The short answer is NOW!

Read on for the long answer.

In March 2022, Google announced that the standard tracking property for Google Analytics – UA or Universal Analytics or GA 3 – will not process any data after July 1st 2023. Their statement said that UA properties will not process new hits from 1st July 2023, and UA 360 properties will not process any hits from 1st October 2023.

GA 4 is already the default analytics for new properties and accounts, but existing users have to switch to the new experience.

If you, like some other business owners, feel you have another year to move from UA or GA 3 to GA 4, you should know that the time for the switch is NOW!

Why should existing websites think of Google Analytics 4 Setup before July 2023?

Google Analytics 4 brings several new and advanced features for businesses, such as customer lifecycle and churn probability. That itself is a great reason to transition to GA 4 as soon as possible but there’s a bigger reason to move now.

As of now, GA 4 doesn’t move your data over, leaving you with no historical data in the new version. The good news is if you move over to GA 4 now, you can run both your new and old analytics accounts together. You can collect data in GA 4 before the old version is gone. There is no update on the fate of the data on GA3, so it is best to move now and start collecting data in the newer version.

Remember that user-level data retention, including conversions, is fixed at up to 14 months in Google Analytics 4 properties. You have various options for the length of retention for other event data – 2 / 14 / 26 / 38 / 50 months. Age, gender, and interest data always has a 2-month retention period, regardless of your settings. You can increase the retention period or change it to ‘Do not automatically expire’ for already collected data. At the end of the retention period, the data is automatically deleted on a monthly basis.

Simply put, if you make the move to GA4 before 1st July 2022, you’ll be able to access year-on-year comparisons by the time Google puts Universal Analytics to bed.

Google Analytics 4 Benefits

If you are still sitting on the fence about switching over to GA 4, the following lines will change your mind.

Here are 7 unbeatable benefits of Google Analytics 4 that transform your analytics strategy.

• Smart tracking

Current tracking methods rely on cookies. The new GA 4 Analytics is a flexible approach that is not reliant on cookies, rather on AI and ML, to measure marketing results and meet customer needs.

• Advanced analysis

GA4 allows elaborate funnel customization, identify user paths, study heat maps, and more.

• Predictive metrics

GA 4 offers three predictive metrics:

• Purchase probability – the likelihood of an active user making a purchase
• Churn probability – the likelihood of an active user becoming inactive
• Revenue prediction – the expected revenue from active users

These metrics can be used to create highly targeted campaigns!

• Improved ROAS

With these highly insightful analytics, you can plan more cost-efficient campaigns and target your relevant audience more specifically.

• BigQuery integration

GA4 and BigQuery integration allows analysis of mountains of raw data, insights from the platform’s ML capabilities, and streaming data directly to BigQuery.

• Engagement metrics

Instead of the bounce rate, GA4 shows positive data on user engagement. With the help of enhanced measurement events, like scroll, website search, and downloads, you can understand exactly how users are interacting with the website. That means now you know whether your blog post is more engaging or the CTA to subscribe to your newsletter. Currently, UA requires custom coding to do this.

• Cross-platform tracking and customer journey

GA 4 now merges data from apps and websites giving you insights into engagement across your platforms.

The Life Cycle in GA 4 can give you reports on customer acquisition, engagement, monetization, and retention. These can help you create the complete customer journey map.

These insights tell you where you should direct more resources or change your strategy to hit your revenue goals.

Since it takes time to accumulate enough data for analysis, the sooner you start on GA 4, the sooner you can reap these benefits.

How to check whether you are on UA / GA 3 or GA 4?

If your Google Analytics property was created before October 14th 2020, you are most likely using the older version or the Universal Analytics.

If your Google Analytics property was created after that date, you may be using Google Analytics 4. Your property ID can help you understand whether you have a UA property or a GA 4 property.

UA property IDs start with “UA” and end with a number such as, UA-123456-1.

GA 4 property IDs do not have any letters, only numbers 123456.

Need help moving over to GA4?

