User Management
Who can access your account?
view the periodic table of Google analytics 4
We're talking about account in Google Analytics today.
Category
This category is jam-packed with settings, reports, and insights within a Google Analytics account.
We talk about all things user management and other Google products related to Google Analytics.
We peek into the administrator section and learning what the settings mean.
We also check out custom dashboards that we can set up to share data with our organization. When dashboards don’t do what we need, we also have custom reports to combine many aspects of Google Analytics together.
Custom reports are a great way to get metrics and dimensions from multiple reports to show up in one place. We can export them to excel, google sheets, or even as a PDF.
Element
ACCOUNT: All that is Google Analytics is contained in an account.
The element symbol UA is a throwback to Urchin Analytics. Urchin Analytics was the company Google bought over before making it Google Analytics.
You'll receive an account in Google Analytics once you signed up. One of the first things to do is to put the tracking code onto your website so that you can send data to Google Analytics. We'll talk about other settings in detail in later videos.
I recommend having a separate account for each business unit. Avoid having multiple unrelated businesses under the same account.
It is also at the account level that you assign access to your team members, set up admin access, and more.
Skill level
Beginner. This video is a basic run-through of setting up an account in Google Analytics.
Pro tip
- Knowing your account number. It is denoted by the alphabets “UA”, dash “-“, and then followed by a series of numeric values. You can find this number by viewing the source code on your website.
- Make sure you have proper access to your account. The data in the account cannot be transferred to another account. The account houses all the history of what you've done, so don't lose it.
What’s New in Google Analytics 4?
The most important change to note when shifting between a Universal Analytics and GA4 account is the different structure. The hierarchy in GA4 is quite different, and this is important to keep in mind as you upgrade to the new platform.
In UA, you have a hierarchy of account>properties>views. Your account encompasses all of your properties, and your properties are sources of data, like your website and mobile apps. You can customize your data collection from each property using views. Often users have multiple views set up, like a raw data view and a testing view.
In GA4, the hierarchy still starts with an account, but now a single property will contain all your sources of data, including your website, iOS app, and Android app. Each of these is called a data stream in GA4. All your data streams feed into your single property, which gives you accurate reporting on your users across platforms.
If you’re making the shift to GA4, we recommend keeping your old Universal Analytics account for the time being as well. GA4 is still very new and there are lots of new features and updates rolling out each month, so using both accounts will help ensure you have the most comprehensive view of your data.
