Bostrom took on a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) conversion project as part of our ongoing approach to using generative, affordable, and impactful technologies to advance our operational excellence and exceed client goals. The GA4 project accumulated hundreds of hours of marketing and IT staff time which was an investment made by Bostrom. The GA4 transition and the work of Bostrom’s Digital Transformation Task Force are strategic commitments to continual improvement and resource optimization for our association client base.
What is GA4, and why is it important?
Every Bostrom client website we manage has been tracking website traffic and engagement through Google Universal Analytics or UA for years. This has given us data such as the number of users coming to the site, where they are coming from, what they are searching for, what content they click and engage with, how fast and long do they stay active on the site, etc. This data has helped us understand what content is valuable and what improvements are necessary for future site design and marketing programming.
GA4 will replace the UA platform with enhanced, conversion marketing-based analytics that provide valuable traffic and engagement measurement data. GA4 will continue to track similar types of data. It will aggregate more valuable conversion data like who subscribes, who registers for an event, who clicks on a video, and how long they watch it. These Engagement Data points are called Events in GA4, and we are continuously working to identify unique and specific Events to manage our clients’ websites.
How does Google define Events?
An event allows you to measure a specific interaction or occurrence on your website or app.
You can use an event to measure when someone loads a page, clicks a link, or completes a purchase. We set up Conversion Events for all client sites which will track any interaction or occurrence valuable to us. A user renewing their membership or subscribing to a newsletter are examples of common conversions. To record a conversion, we mark an event that measures the interaction or occurrence as a conversion.
How has Bostrom approached this effort?
The marketing team at Bostrom has been working with a consultant on the GA4 platform conversion project. This required the team to attend multiple training and implementation sessions, which included assessing all platform requirements, event setup, identification, tracking, and reporting.
The marketing team carefully took each client site within the first two sessions and interchanged the existing UA platform with GA4 code. For the upgrade outcome to be successful, the process required the inclusion of two other Google products, specifically Tag Manager and Search Console Access, which were concurrently implemented during the platform change.
Upon the completion of the transition, the marketing team has begun implementing identification methods for unique events specific to each client’s website goals. This process is ongoing and will continue to evolve with each campaign and marketing effort that will be staged on their websites.
So what’s next?
Bostrom’s marketing team is now working closely with the account executives and client teams to target the long-term and short-term campaign goals that can be enhanced by implementing the GA4 platform. Bostrom’s agile association management approach allows the service teams to provide not only personalized and flexible solutions but also strong foundations to ensure their purpose-driven messaging is consistently evolving with their members and audiences.
