We’re not talking about a future update anymore. GA4 is now the default.
It’s what your website should be running on now, but whether it’s set up properly (or even installed at all) is a different question.
Universal Analytics is done. Switched off. Archived.
Every website that used Google Analytics was automatically moved across, and that’s where most businesses are now in 2025:
GA4 is installed, but you’re not sure if it’s set up right.
You’ve lost some of the old reports you used to check.
The whole thing feels more complicated than before.
And the big question: “Do I even need this? Does GA4 actually matter for my business?”
Fair question.
For years, most businesses barely looked at their analytics. Universal Analytics just quietly tracked stuff in the background.
But GA4 works differently. It’s not just a facelift, it’s a complete rebuild under the bonnet.
And that means if your website is part of how you sell, market, or generate leads, this isn’t something to leave running on autopilot.
In this blog, we’re going to break it all down:
What GA4 actually is
Why Google replaced Universal Analytics in the first place
What GA4 tracks differently
Whether it’s as scary or complicated as it sounds
And most importantly, whether you actually need it
Let’s keep it simple.
First Things First: What Actually Is GA4?
GA4 stands for Google Analytics 4.
If you’ve used Google Analytics before, you were using Universal Analytics (UA).
That was the old version most businesses had for years.
Google officially retired Universal Analytics back in July 2023. That means:
It no longer collects any new data.
Your old reports are frozen in time.
Everything new is being tracked (or not tracked) inside GA4.
GA4 isn’t just a rebrand, it’s an entirely new platform that tracks data in a completely different way.
So if you want to track what’s happening on your website right now, GA4 is the only game in town.
Why Did Google Change It? Wasn’t The Old One Working?
Honestly? For a while, yes.
But Universal Analytics was built for a very different internet.
It was designed nearly 20 years ago, when most people sat at a desktop, used one browser, and tracking was relatively simple.
Fast forward to now:
People move between phones, laptops, apps, smart TVs and multiple browsers daily.
Privacy laws like GDPR have changed what you can and can’t track.
Cookies (the thing UA relied on) are being phased out.
Marketers need better ways to track without breaching privacy rules.
Universal Analytics couldn’t keep up.
GA4 is Google’s answer to all of that. It’s designed for:
Event-based tracking (more on that shortly)
Cross-device measurement
Cookieless data models
Predictive modelling using machine learning
Better integrations with ads, ecommerce and CRM tools
In simple terms: it’s built for the world we live in now, not 2005.
Can’t I Just Ignore It?
No.
If you don’t have GA4 set up properly, your website is either:
Not tracking anything new.
Or it’s tracking random partial data that isn’t useful to you.
Without GA4, you’re flying blind.
You won’t know:
Where your traffic is coming from.
What pages people are visiting.
Where enquiries are generated.
What’s working (or not working) in your marketing.
How your sales pipeline is actually performing online.
Data drives decisions. Without it, you’re guessing.
Is GA4 Hard To Use?
This is where most people start to panic. And honestly? Fair enough.
GA4 looks different. It feels different. And if you’ve ever logged into it cold, you’ve probably thought:
“Where’s my bounce rate? Where’s my goals? Where’s my behaviour flow?”
The answer? They’ve all changed.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet:
Old Universal Analytics | New GA4 Equivalent |
|---|---|
Sessions | Sessions (calculated slightly differently) |
Bounce Rate | Engagement Rate |
Goals | Conversions (set up manually) |
Events | Events (now the core of GA4) |
It takes some adjustment.
But once you get your head around it (or get it set up properly), GA4 actually gives you far more useful information.
You’re not boxed into the old reports, you can build your own, track what you actually care about, and make the data work for your business.
What Does GA4 Actually Track?
Here’s where GA4 genuinely levels up.
Universal Analytics mostly cared about pageviews. GA4 is all about events. It can track things like:
Pageviews (obviously)
Scroll depth (how far people read)
Button clicks
Form submissions
File downloads
Video views
Phone number clicks
Ecommerce transactions
And any custom events you want to track
This matters because it shifts your tracking from "how many people landed here" to "what did they actually do?"
Did they fill out your form?
Did they watch your video?
Did they scroll far enough to see your pricing?
Did they click your phone number on mobile?
That’s real insight you can act on.
Is It Easy To Set Up?
Here’s where most businesses go wrong.
Yes, technically, you can click one button in Google and “set up GA4.”
But that’s the absolute bare minimum. That just gets the basic pageview data flowing.
If you want proper tracking that actually helps your sales, you’ll need:
Custom events (form fills, downloads, call clicks, etc.)
Ecommerce integrations (if applicable)
Conversion goals properly set up
Custom reports built for your team
Linking GA4 to Google Ads (critical for PPC)
CRM integrations (if applicable)
This is where a lot of businesses get stuck, and why we get called in.
Set it up right once, and you’ve got a powerful business intelligence tool.
Why GA4 Is More Than Just “Marketing Data”
This is the bit that often gets missed: GA4 isn’t just about your marketing team.
When it’s configured properly, GA4 gives your whole business better information:
Sales teams see what prospects read before they enquired.
Marketing teams focus on what’s generating qualified leads.
Directors see actual return on investment for campaigns.
Without this? You’re basing major decisions on gut feel or incomplete reports.
Can’t I Just Use My CRM or Ad Platforms Instead?
Not fully.
Google Ads shows you what happened inside Google Ads.
Facebook Ads shows you Facebook.
Your CRM shows you once someone becomes a lead.
GA4 shows you everything that happened before, during, and after they became a lead:
Where they came from
What pages they read
What actions they took
What eventually led to the enquiry
It stitches the full story together.
The Bottom Line: Yes, You Need GA4
If your business relies on:
Generating leads
Tracking enquiries
Measuring marketing performance
Making sales decisions
Understanding how people use your website
…then you need GA4. Properly set up. Not someday. Right now.
What To Do Next
At Surge, we don’t just install GA4 and walk away.
We help businesses like yours turn GA4 into something genuinely useful.
Something that helps you sell more, make smarter decisions, and properly understand what’s driving your enquiries.
That means:
Setting up GA4 properly, so you’re tracking the stuff that actually matters to your sales pipeline.
Building reports that show where your best leads come from, not just pageviews, but real buyer behaviour.
Connecting your website, ads and CRM, so you can see exactly what’s working across your full marketing funnel.
Giving you clear data you can act on, where to invest, what content’s converting, where leads are dropping off.
Because let’s face it: you don’t need another dashboard.
You need clarity.
If you want GA4 to be something that actually helps you sell more, not just sit there gathering data you never use, get in touch.
We’ll get it set up properly. And more importantly, make sure you know exactly how to use it.
Get in touch.
