Google announced that starting July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics will stop collecting and recording new data — replaced by the brand new Google Analytics 4. Less than a year to go — 318 days, to be precise. At Omnicliq we started the transition process some time ago and look forward to fully leveraging everything the new version enables. This post walks through what the migration actually involves and why we are treating it as structural rather than cosmetic.
Why this is not a drop-in replacement
Universal Analytics and GA4 look similar on the surface but are fundamentally different under the hood. The data model is new: UA thinks in sessions and hits; GA4 thinks in events and users. The measurement model is new: GA4 is event-first, built for web and app together, and designed around privacy-aware measurement from the ground up. The reporting surface is new: many of the UA reports users relied on do not exist in GA4 and have to be rebuilt using Explore.
Treating this as "just install the new tag and move on" is how brands end up, in July 2023, with an empty-looking GA4 property and no year-over-year baseline to work with. The right posture is: start early, plan structurally, run both systems in parallel for as long as possible.
What the migration actually involves
At Omnicliq, the GA4 migration work we are running for clients falls into four tracks:
Event architecture rebuild. UA custom events rarely map cleanly to GA4. Redesigning the event schema — what counts as an event, what parameters travel with it, which events are recommended versus custom — is a prerequisite, not an afterthought.
Enhanced measurement configuration. GA4's automatic tracking covers behaviours (scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement, file downloads) that UA required manual setup for. Configuring these correctly reduces the custom code surface significantly.
E-commerce re-instrumentation. GA4's Enhanced E-commerce model uses different event names and parameters than UA's. Product feed pages, cart events, and the full purchase journey all need re-instrumentation to maintain accurate revenue and funnel reporting.
Data continuity and parallel running. Running UA and GA4 side by side until the deadline gives you a baseline to validate GA4 numbers against. Data parity is not perfect — it never is between two different data models — but getting them as close as possible builds the confidence to switch fully in July 2023.
What GA4 makes possible that UA never did
The migration is not just a forced move. GA4 enables capabilities UA could not:
- Cross-platform user journeys — web and app measurement in one property, with user identity preserved across platforms
- BigQuery export out of the box — raw event data available for custom analysis without the GA360 price tag
- Privacy-aware measurement — designed around consent signals and cookieless measurement from day one, not retrofitted
- Predictive metrics — in-tool predictions (purchase probability, churn probability) that were not available in UA
For brands that start the migration early and treat it as an upgrade rather than a swap, GA4 opens up measurement work that UA was holding back. The time to plan is now.