At Ogrelogic, our endeavor is to make your life easier while we help you scale and grow. To help you move to Google Analytics 4, we’ve designed a system service for easier switch over while ensuring the safety of your data.

We can do this in two different ways –

Basic Setup

• Google Analytics 4 setup (GA 4 setup)
• Setting up the new account to start collecting data properly along with your existing Universal Analytics (UA or GA3) property

Advanced Setup

• Includes Basic Google Analytics 4 setup
• GA4 events setup
• GA4 goals setup
• GA 4 analysis and reports
• Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup

Remember that the sooner you start collecting data in Google Analytics 4, the easier the transition will be.

Switching over to GA4 now gives you a head start of almost a year to to ensure you can still track user activity on your website, including valuable metrics, such as sessions, revenue, bounce rate and time spent on site, before the old version is phased out.

Get your google Analytics 4 set up today

If you need help understanding this or need Google Analytics 4 Consulting Services, talk to our experts today.

We are already doing this for our existing customers and have developed a specialized process to ensure your data safety.

Call us on 512-559-7491 or email [email protected] and ask for Google Analytics 4 Strategy & Services.

Why work with Ogrelogic?

We are a full-service digital design, development and marketing company, who specialize in helping you establish your business online and flourish.

• 60+ team of designers, developers, marketers, project managers and quality experts
• Proven experience
• Trusted by businesses globally
• Dedicated account managers

Customized strategy, planning and execution

Launched your website and wondering when visitors will start showing up?

The struggle is real.

Many businesses have great websites but very few visitors. Having helped hundreds of clients and worked for several years in digital marketing, we know how hard it is. Fortunately, we also know now that there are proven strategies to get organic traffic from Google.

All we ask is that you follow these steps that we share for six months straight. Search engine optimization and boosting your Google ranking is a dynamic process and depending on your niche and offerings, most of you should be well on your way in these six months.

The ‘Right’ Keywords

You may have already heard of keywords but picking the ‘right’ keywords is truly key to your website traffic. Pick the wrong keywords, and you’ll find yourself with no organic traffic or sales.

Keywords are essentially a combination of your products and services and the locations you wish to target. In other words, these are words and phrases your target audience is typing into Google search.

The best way to find the right keywords is to think like your potential customer. Ask yourself, what you would type into Google if you were looking for your products or services. Don’t forget to ask your friends and family members, or even existing customers, to get keywords they would use.

Visit your competitors’ websites. You can get an insight into the keywords they are targeting by reading their content and metatags.

Keywords can be short tail or long tail. Long tail keywords contain three or more words or phrases. These keywords may have lower search volumes, but they have the higher potential to get you more relevant traffic, are usually less competitive, and easier to rank for.

The best digital marketing companies or agencies can help you find the best keywords with specialized tools to find keywords. These keyword tools can help you get more data on search volumes, current trends, level of competition for a keyword, similar keywords and more.

Even if you have found the best keywords, keep monitoring them. Change the ones that are not working for you and zero in on trending keywords or new keywords your competitors may be using.

Create Content

Now that you have your keywords, utilize them wherever possible!

Insert keywords into metatags, website content, blogs, and social media posts. The more you use your keywords in your content, the easier it is for Google to direct your target audience to you.

But using the keywords everywhere does NOT mean you stuff them in. Don’t write a blog with keywords just for SEO. Write a blog to genuinely provide valuable, relevant content to your target audience. Let your ranking and traffic be a natural outcome of it.

A few other things to consider while posting your content are –

• Keep your URLs short
• Keep the main keyword in your headlines and sub-headlines
• Keep a few important keywords in your meta tags

Promote Content

Producing content is not all. Even if you have the right keywords in your blog, it may not rank on Google if you don’t promote it.

The first thing to do is get social shares. The second is to get backlinks.

Google will not necessarily rank your pages higher because of social shares, but the more people that see your page, the more you would get backlinks. The higher your backlinks, the higher your Google rank.

In your keyword analysis report, your digital marketing or SEO agency can also help you understand how many backlinks each of your URLs have. They can also help you identify the sites your competitors are getting backlinks from.

