How to Add a New Profile in Google Analytics

Thinking about adding another website, app, or subdomain to your Google Analytics account? The GA interface and terminology have changed over the years, which can make a seemingly simple task feel a bit confusing. This article will walk you through exactly how to set up a new reporting view in Google Analytics 4, clarifying the modern structure so you can keep your data organized and clean.

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What Exactly is a "Profile" in Google Analytics?

If you've used Google Analytics for a while, you might remember Accounts, Properties, and Views. In that older structure (known as Universal Analytics), the "View" was often called a "profile." A View was a defined perspective on your data. For example, you could have a main, unfiltered view for a website, another view that filtered out traffic from your own company's IP addresses, and a third for testing new goals.

Heads up: Universal Analytics was retired on July 1, 2023.

Today, Google Analytics 4 uses a simpler, more flexible structure:

• Account: This is the highest level, representing your business or organization.
• Property: This is where your data lives. Typically, a property represents a single website, an app, or a logical collection of user touchpoints. You might have one property for your main e-commerce site and another for your marketing blog.
• Data Stream: This is the source of data flowing into your Property. You'll set up a data stream for each platform you want to track, like a website (Web stream), an iOS app (iOS stream), or an Android app (Android stream). A single Property can have multiple data streams.

So, the modern equivalent of creating a "new profile" usually means you're trying to do one of two things: create a new Property to track a completely separate website or create a new Data Stream to track another app for an existing website.

How to Add a New Website Property in GA4

Creating a new property is the right move when you're tracking an entirely separate website or want to keep data completely isolated for strategic reasons (like tracking a staging or development version of your site).

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Navigate to the Admin Section: Log in to your Google Analytics account. In the bottom-left corner of the page, click the Admin button (it looks like a gear icon).
2. Create a New Property: In the middle column labeled "Property," you'll see a blue button that says "+ Create Property." Click it.
3. Enter Property Details:
4. Provide Business Information (Optional): Google will ask for some optional details like your industry category and business size. This helps them with benchmarking data. You can fill this out or skip it.
5. Choose Your Business Objective: Select the goals most relevant to you, such as "Generate leads" or "Drive online sales."
6. Set Up Your Data Stream: This is the final and most important step. GA will ask you to "Choose a platform."
7. Install Your Tracking Tag: After you create the stream, GA4 will provide you with a "Measurement ID" (which looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX) and instructions for installing the tracking tag. You'll need to add this tag to your new website, either by inserting the code manually or using a platform integration like Google Tag Manager, Shopify's built-in GA integration, or a WordPress plugin.

That's it! Once your tag is installed, data for your new website will start flowing into your newly created Property.

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How to Add a New App Data Stream to an Existing Property

Let's say you already have a property tracking your main website, and now you're launching an iOS or Android app for the same business. You don’t need a whole new property, you just need to add a new data stream to your existing one. This approach keeps all the user journey data (web and app) unified in one place.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to Admin & Select Your Property: Click the Admin gear icon. In the "Property" column, a dropdown menu at the top - make sure it's set to the right property (e.g., "My Company Website").
2. Go to Data Streams: Within the Property settings, click on "Data Streams."
3. Add a New Stream: You'll see your existing Web stream listed. Click the blue "Add stream" button on the right.
4. Choose Your Platform: Select either iOS app or Android app.
5. Register Your App:
6. Follow SDK Instructions: After registering your app, GA4 will provide a GoogleService-Info.plist (for iOS) or google-services.json (for Android) file and instructions on how to add the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK to your app's code. You’ll need to work with your app developer to complete this step.

Once the Firebase SDK is properly integrated, your app will begin sending data directly to your GA4 property, right alongside your website data.

Managing User Access for Your New Property

Once you've created a new property, you'll likely need to give your team or marketing agency access. GA4 allows for granular control over who can see and do what.

To add a new user:

1. Go to Admin: Head back to the Admin section.
2. Choose the Level of Access: You can grant access at the Account level (giving them permissions to all properties within) or just the Property level. To provide access to only the new property you made, look under the "Property" column for "Property Access Management."
3. Add Users: Click the blue "+" button in the top right corner and choose "Add users."
4. Assign Roles: Enter the user's email address and assign them a role. The most common roles are:
5. Click Add: Your team member will get an email inviting them to access the property.

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Final Thoughts

Organizing your Google Analytics instance with distinct properties and data streams is the right way to keep your data clean and reporting focused. While the old terminology of "profiles" and "views" has been retired, the ability to segment your tracking for different websites, apps, and business units is more powerful than ever within the GA4 structure.

Getting your data sources set up correctly in GA4 is just the beginning. The real challenge comes next: turning all that raw data into clear, simple reports that fuel your business decisions. That's why we built Graphed. We simplify the entire process by connecting your Google Analytics, marketing platforms, and sales tools into one place. From there, you can use plain English to build real-time dashboards and get instant insights - no more navigating complex menus or wrestling with spreadsheets.