From 1 July 2024, Universal Analytics (sometimes referred to as UA or Google Analytics 3) data will no longer be accessible to account holders. Impacting all Google Analytics accounts storing information in UA, the mass deletion will mean a permanent loss of all UA information pre-dating July 2023, affecting your ability to access and report on historical insights.
How to safeguard historical data
There are a couple of solutions available to businesses to ensure that data remains intact after the cut off:
Export UA data and store it in a database for future reference.
Merge UA and GA4 data utilising third-party software to continue to enable year-on-year comparisons.
How can The MTM Agency assist in data safeguarding?
MTM’s team of Data Scientists has been investigating the most effective ways for businesses to retain data, and have recommended the below options.
Exporting and storing UA data
We can export historical data into a BigQuery database, so it can still be accessed.
This migration process takes around three days, due to the volume of data involved.
Merging UA and GA4 data
Merge your UA and GA4 data combining users and page view metrics seamlessly, allowing for continuous reporting of these metrics.
This migration process takes around two days as it includes merging the data and updating the reporting.
It is important to note that the latter solution only provides exporting your page view and user historical data for merging of data purposes, and doesn’t include exporting all historical data.
Both of these solutions are available as one-off projects for existing and new client partners.
By taking advantage of these solutions, you can safeguard your historical data and continue leveraging it for informed decision-making.
If you are unsure where to begin or would like some further information on how our data scientists can help, get in touch with The MTM Agency today.