The Cookieless Era (2/4): Google Universal Analytics & GA4

What does The Cookieless Era mean for data in Google Analytics 4?

Not only are third-party cookies disappearing, but a lot has changed and become possible with the upgrade from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. In January 2022, Google analytics 4 was launched as the new environment for your data and audience insights. So in 2023, the familiar Universal Analytics goes completely off the air. This is a big change in monitoring and collecting all data through Google. But what does the arrival of The Cookieless Era and the move to the new Analytics 4 mean for your data and marketing activities?

The difference between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics

Google analytics 4 has been launched and offers new features. This version is still in beta. This means it may still contain bugs and not all options are fully available yet. Therefore, we still recommend keeping Universal Analytics alongside GA4 when viewing results. But what does GA4 bring us when it comes to data, insight and opportunities?

Google analytics 4 takes a step further into the world of machine learning. The program introduces predictive statistics. Based on these statistics, you can then start building target groups. An example of such a target group is people who are estimated to be most likely to convert, i.e. with a "probability of purchase."

Google Analytics 4 and privacy laws

Google Analytics 4 has a flexible way of measuring built in. This is because third-party cookies are being phased out by more and more platforms (See blog 1 for more on developments in laws and regulations). Although it is now still possible to collect data on the platform in GA4 through third-party cookies, we do not know how long this will be allowed as the way of data exchange with US-based third parties is under scrutiny.

In May 2022, it was determined by the Data Protection Authority that Google's IP anonymization is insufficient for data transfers between the EU and the US. This is because the data (online IDs of users) is directly sent unencrypted and captured by data centers in the US. As a result, the personal data is anonymized only after storage.

This may negatively impact traditional "anonymized" data. Because all data is first sent to Google's data centers and only anonymized there it does not comply with GDPR laws and regulations (Source: https://www.iubenda.com/blog/second-decision-of-the-austrian-dpa-on-google-analytics/) . Another reason to keep all data in-house.

What is the difference between these two types of "cookies"?

Third-party cookies are created by a party other than the domain visited. These cookies work cross-domain, measuring through on each website you visit after the cookie is set. This allows platforms such as Facebook and Google to measure your search behavior on different websites and build a profile. These profiles are the basis for audience segments that can be approached through ad campaigns and are used by the algorithms of these platforms to optimize campaigns. This allows these parties to determine that an ad may be relevant to someone based on the profile that has been built.

Awareness in society of the power of big data processors is growing, making the protection of online privacy increasingly important.
Research has shown that even 78% of consumers are concerned about protecting their privacy.

As we mentioned in the first blog, data processing laws and regulations are becoming increasingly strict. Third-party vendors such as Firefox and Safari block third-party cookies by default. (reference first blog). Because of these developments, the accuracy of data collected through third-party cookies is getting lower and lower.

The differences at a glance

Server side tagging: The latest way to measure

Server side tagging goes along with the cookieless era. Server side tagging events are measured this way directly through the server. An extra layer, entirely owned by you, is added to the website. Whereby your visitors' data does not go from the visitor to such platforms, but directly to your own server, making you the sole owner of the data and you decide what happens to it.

Besides giving you full ownership of the data, there are other advantages to server-side tagging. Because the data moves from the client-side to the server-side, you can receive data much "cleaner. For example, you can completely exclude bot and spam traffic in Google Analytics. Website speed is also improved by the extra layer. Last, but certainly not least, you can also bypass Adblockers and hold data longer (cookie extension).

To be continued...

That brings you to the end of part 2 of this blog series on The Cookieless Era. More on server side tagging in the next blog in the Cookieless Era blog series! In the meantime, would you like some more information on this topic? Then of course you can always contact us!