Part Two: Unlocking the Future of Data with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) | Arctic Leaf

Welcome back to the second part of our three-part GA4 series with OnTap with Arctic Leaf!

With every OnTap discussion, we invite e-commerce merchants and industry leaders to have open, fun, and honest conversations. This series promises to deliver expert tips, tricks, and strategies around the most relevant industry topics from a panel of e-commerce heavyweights!

During our second discussion of 2023, attendees heard from host Josh Garellek, Co-Founder & CEO of Arctic Leaf, our internal GA4-certified specialist, Jason Hackenberry, Client Success Manager at Arctic Leaf, and marketing specialist, Glenn Schmelzle, Founder & Chief Data Analyst of Marketing What’s New. 

Those who joined discovered the inner workings of Google Analytics 4 as panelists dove into events-tracking and cross-reporting from UA to GA4. We discussed how the new platform has changed since our last discussion, from terminology to navigation, hashing out those aspects of GA4 that will most impact your business. Our panel also covered:

  E-commerce vs. lead generation events you need to know. 
  Native integrations with the biggest e-commerce platforms.
  The issues we're still seeing in the new service
  And more...

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR "GA4 CHEAT SHEET"

If you want to gain important insights and hear interesting discoveries from the live attendee Q&A, watch the full discussion for yourself below! 

While we discussed some questions live, the top question asked by attendees that we did not get to answer during the discussion was...

Question: Given what is changing with the introduction of GA4, are there any reasons why we should be looking for a new tool to replace Google Analytics?

Answer: Though there are plenty of other data tools, it's recommended to use and become familiar with Google Analytics, particularly considering the new platform is actively ensuring it is GDPR compliant which many other tools lack.

However, we see three situations for which you may skip GA4 in favor of another analytics tool. 

1. If you don't use Google Ads, which is reliant on data it pulls from Google Analytics. If your advertising has no (or barely any) dependence on Google's paid channels, you won't suffer any performance loss if you leave GA4.
2. If much of the interaction with your customers happens while they are logged in. Whether these experiences are in an app or a SaaS product, your team expects data that monitors the performance of some function or workflow. If this describes your situation, there are product analytics tools that you may prefer to Google Analytics.
3. If the tracking your company wants to do is unique to you, and you have in-house analytics talent who can customize a data model around that. Going beyond the many conversions that Google Analytics tracks, there are tools that pull in every single event, letting you hand-pick which ones you want to keep, as well as how they relate to the other events you store in your analytics database. Google Analytics does not provide this level of control, but there are tools that will track your site using your own custom-built data model.

To learn a little bit more about our speakers, keep reading!

From the beginning, Josh Garellek has been passionate about technology, entrepreneurship, and building strong partnerships. After starting an independent gaming studio, he fused his passions in a merger that gave life to the full-service e-commerce agency Arctic Leaf is today. As a recipient of Forty Under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2019 and a finalist for Top Business Owner in the 2020 Ottawa Awards, Josh has found success through expert innovation, creative marketing, and sales strategies.

With over 10 years of experience in e-commerce, visual merchandising, and operations, Jason Hackenberry is responsible for the strategic commitment to deliver qualitative and quantitative success to online merchants. With 700+ Arctic Leaf site launches and growing, Jason plays an integral role in analyzing growth data and certifying results.

Glenn Schmelzle spent two decades in B2B organizations watching them waste marketing dollars. He got in early on using the Internet for marketing and helped bring in more leads, but it still troubled Glenn to see other businesses struggle to fill their funnels. In 2013, he started the Marketing What’s New agency to help demand generation teams have a net-positive profit contribution.

Now that you're all caught up, we'd love for you to join us for future discussions! Simply click here and we'll make sure to add you to our early registration list.

As always, feel free to reach out to marketing@arcticleaf.io if you have any questions about anything we covered in this discussion. We hope to see you soon!