If you own a Google Analytics account, you would have received an auspicious email from Google in recent weeks.

“We’ll soon configure Google Analytics 4 for you” – Okay, thanks Google… I guess?

You aren’t alone, millions of website owners have received the same email. And they are all scratching their heads and asking what Google Analytics 4 is and more importantly why they should care.

Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about the new GA4. From what it is to how it works, and even how you can set it up.

And if tech isn’t your thing, don’t worry, I will try my darndest to simplify it for you.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Very simply, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics also known as Universal Analytics (UA). If you are already scratching your head, then you should probably head on over to the Google Analytics Academy.

Google calls GA4 the “next generation of Analytics” which is both exciting and mysterious. So, without further adieu let’s dive into the mystery that is Google Analytics 4.

Tell us, Google, why GA4?

Google Analytics 4 was introduced 2.5 years ago, and according to this article it was created for two reasons:

• To better track users across multiple platforms
• And to improve user privacy in the process

Both reasons make sense.

When Universal Analytics was launched in 2005 the world wide web was a very different place than it is today. The iPhone was only released in 2007, so website traffic came predominantly from desktops.

Today, more than 58% of internet traffic is on mobile. And people are using on average 3.6 devices to access the internet. I am guessing the 0.6 would be smartwatches? *pause for applause*

The need for better multi-device tracking is definitely important, but so is privacy. Major nations like India, USA and Switzerland are all implementing strict data privacy legislation.

As The Voice of a Generation once sang “times they are a-changing”, and Google doesn’t really have a choice but to change too.

GA4 vs Universal Analytics: What is the difference?

Let’s be honest for a second; do you really care that “user acquisition” and “traffic acquisition” have been split into two different reports within GA4?

If you nodded your head like some crazy person (also known as a digital marketer), then hop on over to this article for a side-by-side comparison of all the metrics.

As a website owner, all you really want to know is whether anything changes from a tracking perspective. The answer is not really.

Google Analytics 4 tracks and reports on all the same data as it’s veteran predecessor, but just in a slightly different way.

The UI (user interface) has been updated and there a bunch of new nifty reports you can pull. For a full side-by-side comparison between the two platforms read this in-depth article from WordStream.

GA4 incorporates machine learning, or ‘AI’ as the cool kids call it these days, which helps with more accurate predictions about user behaviour and engagement. It also offers enhanced e-commerce tracking, and in some respects make it easier.

Sure, the new UI and reporting will take some time to get used to but overall GA4 feels like your friend’s more good looking, fun and ambitious younger sibling who you want to get to know.

Do you have to migrate to GA4?

Unfortunately, not migrating isn’t an option. Google announced that Universal Analytics will stop collecting data as of July 2023.

Without stating the obvious, this is bad for two reasons:

• You won’t get any insights on who is visiting your website
• Your marketing campaigns, that relied on Analtyics data, will be compromised

Google is really not giving us much of a choice here – either we move our website onto the new platform, or we lose all our tracking capabilities.

At this point you are probably asking why Google can’t just do the migration for you. I mean, afterall, their email said that they will “configure Google Analytics 4 for you”.

As much as this may seem inconvenient, Google is trying to do it’s part by auto-creating your GA4 profile. But it is still up to you to set it up and link your website.

Migrating from UA to GA4

According to Google “it takes most people 15 minutes” to migrate to GA4. Having done multiple GA4 migrations I can confidently tell you that it does not take 15 minutes.

To give you an idea, a small account tracking 3 conversion actions would take us between 2 – 3 hours to migrate.

Migrating to GA4 involves the following: setting up a data stream, creating events, migrating conversions, mapping them with Tag Manager and finally linking to Google Ads and Search Console.

If you are a marketer, or webmaster wanting to learn how to migrate your Universal Analytics account to GA4 then I would suggest these step-by-step resources:

• Google
• Neil Patel
• Bid Dynamic

If you are a business owner, then I am about to save you hours of time:

• Pay someone to do the migration for you

Don’t even try it yourself. The last thing you need is to botch the set up and be stuck with a website that is not collecting any data.

More silly questions, and shady answers

Why should I migrate to GA4?

Migrating to GA4 is essential because Google is phasing out Universal Analytics (UA) as of 01 July 2023.

Will I lose my existing data if I migrate to GA4?

No, migrating to GA4 does not mean losing your existing data. The process involves transferring your data and configurations from UA to GA4, ensuring a seamless transition and preserving your historical data.

Can I have both universal analytics and Google Analytics 4 tracking the same website?

For now, yes but after 01 July 2023 you will only need the GA4 code.

Are there any additional costs associated with setting up Google Analytics 4?

