Verizon GA360 to GA4 Migration

A notable achievement was developing a detailed Scope of Work and a Project Management (PM) Dashboard, facilitating seamless tracking of the GA4 transition progress. This initiative supported cross-functional teams in adopting the new platform, emphasizing the shift from a hit-based to an event-based analytics model. This evolution was pivotal in our decision to reaffirm GA as our analytics backbone, due to its flexible parameters (both standard and custom) that surpassed the traditional category-action-label-value schema.

The migration process began with a thorough analysis of our existing analytics infrastructure. We audited our current usage of Google Analytics 360 to identify all the touchpoints and data collection mechanisms in place. This audit was crucial to ensure that no data tracking functionalities were lost during the transition.

One of the significant challenges we faced was the need to reconfigure our data collection setup to align with GA4’s event-based tracking model. This model differs substantially from the session-based model used in GA 360, requiring us to rethink how we track user interactions across our digital properties. To address this, we conducted several workshops with stakeholders from various departments to understand their specific analytics needs and to ensure the new system would capture all necessary data points effectively.

Collaborating with Merkle and the Google team, we unlocked GA4's full potential, integrating it with critical business systems. This included free data export to Big Query, enhancing our data warehousing capabilities, and synergizing with ad buying platforms like Google Marketing Stack, Campaign Manager 360, and Search Ads 360.

These experiences underscored the value of transforming data into actionable insights. Analytics platforms are not merely about data collection; they are about understanding user behavior, informing product development, and driving business success.