If producing content is not your forte, some agencies may even help you with writing and sharing your content

It will take some work to get your first 1000 visitors but once you know how to do it, you have the mastery to generate traffic and increase your sales.

If this sounds like a lot, take one small step at a time.

Alternatively, you could hire an expert. As mentioned before, experienced digital marketing agencies can help you each step of the way.

If you are comparing different agencies, look beyond the pricing. Ask them what activities they will conduct to optimize your website for the right target audience. Optimization is done both on-page and off-page. Check out this SEO package pricing comparison guide to see whether you are getting enough value for each marketing dollar you are spending.

It’s 2022 and time to look into the web design trends you can expect to see this year. What designs and UI trends should we consider to keep our websites fresh and modern for our audiences?

Let’s look at some of the top web design trends that started emerging last year and will continue to dominate this year, and some other designs that are about to quickly gain popularity.

Optimism

Who doesn’t need a ray of sunshine in the post-pandemic world? This could be the reason why designers are creating fun, optimistic designs this year.

You too can some inject fun and optimism into your website design by using happy faces, lighter fonts, and colors that project positive emotions. Pay attention to overall imagery and look for faces that can website visitors can connect with. And don’t forget to be inclusive. In fact, that’s another big trend no one wants to miss out on!

Black and White

Black and white color schemes are the most striking design trend of the year. Without color, the designer has to get truly creative and the results can be absolutely stunning. Applying just the right effects and techniques can make your black and white color scheme work well.

Bold Fonts

Continuing the stark design trend are big bold fonts. From outlines to shifting shapes, bold and experimental typography is dominating website design. When it comes to today’s web typography, there really are no rules and designers are playing with a little bit of everything.

3D Elements

Incorporate 3D elements this year to make your website stand out. You can use animations, shadows, layer effects or motion to create depth and dimension and enhance visual interest.

Text Design and Scrolling Text

Another hot trend this year is designing simply with text and without any images for a minimal aesthetic.

No need to worry about what photo is worthy of your home page banner. Design it without images in 2022. A design without images is also a great opportunity to try other techniques as well, such as animations, hover states, or other interactive elements.

You could also use oversized typography and scrolling text elements to keep the user engaged and by adding emphasis to key words, you can further spark their interest.

However, don’t forget to keep calls to action separate so that website visitors can read them easily.

Gradients

Gradients keep making a comeback every time you think they are gone. So, they reappeared in 2021, and in 2022, gradients will be seen as text color fills for added emphasis and in illustrations to create an effect of textured depth.

Massive Footers

Website footers have become the new design element, especially for websites that offer a lot of information.

Big footers are a great idea when there are various elements with different purposes. Make the most of this trend by using elements that can create a distinct sense of organization, enabling users to find what they are looking for with ease.

With an increasing number of websites getting redesigned, think how you can utilize these design trends into your websites.

If you are looking for a design team that can give your website a makeover or overhaul, ask us for a FREE WEBSITE DESIGN QUOTE at 512-559-7491 or [email protected]. Our design team will sit down with you to understand your vision, and then come up with exciting design options to achieve your business objectives.

However, talking about the cloud isn’t something very new in the tech world as it has been trending for over 10 years now; it surely has been evolving amongst businesses every second. Although computing resources were something that found its space in the 50’s era it has, however, found a relatively newer version in the form of ‘Cloud Computing,’ speaking technically. So, what exactly is Cloud? No, not the cloud formed due to evaporated water. In the technology world, the cloud is something used by businesses to store their data using Internet services. Got confused? Let us explain it simply.

Cloud Basics

Cloud Computing is something where businesses can store data on a third-party server hosted elsewhere. This means the cloud server won’t necessarily be located in-house. The purpose of cloud computing is to help businesses store data without having to worry about the storage space in their computer hard discs. It reduced the burden of maintaining too many hardware devices used for data storage to a great extent. A live and popular example of the cloud is Google Docs. 

