Last summer, Google officially retired Universal Analytics (UA) and transitioned over to Google Analytics 4. The new generation of digital analytics notably tracks both web and app activity. A few months prior to the launch, Marchex introduced the general availability of its GA4 integration with Marketing Edge to help marketers and businesses meet the customer journey opportunities in front of them.
Using Marchex Marketing Edge’s call tracking and conversational intelligence and Google Analytics 4 (GA4)’s combined capabilities, businesses gained the ability to develop a deeper understanding of the customer journey with greater visibility into customer phone calls. These insights can be leveraged to create a better customer experience, improve phone calls with customers, and increase revenue.
In the year since Marketing Edge’s integration with GA4, our customers benefitted greatly from its features, including some that were introduced post-launch:
Flexibility
A key benefit of Marketing Edge’s GA4 integration is the ability it gives users to support any schema with configurable event names and parameters. As an example, auto dealers that use the Automotive Standards Council (ASC) schema can successfully set up their Marketing Edge GA4 integration using the ASC recommended event names and parameters. Companies that use their own custom schema are also supported.
Marketing Edge’s GA4 integration has been developed further since its inception. In February 2024, the ability to send events to multiple GA4 instances per call was introduced. It can support tailored schemas to meet respective measurement strategies, and allows all entities involved in the implementation and reporting of marketing initiatives to perform their own unique analysis in GA4 using data collected by Marketing Edge. Different advertising partners and businesses can obtain easier access to marketing information including web traffic and offline data in their respective GA4 instances, such as those looking to generate as many leads as possible, those interested in total aggregate leads to a business, and those wanting to understand more specific demand for their products and services.
Multiple Events per Call
The Marketing Edge GA4 integration provides users with the ability to upload multiple events per call using simple or advanced criteria driven by conversational intelligence. This results in a clear view per channel into the quantity, quality, handling, and outcomes of calls driven by your efforts. Using multiple events per call simplifies setup, enhances reporting, and enables more granular conversion tracking.
Scalability
Marketing Edge’s GA4 integration is configurable via UI or API. Built taking multi-location franchises into heavy consideration, businesses can apply the integration to tens, hundreds, or thousands of properties. From single businesses to thousands of locations across an entire organization, Marchex + GA4 can help businesses of all kinds observe their call activity.
Filling in the Offline Blanks in Online Journeys with Session-based DNI
Phone calls are one of the key interactions in your customer journey. While they may be driven by online activity, phone calls often happen offline. For example, a visitor may arrive on your website on their desktop or tablet but make the call to your business using their mobile phone. By default, Google would be unable to tie these two activities together, or even know the phone call occurred.
When using session-based DNI, Marketing Edge can connect the offline call back to the online session that drove it, turning what was previously a blind spot into events, conversions, and audiences that enable businesses to create better experiences for their customers.
Marketing Edge’s GA4 integration promises to bring a wide array of benefits to your phone call reporting in Google Analytics. The integration provides actionable data to help shed more light on the customer journey, create better customer experiences, and make important decisions about your marketing strategies. It also provides Google with identifiers it needs from the web session to algorithmically optimize campaigns and find new leads.
To learn more about Marketing Edge’s integration with GA4 or to get started contact us.
