A session is a period of time during which a user interacts with your website or mobile app. In GA4, a session is considered active if the user is actively interacting with your website or mobile app. This means that if a user visits a page on your website or mobile app and then immediately moves that tab to the bottom of their browser, the page view will not be recorded as an active session.
In addition to this, GA4 has introduced a new default user_engagement event that acts as a timer when sending events to GA4 periodically. This event helps to accurately record the participation rate in GA4. To check that your participation rate is being accurately recorded, you can use the debug view.
Another major difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics is that in GA4, the same session ID and session number are maintained for two different requests. This is very different from Universal Analytics, where a new session is incremented for each campaign identifier, which can cause discrepancies between the total number of sessions reported by GA4 and classic GA.
Google Analytics 4 has also eliminated both the bounce rate and average session duration metrics in favor of engagement metrics. To calculate engagement time, Google collects a parameter “engagement_time_msec” (milliseconds of engagement) along with improved measurement events such as displacements, custom events, and the “user_engagement” event if necessary.
Ecommerce companies can see the sales value of leads through Google Analytics, but they still won't know exactly who the specific leads are. The big differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics sessions require further investigation.
Google Analytics 4 has removed the popular (and somewhat infamous) bounce rate metric in its latest edition, GA4. The move from Google Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 is not a small update; it is a complete overhaul of the platform that fundamentally changes the way Google tracks website activity.
Understanding how Google Analytics 4 sessions work is essential for businesses that want to get the most out of their analytics data. By leveraging knowledge of mathematics and statistics to accurately interpret data, businesses can quickly improve their online results.