GA4 is free to use. However, if you have a large website with complex tracking requirements, then you may have to pay a professional to migrate you to GA4 properly.

How long does the migration process take?

It depends entirely on your current

How will GA4 affect my current marketing campaigns?

Once you have migrated to GA4 you will need to relink your Google Ads account in order to take advantage of the GA4 data. Other than that, GA4 provides more comprehensive data and insights, allowing you to better understand user behavior, track conversions, and optimize your marketing campaigns accordingly. By migrating to GA4, you can enhance the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and achieve better results.

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the shiny new version of Google Analytics that offers better insights and tracking capabilities. Universal Analytics (UA) is being phased out, so it’s time to migrate or risk losing valuable data.

GA4 is designed to track users across multiple platforms and prioritize user privacy, which is important in today’s changing digital landscape.

The difference between GA4 and UA may not matter to you, but rest assured that GA4 tracks all the same data, just in a slightly different way. It has a new UI, cool reports, and incorporates machine learning for more accurate predictions.

Unfortunately, not migrating isn’t an option, as UA will stop collecting data in July 2023. Migrating involves creating the GA4 property, setting up events, migrating conversions, and linking to Google Ads and Search Console.

While Google may claim it takes 15 minutes to migrate, it’s more realistic to expect a few hours of work. If you’re a marketer or webmaster, there are step-by-step resources available. But if you want to save time and ensure a smooth transition, it’s best to hire professionals like us at Launch Digital.

So, buckle up and migrate to GA4 before it’s too late. It’s free, preserves your existing data, and empowers your marketing campaigns with comprehensive insights. Don’t miss out on the future of analytics!

In this article, we will discuss the difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads (yes there is a difference). You will discover the 2 critical factors you should consider before choosing which platform is right for you. And finally, we will show you the most common mistake most businesses make when it comes to Facebook Ads.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Before we get into the differences between these platforms and how to choose which one is right for you, let’s talk about their similarities.

Google Ads and Facebook Ads are both forms of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This is where companies can create an advert but only pay when someone clicks on the advert. The amount you pay per click is determined by an algorithm unique to each platform. This means that you can control exactly how much you are willing to spend on PPC advertising.

The attractive thing about PPC advertising is that you can track exactly how many people saw and clicked on your advert. Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, when done correctly, will provide you with measurable ROI. Therefore they are very popular with small to medium size businesses on a budget!

But that is where the similarities stop.

The Only Difference, That Makes a Difference

Google Ads and Facebook Ads are vastly different in how they operate and who they are intended for. I am not going to dissect each platform, but rather I will give you the defining factor that separates them:

• Google helps customers find businesses.
• Facebook helps businesses find customers.

It’s that simple. Let’s elaborate.

Google helps customers find businesses.

Google’s objective is to help people find exactly what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible.

There are over 2.3 million searches happening on Google every minute. Using Google Ads you can target certain keywords and create an advert to appear when a search contains those keywords.

Almost instantly you can get potential customers clicking through to your website.

So if you are a plumber in Pretoria, for example, you want to be on Google Ads since there are about 1600 searches for “plumber Pretoria” a month on Google. That’s a lot of business.

Facebook helps businesses find customers.

Facebook knows you better than you know yourself. It knows everything from your age to what sports team you support. It collects behavioural data from customers and basically sells it to businesses.

Using Facebook Ads, a Business can target a specific “audience” based on their likes and behaviours.

So, for example, if you own a Mobile Dog Grooming truck in Sandton, you can create an advert that targets people on Facebook that match the following criteria:

• Behaviour: Pet Owners
• Location: Bryanston
• Age: 24 – 44
• Likes: Dogs

Yes, Facebook actually knows whether you own a pet or not. The legality of how it knows that is up for debate but it does, and you can be targeted by a business.

We use more complex targeting strategies than that, but the fact is that you can target almost anyone on Facebook.

So as you can see, Facebook and Google serve two very different purposes – do you want to target people looking for your service, or do you want to create a demand for your service? This brings me to our final point.

Two Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Google or Facebook Ads.

As with any successful marketing strategy you have to know what your objectives are and who you are marketing to. It’s no different when it comes to choosing between Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

Who is your target audience?

There is no point in spending time and money setting up Facebook Ads when your target audience is high-level executives who prefer to mountain bike while their wives use Facebook.

And there is no point in spending time and money setting up Google Ads if your target audience is 50-year-old farmers from Springbok who prefer to do business in person at trade shows.

So, really the first thing you need to do is identify who it is you are targeting, where are they spending time online, and how are they looking for services.

What is your objective?

The next thing you need to consider is what your digital marketing objectives are? Do you want instant sales? Or do you want to fill your pipeline with leads?

