Here’s why you DON’T want Google doing your GA4 Migration Automatically

Google has long stated that they will be shutting off Google Analytics on July 1^st, and this policy hasn’t changed.  To get more people to migrate to GA4, Google has stated that they will automatically migrate websites from UA to GA4, and admits at the same time that these migrations may miss critical aspects of your current analytics setup.

Google stated:  

"For any customer who does not set up a GA4 property with basic settings, starting in March, we will configure one with a few basic settings consistent with the existing Universal Analytics property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags."

And while it may seem like a great idea to let Google handle the migration, we strongly urge that you do not leave your website to Google’s admittedly incomplete approach.

Specifically:

1. “A Few Basic Settings” – Google does not define what they mean by a “few basic settings” and if you are comfortable running your business with a few basic settings present – and the rest of them possibly missing - then this approach may work for you.  Are you comfortable not knowing which settings that are key to your business that Google didn’t migrate over?
   
2. “Certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags” – Google is stating that they are going to migrate whatever configurations they can to get you to GA4, - but without necessarily doing the whole job completely. Thus, Google is telling us up-front that they might miss some of your:
   
   -Conversion Events
   -Google Ads links
   -Website tags
   
3. As every business owner knows, you can’t effectively run a company if you don’t have accurate data. And in this instance Google is telling you flat-out that your data may not be accurate. One of the things that we do as a company when we migrate our clients is a 7-day, 30-day and 60-day round of data checks to make sure your data is reporting properly and makes sense.
   
4. Google support is often very lacking – unless you are signing up for a new product in which case Google will be readily available to help you help them spend your money. Anyone who has ever dealt with trying to contact Google – about a bad review, about a Google My Business question, etc., knows that it’s incredibly difficult to get in touch with support, let alone get on the phone with a human being and get your issue resolved. Do you want to have to deal with Google's support when your company's data is on the line?

Summary

Your business is too important for you to rely on Google's automated partial migration.

While you can let Google do your migration to Google Analytics 4 automatically, we strongly urge against it. If you are willing to let Google to migrate for you, however, you also must be willing to accept the fact that your business’ data may not be accurate.  And that’s not a risk we’re willing to take with our data or our clients' data.

Learn more about our Google Analytics 4 done-for-you migration services or check out our DIY GA4 migration course for small businesses and agencies. With our current special offer you can grab it for only $97. No coupon required.