Case Background

In this case study, we have shared highlights of our Google Analytics 4 implementation for Brav.

Brav is a powerhouse of market-leading brands within the sports and outdoor industry, including Swix, Toko, Lundhags, Ulvang, Helsport, etc. Brav creates quality products that are stylish and innovative– ranging from apparel to top-of-the-line sports technology.

Brav was using Universal analytics to track and analyze the performance of the eCommerce brands mentioned above and wanted to migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google Analytics. It is not mandatory to upgrade to Google Analytics 4, but here are a few reasons why companies should. Considering the following reasons, for the best interest of our partners we suggested the implementation of GA4 :

Data Availability
Even though it is stated as an “Upgrade" this is actually an additional GA4 property. This does not affect your existing analytics setup. Since, its a new separate property, it starts collecting data only once its implemented, it does not report the historic data collected in your existing version of GA. The sooner you implement this, the more historic data you will have with you.
No Sampling
With sampling, Universal Analytics reports a sample of data with minimum viable precision to support decision making. But, sampling confuses plenty of business users and stakeholders across teams. In GA4, there is no concept of sampling as such. GA4 property is a developed version of erstwhile Google Analytics web + app property. No sampling means you get more accurate data for driving your digital decisions. This greatly reduces confusions and also boosts the confidence of the teams with analytics.
Analysis Hub
Analysis Hub is the new reporting User Interface which was available only the premium version of Google Analytics – the GA360. With Analysis Hub its remarkable more easy to create reports on the fly and leverage them for advanced analysis and insights. You need to use it to experience it – Its very different.
Cookie Less Tracking
Official statement from Google : “Because the technology landscape continues to evolve, the new Analytics is designed to adapt to a future with or without cookies or identifiers. It uses a flexible approach to measurement, and in the future, will include modeling to fill in the gaps where the data may be incomplete. This means that you can rely on Google Analytics to help you measure your marketing results and meet customer needs now as you navigate the recovery and as you face uncertainty in the future."

Challenges:

Brav operates in multiple countries and languages, wherein each language had different properties so we need to make the property selection dynamic.
Brav utilized a custom platform that required significant developer support.
As Brav manages multiple brands and domain names, each with its own unique analytics account it was difficult to manage.
There were a number of parameters in the DataLayer that were not properly configured.

Action:

Measurement Plan
Google Analytics 4 is an event-based tracking setup. To populate the reports, we need to pass custom event names and associated parameters that are eventually configured within the GA4 interface. This high flexibility if not appropriately structured can lead to chaos later on. Hence, we created a thorough measurement plan in a spreadsheet specifying the parameters that will be set in Google Tag Manager.
Creating Triggers
For eCommerce events, approximately all the parameters are similar, so we came up with an approach by combining all the eCommerce events in one trigger by using regex matching. This approach is more scalable, easy to maintain & less labor intensive in the long run as there is one tag and one trigger.
Implementing tags
This step is the logical culmination of the above two steps. What to implement was covered in step 1 and when to track was covered in step 2. The tags were created in Google Tag Manager with the new Google Analytics 4 settings and thoroughly tested in the new tag assistant.
Data layer Implementation
We addressed the issues of dataLayer by updating the parameter names through a custom HTML code. As Brav operates on a custom platform we created the dataLayer and shared it with their developers. We also created a dataLayer guide for the devs for the proper implementation of dataLayer.
Simpler analytics setup
We assisted Brav with merging their various Google Analytics 4 accounts into a single Google Analytics 4 account and delivered an easy-to-operate analytics setup.

Partner Feedback:

“Their team was patient and provided feedback when it was time to move things forward."

Thanks to DataVinci Analytics Agency, the client could easily access and analyze their data across all markets in one account. The Google Analytics 4 implementation also helped the client future-proof their business. The client admired the vendor's patience, sound feedback, and clear communication.

Scott Kircher, Ecommerce Manager Tech Lead, BRAV

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