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How to Connect UA to Google Analytics 4

Cody Schneider••8 min read

If you used Google Analytics before 2023, you’re likely still getting used to the massive shift from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4. While UA is no longer processing new data, many people are looking for a way to "connect" their old account to their new one. The reality is, it's less about connecting two live systems and more about getting GA4 set up properly based on your old UA configuration.

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This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to use Google’s GA4 Setup Assistant to get your new property running. We’ll cover what the tool does (and what it doesn’t do) and the critical next steps you need to take to ensure your measurement is accurate.

First, Why Can’t You Just “Connect” UA and GA4?

The core reason you can’t simply link a live UA account to a GA4 account is that they measure data in fundamentally different ways. This is the single most important concept to grasp about the migration.

  • Universal Analytics (UA) was session-based. It bundled all of a user's interactions (pageviews, events, transactions) into a container called a "session." The session was the central unit of measurement. Think of it like a movie ticket - it validates everything you do during that single visit.
  • Google Analytics 4 is event-based. Every single interaction is treated as a standalone "event." A pageview is an event, a button click is an event, and a purchase is an event. The user is the central focus, and their journey is a stream of these events. Think of this model as a collection of individual scenes that, when strung together, tell a story.

Because of this difference, you can't merge the data models. The "connection" you're making is a one-time setup process to get GA4 started with some of your basic UA settings.

How to Use the GA4 Setup Assistant

Google created a tool called the GA4 Setup Assistant to make the initial migration process easier. It won't move your historical data over, but it will create a new GA4 property for you and copy some basic settings from your UA property.

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Step 1: Navigate to Your Admin Settings

Start by logging in to your Google Analytics account. Make sure you select the legacy Universal Analytics property you want to migrate from, not an existing GA4 property.

Once you’ve selected the property, click the Admin icon (the gear icon) in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Step 2: Launch the GA4 Setup Assistant

In the middle column (the "Property" column), the very first option should be GA4 Setup Assistant. Click on it. This is your starting point for creating your new GA4 property.

Step 3: Create Your New GA4 Property

You'll land on a page that gives you two options. Since you're moving from an existing UA property, you will want to get started under the section titled, “I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property.”

Click the blue Get started button.

A popup will appear explaining what the wizard will do. For most users with a simple setup (using the gtag.js tracking code), you can leave the "Enable data collection using your existing tags" box checked. The assistant will try to automatically connect your existing UA tag with your new GA4 one.

Click Create and continue.

And that’s it! The assistant has now created a brand new GA4 property. A screen will confirm this and show you what was and wasn’t copied across.

What the Setup Assistant Does and Doesn't Do

It's vital to understand the limitations of the Setup Assistant. Once you click that button, your work isn’t finished.

What the Assistant DOES:

  • Creates a new GA4 property.
  • Copies basic property information like the Property Name, URL, and timezone from your UA property.
  • Activates "Enhanced measurement," which automatically tracks events like scrolls, outbound clicks, and file downloads.
  • Attempts to connect your existing gtag.js script to your new GA4 data stream.

What the Assistant DOES NOT Do:

  • Migrate historical data: Your UA data will remain in your UA property for you to view, but it will not be moved into your new GA4 property. GA4 starts collecting data from a blank slate.
  • Copy Goals or Conversions: Your UA goals (like destination URLs or events) will not be recreated in GA4. You have to set them up again from scratch.
  • Recreate audiences: Any audiences you built in UA for remarketing or analysis will not transfer.
  • Import filters: IP address filters or other advanced data filters are not moved.
  • Transfer linked accounts: You’ll need to re-link properties like Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Merchant Center to the new GA4 property.

Your Post-Setup Checklist: 4 Critical Next Steps

After running the Setup Assistant, you're only about 20% of the way there. Here are the most important things you need to do immediately to get GA4 working correctly.

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1. Verify Your Data Collection is Working

The first thing you should do is confirm that your new GA4 property is actually receiving data. Don't just assume it’s working.

Go to your new GA4 property and navigate to Admin > Data Streams > DebugView. In a separate browser window, visit your own website and click around a few pages. If your tag is set up correctly, you should see your own events (like page_view and session_start) appear in the DebugView in real-time. If it's empty after a minute or two, your tag might not be firing and requires troubleshooting.

2. Recreate Your Goal Conversions

For your business, this is perhaps the most important step. In Universal Analytics, these were called "Goals." In GA4, they are simply called "Conversions." Any custom events or "thank you" page goals you tracked must be manually recreated.

Here’s a quick example for recreating a "Thank You" page confirmation:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Data Streams > Events.
  2. Click Create event and then click Create again.
  3. Name your new event something clear, like form_submission_thankyou.
  4. Under "Matching conditions," set the first condition as event_name equals page_view.
  5. Click Add condition and set the second one as page_location contains the part of the URL that signifies your thank-you page (e.g., /thank-you).
  6. Click Create.

Finally, go back to Admin > Data Streams > Conversions, click New conversion event, and enter the name of the event you just created (form_submission_thankyou). Now, GA4 will count that specific event as a business conversion.

3. Link Your Google Products

Your UA linkages do not transfer over automatically. You need to tell GA4 which other Google services to share data with. The most common ones are:

  • Google Ads
  • Google Search Console
  • Google Merchant Center

In your GA4 property, navigate to Admin > Product links and go down the list for any services you use. This is crucial for importing GA4 conversions into Google Ads for smart bidding and for seeing organic search query data from Search Console within GA4 reports.

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4. Plan How to Archive Your UA Data

Google has stated that it will eventually shut down access to the Universal Analytics interface completely. Your historical data, which might contain years of business insights, could be lost forever if you don't back it up.

Unfortunately, there is no one-click "export all" button. Here are your main options:

  • Manual Exports: You can go into individual UA reports, set the date range to include your entire history, and export them as PDFs or CSVs. This is tedious but viable for a few key reports.
  • Google Sheets Add-on: Use the official Google Analytics Google Sheets add-on to pull your UA data into spreadsheets in an automated, scheduled way. This requires some configuration but is far more robust.
  • The Reporting API: More technical teams can use the UA Reporting API to programmatically export data to the destination of their choice.

Start this process sooner rather than later. Don't wait until access is turned off to decide you need your historical benchmark data.

Final Thoughts

Moving from Universal Analytics to GA4 is a necessary step, and the Setup Assistant is your best starting point. Just remember it's only the very beginning of the process. Diligently verifying your data, recreating conversions, linking accounts, and archiving old data will ensure you have a reliable analytics foundation for years to come.

This kind of setup highlights a universal challenge: getting your marketing data into one place and making sense of it. Once GA4 is running smoothly, how do you combine it with stats from your advertising platforms, e-commerce store, and CRM? At Graphed, we built our tool to eliminate this frustrating manual work. We let you connect sources like GA4, Google Ads, Shopify, and Salesforce in seconds. Once connected, you can use simple natural language - just like talking to an analyst - to build real-time dashboards and get answers, without ever touching a spreadsheet again.

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