Google has announced that all data from Universal Analytics (GA3) will be deleted after July 1, 2024. This means losing years of accumulated business data for many businesses.
As we approach the deadline, it is vital for businesses who used Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) in their marketing analytics toolkit to take necessary action and save historical website performance data.
Let’s review why this is important for your business and how you can safeguard your data effectively.
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Universal Analytics was a vital tool for tracking website performance, visitor behavior, and overall website performance trends until it was replaced by Google Analytics 4.
The historical data in UA is invaluable for several reasons:
Losing this data means not only losing insight into your past business performance but also losing a significant advantage in strategic planning and proof of growth for stakeholders like investors or potential M&A deals.
To avoid the irreversible loss of your valuable analytics data, it’s crucial to export and store it securely. Here are detailed steps and methods to help you do just that:
1. Export data from the UA interface. You can save your favorite reports in PDF / XLSx / CSV files directly from the Universal Analytics interface.
Pros: quick access to the data you need, the way you want to see it.
Cons:
– this way of export has a limitation of 5000 rows per report
– tedious manual work to export critical data
2.Follow these official guidelines from Google to get a raw data export to a Google Sheet file.
Pros:
– more flexibility in export parameters configuration
– access to raw data export across most important reports
Cons:
– advanced knowledge of UA parameters and metrics is required
– no data visualizations by default
1.Export to BigQuery database.
Pros:
– minimal limitations on what you can export
– access to raw data export in a structured format
Cons:
– advanced dev and data science skills required
– extra costs to support BigQuery installation and maintenance
2.Export to a Google Sheet with basic visualizations (see sample).
Pros:
– flexible parameters configurations
– access to raw data export across most important reports
– quick access to visualizations for benchmarking and executive reporting
Cons:
– advanced knowledge of UA parameters and metrics is required
Recommendation: use expert help for this method.
3.Export to interactive Looker Dashboard (raw data included).
Pros:
– quickest access to meaningful data visualizations
– access to raw data export across most important reports
Cons:
– advanced knowledge of UA parameters and metrics is required
– Looker dashboards implementation expertise is required
Recommendation: use expert help for this method.
The deletion of Universal Analytics data is a wake-up call for businesses to take their data management and preservation seriously. Don’t let your historical data be gone for good!
Act on exporting your Universal Analytics data now: use one of Rampiq’s GA3 data export solutions or get a free consult on your data export needs!
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