A website is one of the most important online channels any business can have, and for travel and tourism companies is no different. The benefits are many. With a website, you gain credibility and display all your tours and activities your way; besides, it's the perfect place to share certifications, and reviews, attract new customers, and share your company's details.
But a crucial point of having a website is keeping track of its performance. As you might already know, Google Analytics is one of the most popular and powerful tools available to businesses for tracking and analyzing website data.
With the release of Google Analytics 4, Google's next-generation measurement solution, Universal Analytics, will be replaced, and from July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. So taking the initiative to learn about the latest analytics and understand how it measures your data will help your business in the long term.
With that in mind, it is time to create a new Google Analytics 4 property and ensure that your setup is complete to gather the historical insights you need to measure your results over time. Remember that Google Analytics 4 has many new features and improvements that tour operators should know about.
In this article, you will find everything you need to know about tracking your website with Google Analytics 4, how it can help improve your business, and how TrekkSoft's integration with Google Analytics 4 can provide tour operators with valuable insights into their website's performance, user behavior, and customer preferences.
Understanding Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics helps businesses evaluate and track how content, marketing, and products - tours and activities - perform. The data collected provides valuable information. The new upgrade in the system, Google Analytics 4, has introduced unique measurements. Now you can understand the customer lifecycle and look at users and the events they complete instead of just analyzing the pages they visited on your website.
And like many new things, Google Analytics 4 can have a confusing interface, which can be inconvenient when navigating. But after setting up GA4 property on your website, get ready to find new ways to measure your data.
The key features and benefits of Google Analytics 4 include:
- More advanced machine learning capabilities. GA4 uses machine learning models to provide deeper insights into user behavior, such as predicting churn rates and lifetime value.
- Cross-device tracking. GA4 allows for better tracking of user behavior across mobile, desktop, and tablet devices.
- Event-based tracking. GA4 tracks user interactions and events rather than pageviews, allowing a more accurate measurement of user engagement and behavior.
- It improved data privacy. GA4 is built with privacy in mind and offers more granular control over data collection and processing.
Here are some of the differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4:
- Collecting data from Apps. With GA4, you can integrate mobile app and website usage data. We know many tours and activities companies don't have their own mobile app, but GA4 still has updates worth your time.
- Tracking events. To track your user's behavior when navigating your website. With GA4, you can add specific events to help your tourism business, such as booking funnel analysis and engagement with calls to action.
- Creating your own report. The first impression you may have when accessing the GA4 is that there aren't enough reports, but the idea is that now you can create new reports and focus on the information that truly matters to your business and goals.
- Now, instead of 2 User metrics, you get 3. Joining Total Users and New Users, GA4 has added Active Users to measure any user who has an engaging session, or in other words, a user that has engaged on your site at least once over a specific period. Pay attention because the term "Users" has changed. While in Universal Analytics, "users" means "total users," in GA4, "users" indicates "Active users".
- Attribution modeling allows you to understand your marketing attribution better. With the new version, there are more touchpoints to ensure that your marketing efforts are being considered when assigning credit.
This means that instead of analyzing just the last ad customer clicked, you now better understand the customer journey that took the user to convert. Customers usually do several searches and even click on an ad before converting. With GA4, you have a deeper insight throughout the reports. You can learn more about attribution and attribution modeling here.
As mentioned, GA4 is evolving, so we'll see many new updates over time. What's new, it's Google's page, where you can learn about new features and functionalities. Stay current and discover new ways to gather data to help your tourism business.
How tour operators can benefit from Google Analytics 4
You already know that Google Analytics gives you insights and a better understanding of your customer's journey. You can track which pages are receiving more traffic, how users find your site - through social media, email, google, etc. and overall understand who your customers are and how they behave online.
As a tour operator, you can use this data to optimize your website, marketing campaigns, and overall business strategy. For example, by analyzing user behavior across devices, tour operators can identify areas where the user experience could be improved and make changes to improve website functionality and responsiveness.
