Whether you like it or not, Google Analytics 4 is here and here to stay for multifamily marketers. Google's latest version of its website analytics tracking platform officially took over on July 1st, 2023, sunsetting the previous version of Universal Analytics. Along with a new user interface, comes new KPIs and different ways of measuring those metrics. With all of the change, multifamily marketers are now
in a position to get familiar with all things GA4 and to do so quickly. In an effort to help multifamily marketing teams get acquainted with Google Analytics 4, Street Digital Media has included a few helpful tips to explain the differences between UA and GA4.
Bounce Rate vs Engagement Rate
Bounce Rate was a frequently referenced KPI in Universal Analytics as it provided a percentage of sessions in which there was no interaction or engagement with your website. For example, if a prospective resident visited your property website, but left without clicking on any links or triggering any events, then the session would count as a bounce. Multifamily's industry standard was to attain a bounce rate of 40% or less, suggesting that 60% or more traffic to their property websites were engaged sessions from prospective renters.
As multifamily marketing representatives may have noticed, bounce rate is not as prominent in GA4's interface. GA4 focuses more heavily on a new KPI called Engagement Rate. Engagement Rate measures the percentage of sessions to your property website that last 10 seconds or longer, has 1 or more conversion events, or has 2 or more page or screen views. If a user doesn't have an engaged session (that is, they don't meet any of the criteria for an engaged session), then Google Analytics counts the session as a bounce.
So, what is a good Engagement Rate? A helpful way of thinking of Engagement Rate is that it is the inverse of Bounce Rate. With multifamily industry standard for bounce rate being 40% historically, multifamily marketers should look for a 60% or higher Engagement Rate.
Active Users
In Universal Analytics, there were two User metrics: Total Users and New Users. In Google Analytics 4, Google has introduced a third User metric in addition to Total and New Users. Introducing Active Users, the primary user metrics in GA4.
Active Users: Number of distinct individuals who visit your property website and who have an engaged session, a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a conversion event, or has at least 2 pageviews.
Total Users: Total number of unique individuals who logged an event on your website
New Users: Number of unique individuals who interacted with your site for the first time. The metric is measured by the number of new unique user IDs that logged the first_open or first_visit event.
Active users is a helpful metric for multifamily marketers to focus on as it gauges quality traffic to the property website that is taking action. Look at Primary Users as a great way to track the referral sources that are bringing engaged individuals to your property website.
Street Digital Media, a multifamily-specific digital marketing agency, will continue to provide helpful tips for multifamily marketers to get acquainted with Google Analytics 4. If you would like to schedule a one-on-one walk through of GA4 or if you are interested in Street Digital providing a Google Analytics 4 training session for your team, please email Donald Kleckner at dk@streetdigitalmedia.com to schedule a time.