moved beyond surface-level metrics. We analysed the full user journey after the “Add to Cart” click for both versions. Our GA4 funnel reports revealed that while Version B had a higher initial add-to-cart rate, a significant portion of those users were dropping off during the subsequent checkout process.
Furthermore, GA4’s segmentation allowed us to break down user behaviour by demographics and device. We found that Version B, with its streamlined design and top-positioned button, was particularly effective in encouraging younger users and mobile users to click “Add to Cart.” However, these specific segments also encountered friction points later in the purchase funnel for Version B, leading to a drop in overall revenue.
Next Steps and Recommendations, Driven by GA4 Insights
The findings from our GA4 analysis provided crucial information that guided the next steps in Apparel Online’s optimisation strategy. We provided specific, data-backed recommendations:
- Revisit the Checkout Process:
- The consistent drop-off rates during the cart-to-checkout transition across both variations indicated a common friction point that affected user conversion. Our GA4 insights highlighted this universal challenge.
- Action: We recommended conducting usability testing and collecting user feedback to identify the specific barriers users encountered during checkout. Addressing these pain points, informed by GA4’s funnel analysis, would likely have a more substantial impact on revenue generation than solely focusing on the “Add to Cart” stage.
- Create Segment-Specific Personalised Experiences:
- Given that our GA4 analysis showed Version B attracted more younger users and performed exceptionally well on mobile devices, we advised Apparel Online to tailor the checkout process to better cater to these segments.
- Action: Personalised design improvements were implemented to ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience across different devices and browsers, providing assurance propositions that were more relevant to specific audience groups:
- For Desktop (emphasising trust): Prominently display security certifications (SSL certificates, security badges) near the checkout CTA. This assures users that their payment information will be handled securely. We also suggested providing detailed product information (reviews, ratings, specifications) in close proximity to the “Proceed to Checkout” button, leveraging the larger screen real estate for informed decision-making.
- For Mobile (emphasising ease): Design the “Proceed to Checkout” button to be easily tappable and located in a prominent, thumb-friendly position. We also recommended highlighting mobile-friendly payment options, such as digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), to enable users to complete transactions with fewer steps and clicks.
This case study exemplifies how GA4 provides the granular insights needed to identify complex problems and formulate highly targeted, practical solutions.
Optimising Website Performance with Confidence
All of this comes back to a single goal: optimisation. Whether you’re aiming to reduce bounce rates, improve checkout flow, or increase engagement, GA4 is our essential toolkit for achieving significant performance gains for our clients.
Here’s how we help businesses get started and continuously improve:
- Mapping Core User Journeys: We work with clients to identify key touchpoints and potential friction points within their user paths.
- Defining Business-Centric Conversions: We move beyond generic metrics to define conversion events that directly reflect our clients’ business goals.
- Segmenting for Deeper Understanding: We segment audiences and analyse performance by cohort, uncovering trends invisible in aggregated data.
- Validating Improvements with A/B Tests: We run rigorous A/B tests to validate our hypotheses and make sure recommended improvements drive real results.
- Leveraging Predictive Insights: We use GA4’s predictive capabilities to plan the next strategic moves, staying ahead of user behaviour.
With GA4, we equip our clients to test, track, and tweak their website with absolute confidence.
Let’s Put GA4 to Work
At Yoghurt Digital, we live and breathe data. Whether you want to boost website performance or explore predictive analytics, we’re here to guide the way.
Download the eBook. It’s packed with charts, tips, templates and real-world examples to help you level up your data game.Want to speak to Amy or the team about your analytics setup? Contact us, and let’s chat.