If your objective is direct sales, then Google Ads is your guy. In other words, if you have a product or service that people know and look for online then you can target them with Google Ads to generate almost instant sales (depending on how good your adverts and landing pages are).

By comparison, if your objective is to create brand awareness, by getting your service in front of a specific group of people, then Facebook Ads is your guy. Facebook is a great way to generate leads for your business which down the line might become customers.

For example, let’s say you own a roofing business. You can create a Facebook advert offering a “Free Leak Inspection” before the rainy season and target-rich suburbs like Hyde Park and Bryanston. You will get a ton of sign-ups – filling your pipeline with leads, i.e. prospective customers.

Avoid This Mistake.

If you have chosen Facebook Ads as your medium, the single biggest mistake you can make is trying to use Facebook to generate direct sales. Why? Because people on Facebook are not there with the intention of spending money.

The ability to be able to pinpoint a specific audience tempts businesses into creating sales-based ads. But they are wasting their time and money on people looking for updates from their friends and cute cat pictures to post on WhatsApp groups.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is impossible to sell on Facebook – you just have to go about it differently. We use Facebook to generate sales in two ways:

• Retargeting – Facebook Retargeting Ads are perfect for reaching your website visitors on Facebook. If someone viewed your products or services but did not convert on your website, then your can use Facebook Retargeting Ads to give that person a discount or perhaps some additional info to help them make the purchase.
• Brand Awareness – If you are an unknown brand, you can use Facebook Ads to promote your content (blogs, videos etc.) in order to build credibility with an audience. This strategy is not meant to generate out-and-out sales, but rather a website traffic and brand awareness. (Which you can retarget with an offer later on Facebook)

If You Just Skipped To The End of The Article

To give you the answer you would expect from a digital marketing company – it shouldn’t be a question of either or – both Facebook Ads and Google Ads should form a part of your digital marketing strategy.

Google helps customers find businesses. Facebook helps businesses find customers.

Google Ads allows you to generate almost instant leads and sales from people already looking for your service. Facebook Ads allow you to market your products and services to new audiences and build brand awareness.

Bonus tip: You should never use Facebook Ads for direct selling – instead use Facebook Ads to promote your content, in order to get your services in front of new audiences.

Getting more website traffic for free is easier than you think. And why is more website traffic so important? Because it means more leads and sales for your business.

In this article, I will show you how to get more visibility online to get more website visitors.

Disclaimer: This is a long-term strategy, that will take some time before it starts taking effect. So if you are looking for a quick fix to increase website visitors, then this article is not for you.

How to get more website traffic

I will show you a simple 3 step process to creating a Content Marketing Strategy, that if followed correctly will undoubtedly boost your website traffic. If you are willing to invest some time and implement the strategy properly and consistently, then you can say goodbye to paid advertising!

There are no complicated methods or intricate strategies involved in this process. Everything I discuss can be easily implemented by yourself. Are you ready for the 3 simple steps to getting more website visitors for free? Here they are:

1. Set up a blog
2. Create content
3. Share content

That’s it. I apologise if you were looking for something a bit more exciting or elaborate than that. But the truth is, that this is all you need. And if you implement those 3 steps, as I am about to demonstrate, then you can create a predictable traffic generating machine!

1. Set up a Blog

Before we dive into the “How To” part, let’s talk about why blogging is so important.

Let me ask you this – if you are looking for a solution to a problem, where do you go? Probably Google, or other search engines like Bing. You type your query or problem into Google, and within seconds you are provided with a million potential answers. Magic!

Those answers come in the form of blog articles and content, not created by Google, but by hundreds of thousands of people and businesses like you. Google’s one and only job is to decide which of those million answers are most relevant to your search query (here’s an article on how Google ranks websites.

People read blog articles and content to educate themselves on a certain topic, service or even company. Who better to educate potential customers on your services than you? Or would you rather let them read about it on a competitors website?

In summary, a blog will help you to do 3 things:

1. Establish yourself as an authority in the field (which means more people will want to read & share your articles)
2. Build trust with your readers (making it easier for you to convert them into leads & sales)
3. Boost your search engine rankings (badda bing, badda boom, more website traffic)

Here is a great article on how to set up a blog using WordPress.

2. Create Content

This is categorically where 99% of businesses go wrong when they want to get more website traffic.

Chances are that you already have a blog, but you are posting infrequently and even then you aren’t sure what you should be posting. The problem is not the “doing” but the “strategy”. The trick with creating good content is knowing where to start.