Have you ever observed how Google Docs work? No? Well, try using it once and you’ll figure out that the data is being saved automatically forming a cloud file that can be accessed from across the globe. All you need to have is a valid ID to log in to Google Docs and get started instantly. This is just a miniature example of what the cloud can offer. The picture is way too massive to analyze.

So, with this, we can conclude that cloud computing is a platform that enables scalable and perfectly elastic software services using the Internet as a medium.  

IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS – Three Fundamental Cloud Branches 

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

As the name suggests Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS is a service platform where businesses can access storage, networking, servers, and virtualization through a third party to create an IT environment suiting individual business types. Apart from managing the infrastructure, the IaaS also aims at managing other services including IP address, network connections, load balancers, billing management, and access management, etc. to name a few.  

Storage Resiliency – This particular feature is one of the most important ones out of all as it keeps the operations of cloud computing go on smoothly even if there is a power outage or failure of any equipment. The storage resilient software would help in restoring all the data during any troubleshooting due to workloads on multiple physical servers. 

IaaS or Infrastructure-as-a-Service enables users to install operating systems, deploy databases, create storage and install workloads as per their business needs. 

SAAS (Software-as-a-Service)

• Software-as-a-Service is a Cloud platform that allows users to access data from any device with the help of an Internet connection. 

• The web model is hosted on servers managed by third-party vendors to run the applications including codes, servers, and databases efficiently. 

• The SaaS model helps companies to focus more on outsourcing of the IT responsibilities and reduce the overall cost of their hardware. The software developed is hosted on a cloud server, which is managed by a SaaS vendor. 

In all of the above discussions, we should not take SaaS the same as On-premise software. Both are different models. Whereas SaaS or (Software-as-a-Service) allows users to opt for annual or monthly subscriptions to access software applications from the cloud, the On-Premise model usually is when buyers own a license. They pay a certain percentage of money for the maintenance and support fees. Choosing either of them depends upon individual business requirements. 

PAAS (Platform-as-a-Service)

Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS as the name suggests is an alternative to any company’s IT infrastructure. This means, to some extent it replaces the IT model of a company with various cloud components in the form of servers, operating systems, and databases, etc. among others. 

Let’s see how PaaS works:

The cloud service provider’s hosted infrastructure with users allows businesses to access data via a web browser without disturbing the company’s existing IT model. The best part of PaaS is that it is flexible and can be deployed on all the cloud verticals including public, private and hybrid cloud models. It is extremely simple for which it takes a plus apart from service available that can be a concern for the users.  

Other Services Involved in Platform-as-a-Service Include:

• Web Service Integration
• Information Security Systems
• Application Development & Designing 
• Application Testing & Implementation

Cloud Computing – Here to StayAs Cloud computing technology has existed for over a decade now it has been one of the most rapidly changing ones amongst enterprises that have deployed cloud models on their premises. From a simple hosting service to a giant cloud platform Cloud Computing is available to anybody and anywhere in the world. Offering a perfectly scalable IT environment Cloud Computing is something that has gained attention worldwide and is evolving every second of the hour.

Before we dig deep into what machine learning has to offer the future, let us understand what exactly it is? With the future holding countless prospects in the technology world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is gaining peak by the day. The fact is not to be denied how our lives are AI dependent. To explain it in easy words, let’s take an example about how voice search or search results on Internet provide the desired results with ease and tells us that machine learning is at work to give you the desired information. Making lives easier for people and taking the technology a step ahead is what machine learning is all about.

Next up is the fact that (ML) Machine Learning is the learning from existing data whether in written or print form. The data here is the algorithms provided, which gives users results they’re seeking. However, the meaning of AI changes as per the requirements of individual users but it is always a data-driven technology.

Some Interesting Things to Know!

Machine Learning (ML) Model should be kept simple!

As we all know that ML is learning derived from the data provided, we need to keep the model simple to come to appropriate conclusions. If you don’t have enough data to calculate or compute, keeping the algorithms simple will have you succeed the ML technology. So, play around less data for strong outcomes.

