GA4 Short Narrative Summarizing the Traffic

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), many of the report features you mentioned from Universal Analytics (UA) have been restructured or replaced with a more flexible, streamlined interface. Here’s how those features have evolved in GA4:

1. 1. Short Narrative Summarizing the Traffic
   • Universal Analytics: Most standard reports contained a plain-text narrative summarizing what was being shown.
   • GA4:
     • GA4 does not include built-in plain-text summaries in the same way UA did.
     • However, Insights powered by machine learning may appear at the top of some reports, highlighting trends, anomalies, or performance shifts (e.g., “Traffic from organic search increased 20% last week”).
     • You can also configure custom insights using the “Insights” panel in the GA4 interface.
2. 2. Scorecard with Aggregates and Averages
   • UA: Scorecards displayed totals and averages for metrics like users, sessions, bounce rate, etc.
   • GA4:
     • GA4 reports include scorecards at the top as well, showing aggregate values for key metrics such as:
       • Users
       • New users
       • Engagement rate
       • Average engagement time
     • These can be customized in Explorations or custom reports.
     • However, GA4’s focus has shifted from sessions to events and user behavior, so the available metrics may differ.
3. 3. Question Mark Buttons Explaining Metrics
   • UA: Clicking the question mark in a scorecard explained how the metric was calculated.
   • GA4:
     • Many metrics in GA4 do not have a visible question mark, but if you hover over a metric name (or click the info icon next to it, when available), a tooltip may appear explaining the metric.
     • For detailed definitions, Google recommends using the GA4 Metric Glossary.

🔄 Summary of Key Changes

Feature	Universal Analytics	GA4
Narrative Summary	Built-in text summary in most reports	Replaced with ML-based insights and alerts
Scorecards	Aggregates + averages	Still present, more customizable
Metric Definitions	Inline with '?' help icons	Hover/tooltips or external documentation

Nearly every report contains a short narrative that summarizes the traffic that is included in the report. The scorecard below the narrative provides a) metric aggregates and b) averages for the traffic. Each box in the scorecard contains a question mark button. Clicking it opens a small window that explains how the metric is calculated.

Most reports provide tabs that show different sets of data. The Site Usage tab shows metrics such as the 1) number of pages viewed per visit, 2) the average time on site, and 3) the bounce rate.
The Goal Conversion tab shows the conversion rates for each of your goals. If you have enabled ecommerce reporting on your Profile Settings page, you will also see an Ecommerce tab. This tab shows metrics such as

1. Ecommerce revenue,
2. number of transactions, and
3. average value.

The AdWords Campaigns reports have an additional tab called Clicks. This tab contains AdWords related metrics such as a) clicks, b) cost, c) revenue per click and ROI.