You should start with a content strategy. For our clients, we use a two-phased approach:

Phase 1 – Foundation Content:

Foundation content is what we use to populate empty blogs for our clients. Generally, it’s content about their business, services and products. The fastest way to come up with foundation content for your business is ‘frequently asked questions’:

1. Write down as many of the questions your clients ask about your products or services.
2. Write the answer to those questions in 500 words or more.

Voila, you have foundation content. Within no time at all, you could have 5, 10 or even 20 quality blog articles that help visitors educate themselves on your products, services or even industry.

Phase 2 – Marketing Content:

Marketing content is less about your own business and more about providing valuable insight to your readers, and helping them make a better buying decision.

1. Create a customer avatar – who is your ideal client, what’s their name, how old are they, what are their hobbies, where do they spend time online?
2. Write down their pain points – what are the problems you solve for them? I.e. what would cause someone to look for your services.
3. Brainstorm some articles & content ideas – come up with content ideas for each pain point.

Following this strategy for each of your services and buyer personas will give you a solid content strategy, with a ton of content ideas. The best part is that you will no longer be thumb sucking your content – each article you write will be relevant to a particular type of customer and the problems they have.

But, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. So, the next step would be to create a Content Calendar. Schedule 1 article or content piece per week, until you have used up all of the ideas from your brainstorming session. Set reminders in your Outlook, Apple or Gmail calendars and stick to the damn schedule!

The last thing to remember when creating content is to create valuable, share-worthy content! Do not just write articles for the sake of writing articles – this leads to poor content that no one will want to read or share. Put some effort in, do research, draw diagrams – remember you aren’t just creating content, you are creating value!

Bonus Tip: You will need to optimise each blog article for search engines once you have written it, here’s an article on how to do SEO for blogs.

In summary, the 3 golden rules for creating content are:

1. Relevancy – using this content strategy will allow you to create content that is relevant to your customers.
2. Consistency – stick to your schedule! Google loves blogs that are constantly being updated.
3. Quality – when you write an article ask yourself a) Would my customers find this article useful b) would they share it with their friends.

3. Share Content

It’s going to take a while before these articles start generating more website traffic by themselves. And speeding up this process is a catch-22 situation to be honest – because you need the traffic to get traffic. I know… but bear with me.

Using blog articles as an example; it can take months before Google starts ranking your articles. And even then, Google’s algorithm will determine how well the article will rank (i.e. whether it’s page 1 material, or page 592). So to get Google to index your article more quickly, you have to generate some traffic yourself.

Luckily, today it is very easy to get your content in front of people. Here are some tactics you can use:

1. Email – every time we write a new article, we send an email out to our database with a link. This gets us a few hundred hits on an article almost instantly.
2. Facebook – Facebook is the king of content – people are reading and sharing images, videos and articles all the time. So share your content on your company page, groups and your own personal page. Encourage people to like and share.
3. Twitter – every day there are trending tags (topics) on Twitter, if you have a piece of content that can leverage off a trending tag, then post a link and hashtag it! This does involve checking Twitter every day, but the results are worth the effort.
4. Linkedin – if you’re a B2B company, then LinkedIn is the place to be. Post your articles on your feed, company feed and on any groups, you follow. A popular form of content on LinkedIn is SlideShare – which is essentially a PowerPoint presentation.

However you choose to share your content, just make sure that you do! The goal, of course, is to get people to share your content for you. And how do you do that? By creating content that is worth sharing!

Bonus: Not-so-free website traffic

The strategy we have discussed above will increase your “organic traffic” – which is traffic from search engine results that is earned, not paid for. But if you are like me, then you want results now. Therefore you can look at driving some “paid traffic” to your website through PPC (pay per click) methods:

1. Facebook Ads – when you write a new article, post it to your company page and boost the post for a few hundred Rand. This will show your post to thousands of people within a few hours. Facebook also allows you to really pinpoint specific target audiences.
2. LinkedIn Ads – very similar to Facebook in that you can share your article with a highly targeted audience. The main difference is that LinkedIn is more suited for B2B.
3. Google Ads – drive traffic directly to landing pages on your website. A landing page is like a sales page for a specific product or service. Don’t just send people to your home page – create ads for each of your services, and link those ads to the service pages on your site.

Bonus Bonus: Paid Traffic vs Organic Traffic

Paid traffic should definitely be a part of your online marketing strategy, but it should not be the entire strategy. To produce a consistent amount of website traffic that provides consistent leads, you need a paid traffic strategy and a content marketing (free traffic) strategy. It’s important you know the benefits of both methods:

The biggest takeaway should be that a Content Marketing strategy (free traffic) will yield better, more consistent results in the long run. All the content you create (articles, infographics, videos, eBooks) will not only boost your website rankings but will build trust with your audience making it more likely that they will do business with you.