Data is What Machine Learning all about!

It is the data that you enter in the machines that machines learn about and derives the results accordingly. This means that (ML) machine learning is not possible without the data. Also, the authenticity of data fed to the machines gives valid results. So, ensure to have a good algorithm rather poor one to make the ML a successful process.

Have Data Transformed Smoothly using ML

Some theories believe that machine learning has a limited option to select and tune the algorithm but in reality, that is not the case. With the increasing interest of companies to hire data scientists ensures the cleansing of data that would help in transforming it smoothly to make it machine learning compatible.

Avoid Creating Biased Loops using Machine Learning (ML)

When we talk about biased loops, we want to draw attention to the fact that ML is an extremely sensitive field and that it can bring in a lot of biases within its model. This means machine learning can sometimes generate a date, which is bias friendly and is likely to affect people’s life. Therefore, be careful while training the new data is mandatory to keep things flowing smoothly.

Listed below are a few applications that enable machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in daily lives:

Speech Recognition 

One of the most popular technologies is “speech recognition.” This enables a software application to recognize verbal language to convert it into the text. The role of the machine learning application here might correspond to a set of numbers that represent the speech signal. What we can do is segment the incoming signals into parts containing different words. By doing so, each part represents the speech signal with the different workforce and time-frequency bands.

Image Recognition

Yet another commonly used machine learning application is image recognition. If you might be wondering what exactly image recognition is, it is the process of identifying and detecting objects/things in the form of digital images and videos. For example, our smartphone comes with the feature of face recognition that allows it to identify the face of a person authorized to unlock the device without having to even touch the screen or feed in the passwords. The example can further be classified into two categories:

Face detection

This feature is usually seen on smartphone consoles and aims at recognizing the face versus no face present. There might be a separate category for each person in a database of several individuals.

Character Identification

Character recognition is an interesting way how computers recognize the alphabets in the written and printed form to change it into texts computer can understand.

Prediction 

When we talk about prediction analysis in machine learning, we simply want to focus on how machine learning and artificial intelligence combine to provide predictive analysis. This means your machine will be focusing on delivering an outcome that would determine the next best action or in case of banks where the probability of any loan is computed to show desired results.

Conclusion

Technological innovations are such that come and go and look out for newer ways to deal with the masses. With the growing interest of companies in Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), there are several prospects of it to be used in various industry verticals that prove to be beneficial to all.

For most of us, wearable technology might sound a new thing to explore but it isn’t as new as it sounds. The inception of wearable technology happened in the 13th century that invented the eyeglasses to provide a clear vision to those suffering from blurred vision issues due to deficiencies and also to protect our eyes from foreign elements. Even the Nuremberg eggs (the portable and wearable clocks) invented in the 16th century was kind of a wearable device that was worn around necks until wristwatches came into play so on and so forth.

In this article, we would try to enlighten readers about a few interesting things on the wearable technology platform that is evolving every second of the hour to bring about suitable changes in today’s dynamic business environment.

What is the Relevance of Wearable Technology?

After smartphones, wearable technology is the next big innovation. Therefore, it has huge relevance in today’s dynamic technology world. Let us see it this way. Any technological device, which we wear to keep a track of specific things like health, locating routes to make our lives simple and easy, has been relevant in the past, present, and it surely will have relevance in future, provided right approach is taken to promote is benefits. As wearable technology is not restricted to just one kind of industry, it enjoys a great potential to conquer the global market requirements while reaching out to the maximum customers.

Where is it Applied?

Wearable technology is used to run on devices for a wide range of things. These are divided primarily into three industries including health, textiles and consumer electronics and as Forbes contributor Unity Stoakes writes “We’re already seeing sensors that improve quality of life, enable home diagnostics, make virtual health and remote monitoring possible, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Healthcare Wearable Technology  

If you’re aware of wearable tech. devices in this category you know what we are talking about. The health wearable apps have enabled people to keep a track of several things including measuring heart rate, tracking the number of steps, etc. among other features. The devices used in this category include fitness trackers and smartwatches.

