Google issued a reminder that it will be discontinuing all Universal Analytics (UA) services and APIs on July 1st.

How will this impact you:

If you fail to download or export your data before the complete sunset of Universal Analytics (UA), Google will permanently delete your data, rendering it irrecoverable. This loss could significantly impact the performance of your campaigns, reporting, or anything else that requires the data. For example, Google Ads remarketing audiences or historical Looker Studio Reports.

What’s Changing & Some Specific Changes

When Universal Analytics services cease, you will lose the ability to access any data or settings through advertiser, publisher, or other product integrations, such as Google Ads.

Some of the specific changes include:

  • Conversions and eCommerce Transactions: New conversions, including goals and eCommerce transactions, will no longer be measured once Universal Analytics services end. This applies even to conversions within linked advertising accounts, which will impact any campaigns in your Google Ads account that require smart bidding and are currently utilising data fed in from UA.
  • Audience Lists: Universal Analytics audience lists will be closed, affecting the activation and performance of ad campaigns that rely on these lists for targeting. Therefore, if you are currently remarketing to any users that are on a remarketing list contained within UA, we recommend ensuring that these users are also in new remarketing lists within GA4 or Google Ads so that they are still valid to be remarketed to
  • API Requests: API requests associated with Universal Analytics properties will fail, including requests for deleting Universal Analytics data via the User Deletion API. Consequently, tools dependent on this API, such as Looker Studio, will not display any Universal Analytics data.
  • BigQuery Export: You can request BigQuery exports and backfill historical data from Universal Analytics 360 properties until June 30. Any data already exported will remain accessible in BigQuery.
  • Attribution Projects: Attribution Projects that were part of Attribution (beta) in Google Analytics will be deleted.

Remember to take necessary actions to safeguard your data and adapt to the transition from Universal Analytics to GA4.

If you are struggling with GA4 or unhappy with your current GA4 setup and configuration, feel free to get in touch and speak to one of our analytics experts.