{"id":26495,"date":"2022-09-26T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/servidor.reportei.com\/?p=26495"},"modified":"2022-09-27T09:18:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T12:18:56","slug":"what-are-sessions-in-google-analytics-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reportei.com\/en\/what-are-sessions-in-google-analytics-4\/","title":{"rendered":"What are sessions in Google Analytics 4? Learn about the metrics"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What makes sessions different in Google Analytics 4 and how to analyze them<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Analytics sessions are one of the most important metrics for tracking and analyzing your website&#8217;s performance. They are groups of interactions on your pages by one or more users.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Analytics 4 has a different way of collecting data than Universal Analytics, so you may have some questions if you&#8217;re a\u00a0 marketing analyst.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article explains what you need to know about sessions, how GA4 tracks them, and what to pay attention to as you create reports. Keep reading to check it<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><strong>What are sessions on Google Analytics 4?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first thing to note about sessions is that Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics have different ways of collecting them. With GA4, Sessions are gathered automatically from events (session_start).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new session begins whenever users:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open your app in the foreground;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">View a site page (without being connected to a previous session).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The length of sessions can vary according to the first and last events performed by users. Sessions expire after 30 minutes of inactivity by default (you can change timeout settings for app and website visits).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because of that and GA4\u2019s new way of measuring events, remember that session count results may not be the same from Google Analytics to Universal Analytics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>How are events and sessions related in GA4<\/strong> <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To better understand the link between events and sessions in GA4, note that the tool uses the session_start event (mentioned above) to mark each session with an ID and a number that tracks sessions per user.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both the ID and number are associated with the events visitors perform on the website or app. That makes it easier to understand results, and also:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engaged sessions: number of sessions lasting over 10 seconds that led to conversions or had two or more page\/screen views;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engaged sessions per user: number of sessions in which visitors interacted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are events in GA4? Google automatically collects data from several events like page views, scrolls, exit clicks, site searches, video engagement, and file downloads. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Where to view GA4 sessions<\/strong><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tracking sessions in Google analytics 4 is easy! Although the metric display has changed, just log into your Google Analytics account and click the Reports tab on the left menu.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, access the Acquisition and\u00a0 Engagement Overview to analyze how users interact with your site or app.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>What\u2019s changed from Universal Analytics?<\/strong> <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you know how the new sessions metric works, it\u2019s worth pointing out a few key differences between Google analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like GA4, Universal Analytics organizes website interaction into sessions (like page views, events, and commercial transactions).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But sessions are not gathered through events, sessions from apps are not displayed, and you can\u2019t change session timeout settings. By default, sessions expire after 30 minutes of inactivity or at midnight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another distinction is that in Universal Analytics, every new campaign starts a new session, which makes for a higher volume of data than in GA4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meaning you need to be careful when tracking different properties.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Generate Google Analytics 4 reports faster<\/strong> <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s some more good news about monitoring results in Google Analytics 4: we already have a report for that at Reportei!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s right! Capture your website data for the best digital marketing insights in only three seconds and boost your strategies with our automatic GA4 reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s that easy to access attraction, engagement, monetization, and retention data, so you can focus on the funnel stages and optimize your actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can pair GA4 with other Google tools (Google Ads, Youtube, Search Console, and Google my Business) to analyze your performance on social networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Access or create an account on <a href=\"https:\/\/app.reportei.com\/signup?locale=en&amp;\">Reportei<\/a> right now to try out our Google Analytics 4 reports for free!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What makes sessions different in Google Analytics 4 and how to analyze 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