GA4: Advertising Workspace

Today in the post #2 of the series about the new GA4 interface we are going to look into the Advertising Workspace, which is a space specifically dedicated to all the up and running campaigns, attribution models and pathing conversion.

GA4: Advertising Workspace > Advertising Snapshot

To access the first report in this section, just click “Advertising” in the new menu.

In the screen as you can see there are 4 types of elements:

1. Conversion Drilldown Selection: by clicking on Conversion Events you can choose whether to activate all, one or only some of the conversions you have in GA4
2. Filters: you can filter the data on the screen for any type of event set up into GA4
3. Report Cards: summary cards that include data starting from June 14, 2021! At the moment, by default, the Conversion by Default Channel Groups, Conversion Path tabs are displayed, i.e. the paths that led the user towards the conversion and the Attribution Model Comparison where it is possible to view on the fly the variations of contribution to the conversion, depending on the models compared.
4. Report Links: they show the details of the Model Comparison and Conversion Path

Finally, there is the new card Insights which, through the GA4 machine learning, indicates any significant changes or emerging trends in the data included in the report.

If you click on “View all insights” a new panel will open:

Inside there are N cards created automatically while at the top right you can choose between “Manage” and “Create”.

If you click on “Create” a new panel will open where you can choose between the single elements already displayed by default or create a new one from scratch.

By clicking on Create New you are able to create your own personalized insights by choosing Frequency, Segment, Metric and Variation. You can also decide whether to send an email to multiple users when the phenomenon is registered.

GA4: Attribution > Model Comparison

The first report in this section is dedicated to the comparison of attribution models.

1. Horizontal Menu: you can choose the conversions to be analyzed, the type of Report Timing and the activation or not of filters / segments.
2. Report Timing: it is a filter that allows you to choose whether to use the interaction time or the conversion time. The first includes all the events that occurred in the dedicated time interval. The second considers all the events that occurred during the timeframe that led the user to the conversion.
3. Attribution Model: you can choose between the main cross-channel models (which we already know from Universal) and those included into Ads preferred (currently only last click). The data driven attribution model will also be introduced shortly.

Thanks to this report we are able to compare, through the available models, the impacts of the campaigns on marketing projects.

GA4: Attribution > Conversion Path

The section, in my opinion, can become a great point of interest for GA4, compared to Google Universal Analytics, as there are elements of huge interest regarding onboarding and retention for marketing campaigns.

There are three main elements to notice.

1. Path Length: you can choose the number of touchpoints to be considered in the analysis (all touchpoints are considered by default)
2. Path Analysis: by selecting an attribution model, a chart with great visual impact and table are generated. They can definitely help to understand user behavior with campaigns. The initial graph is a significant step forward compared to Universal, as we can evaluate at a glance the characteristics of users from all advertising campaigns.
3. Metrics: the metrics include both the days to conversion and the number of touchpoints that were used to convert the user segment of interest. Also in this case it will be possible to evaluate the marketing activity even more in detail and create subsequent clusters / audiences to improve the conversions.

Takeaways and tips

Compared to Universal, the information made available in the GA4 Advertising Workspace allows you to easily analyze the performance of marketing campaigns through the use of attribution models and pathing, especially thanks to the new graphic representations that make everything much more impactful.

Obviously it is still a work in progress and new elements will certainly be added (probably dedicated to Google Ads), but I suggest to start exploring right away the reports and evaluating the insights they can provide!