Google Analytics (GA4) - Disclaimer

In July of 2023, Google deprecated collection and support of the previous Google Analytics version known as Universal Analytics. That being the case, Oregon (and other) website metrics are no longer as they have been for many years.  

In Universal Analytics, permissions and information cascaded from the account holder (All of Oregon.gov and associated sites) to various properties (typically site collections at a high level or groups of site collections).  Each property could have 'views' that our support team was able to build and grant access to for state employees and associates with Google accounts.  This was a very easy model as the views all worked the same and we could fine tune them for various agency and program needs.

Now, after July 2023, all metrics are collected and reporting is expressed through Google Analytics 4 (GA4).  GA4 is a completely different arrangement where the views are no longer involved or available. The only configurations that the Oregon E-Government Support team can apply are at the property level which affects the vast majority of agency, board and commission web sites.  We intentionally leave this pretty untouched so as not to filter out results valuable to some or most agencies.

From the property, individual users may create 'Explorations' which are the GA4 metrics and reporting level that views used to be.  However, explorations do not directly replace views because:

• They are not available to all users unless shared by the individual.
• The way metrics are collected is different from Universal Analytics.
• You must be somewhat familiar with data science and manipulation to build a successful exploration.

Currently, there are no Subject Matter Experts on the E-Government Support team so we are spending time as we can to learn the new interface and be able to assist with specific requests for setting up metrics gathering and reporting.  We do not have any full resources available for this one application so knowledge will come at a trickle.  This being the case, agency board and commission web teams are encouraged to explore the knowledge available for GA4 on their own to fill their metrics and reporting needs.  Keep in mind that your ability to filter and manipulate GA4 collected information is limited to the explorations and do not extend to the properties level configurations.

Here's a starting place for information about explorations and setting them up for various uses:  https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7579450?hl=en#zippy=%2Cin-this-article

We'd be happy to hear of methods you find to fill various specific needs.  Please share in the form of a Service Desk Ticket and we'll in turn share your solution in the form of a Knowledge Base Article giving you and your web team credit for the solution at the top of the article.