Learn how Google Analytics can impact your travel and tourism company. Download these free templates now: How to track your monthly marketing and sales performance.
Some insights and data that tour operators can gain from using Google Analytics 4 include:
Read better your customer's behavior
With attribution modeling, for example, you can now see which ads and the journey your customer went through before clicking on the final ad and making the conversion. GA4 provides data about your client's life cycle combined with your channels. All these and the many other measurements you can get from analytics are essential to understanding your user behavior.
Knowing which channels are effective and which need to be revised helps your business plan better customer retention and acquisition. Besides, providing personalized experiences to your customers through detailed data analysis is helpful for all businesses.
Helping you to improve ROI
Calculating your Return on Investment in marketing might seem tricky. Still, since Google Analytics supplies data that helps you answer inquiries related to your strategy, you can make smart and calculated decisions. Suppose you own a business that offers different activities; you can track which specific activities on your website are gaining traction, direct your efforts and resources to retain your customer or reduce efforts to that related activity.
The insights help you create better marketing strategies and more.
Target your ideal customer
When we talk about the tourism industry, the common question is, "Where are my customers coming from?", and in this case, where we are talking about location. You can gather this data by analyzing your customers, asking your tour guides, or even asking one by one of your clients. But with Google Analytics, you can check where the main traffic is coming from, the pages each location is more interested in, and the activities or tours it prefers, among other data.
With this information, you can set up personalized ads to your clients' geographical data and create content destined for that location. For example, if your traffic is coming from the USA, you can write a blog post, "all you need to know if you're flying from the USA to {then add your location here}".
Since we discussed content creation as an example, let's talk about how google analytics helps your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using relevant keywords that actually answer your customer's doubts while providing relevant content can increase traffic, conversions, brand awareness, and more. GA4 gives you insight into your pages and how it's performing, guiding you on your next content strategy, pages that might need an update, and content you can create.
To track popular topics you can approach on your website, read How to use Google Trends in your marketing content.
How to get started with Google Analytics 4 and TrekkSoft
Now that you know more about Google Analytics, 4 is time to set up your account.
Start by setting up Google Analytics 4
You can set up a GA4 property alongside your existing account if you already have a Google Analytics account. Adding the new property will keep your Universal Analytics property the same, so you can continue collecting data with both mediators. To set up, you can follow these steps.
Suppose you don't have an existing Google Analytics account. In that case, you need to make one, and Google will, by default, make it GA4.
After setting up, GA4 will start collecting data - it only collects data going forward, so if you want access to historical data, you need to use Universal Analytics. Therefore, since you need to set up GA4 to start gathering data, the sooner you do it, the longer you will be able to measure.
Setting up Google Analytics 4 tracking for tour operators using TrekkSoft
Getting started with Google Analytics 4 and TrekkSoft is easy. Here's a guide to setting up Google Analytics 4 tracking for tour operators using TrekkSoft:
- You can integrate TrekkSoft through Gtag to Google Analytics 4. Google site tag is a tracking code that helps you send event data to Google Analytics, Google Ads, Campaign Manager, and others.
- You can track conversions, a funnel, and thank you pages.
Taking the next step for tour operators
Google Analytics 4 has several benefits that help you to understand your customer's preferences and behavior. The integration with Google Analytics 4 can help tour operators in many ways; it allows tour and activity operators to track your website's performance and user behavior more accurately and your conversion rates more effectively.
TrekkSoft's integration with Google Analytics 4 can give tour operators valuable insights into your website's performance, user behavior, and customer preferences. Tour operators can increase bookings, revenue, and customer satisfaction by using this information to optimize your marketing efforts and improve the customer experience.
Looking for a complete solution to manage your bookings? With TrekkSoft, you can easily stay on top of all the moving parts of your business, including upcoming bookings, payment records, and more. Ready to see it in action?
Book a demo to schedule a personalized tour of our platform and learn how TrekkSoft can optimize your business for success.
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