Textile Wearable Technology

When we talk about textiles, we focus on innovative clothing that is worn to give an interesting look to the outfit. It is also referred to as e-textiles where a battery or light is embedded in clothes to give impart special effects.

Wearable Consumer Electronics 

One of the booming wearable consumer electronics is seen as implantable devices. These are usually used for medical reasons like tracking contraception, insulin levels, etc. to name a few.

Market Impact

Wearable technology is evolving rapidly with several businesses working around new strategies to incorporate technological innovations in this segment. The wearable technology market has thus shown a rise in the statistics of consumers using these devices over the past few years. It has also enabled the scope of exploration for the engineers to come out with something new. The impact across markets hence has been such that users’ expectations to receive more useful information and better search results on wearable devices to meet their daily ends efficiently and making lives simpler is what is focused upon.

Is Going to Stay?

Of course, it is going to stay until a similar technological innovation surpasses the unique features and advantages of wearable technology. However, there are many speculations about whether wearable technologies stay?  The foremost challenge that one can foresee for the wearable industry is whether it gathers a sustainable customer engagement. It has been observed that many wearable electronics are short-lived due to a lack of customer engagement. The reasons could be anything like a bad quality device, less user-friendly and extremely challenging to sync with the smartphones, reduced battery life, UX issues and not so appealing designs, etc. Now, if we’re able to convince customers for everything that they didn’t like, the future of wearable technology is not fading easily.

Role of Customers 

The role of customers is important in making any technological innovation as a hero. If businesses fail to create impactful devices, which users enjoy wearing and using it daily chances are they wouldn’t positively respond to your creation. But if the wearable device technology or any other technology is strong functionally and physically that caters to the users’ demands and needs, your business model will take no time to reach unimaginable heights to conquer the users, their lives, habits or behaviors.

 

Video is constantly becoming a big business for social media platforms. When you look at social media giants benefiting largely from video ads – Facebook video ad revenue contributing to 30% of its total ad revenue and Twitter and Snapchat attributing to more than half of its ad revenue to video, you realize the potential that video ads bring to the table.

However, this does not mean that it’s the right time to jump headfirst into video advertising. Lacking basic yet prime knowledge on how video ads work, you will more than likely set yourself up for failure when running video ads.

Let’s Understand Video Ad Views
According to the Media Rating Council (MRC) and IAB, video ad is considered viewable when at least 50 percent of an ad’s pixels are visible on the screen for at least two consecutive seconds. While some platforms have adapted this strategy but there are many more that haven’t done anything about it.

Let us discuss how few major social media platforms count video ad views:

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook and Instagram count video views for both story ads and in-stream at 3 seconds. But, advertisers are also free to buy video ads on either a CPM basis or ThruPlay basis. Ads running on CPM basis are counted when one pixel of the video ad comes into the view. On the other hand, ThruPlay only charges advertisers when a video ad plays up to 97 percent or up to 15 seconds.

Google and YouTube

Ads running on YouTube and Google Display Networks are skippable TrueView ads. These ads only count when a user engages with the ad or watches 30 seconds of the video ad, or the entire duration of the ad if it is shorter than 30 seconds.

Twitter

Twitter has adopted the MRC standard and it counts ads when 50 percent of the ad is viewed for 2 seconds or more, or when a user engages with the ad.

Snapchat

Snapchat ads are counted when the ad is viewed for at least 2 seconds. Moreover, Snapchat ads run full-screen with sound on.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s video ad views are similar to Twitter but not exactly the same. For LinkedIn’s sponsored content, video view is counted when 50 percent of the ad is in view for 1 second on desktop and 300 milliseconds on mobile devices.

Knowing this information is crucial as it will help you make informed decisions when bidding for video ads, measuring views, and creating reports. With many social media platforms expanding their bidding options and reporting metrics for video ads, analyzing and comparing results across different social media platforms can be a challenge. This is why you, as an advertiser, need to be aware how each platform counts and charges video ad views.