Moving to Amplitude Analytics vs Google Analytics 4
This year many users of Google Analytics will consider whether they want to move to GA4, or to try a new tool. I’ll outline the case where Amplitude Analytics might be a good fit for you.
nb. this is not a fully-fledged feature comparison, and doesn’t intend to be. I’ve read plenty of those and they age fast. They often make the decision more complex than it is. You should rather read this, and see if it sounds like you.
What is Google Analytics 4?
This is the latest offering from Google of their hugely popular analytics tool, and significantly it includes a rethinking of the tracking data model, heading towards tracking events and properties rather than pageviews and sessions.
Ironically, this is the approach tools like Amplitude and Mixpanel have used all along! But there are still some differences remaining.
Why might Amplitude be Better?
Although GA4 is the most Amplitude-like version of GA so far, Amplitude have spent years building specialised features for sophisticated product analytics.
If your only need for analytics is to monitor some high level numbers for your website or app, like active users, GA will do just fine.
If you have a simple conversion funnel, like many e-Commerce stores, GA will probably continue to work well for you too.
However, there are a few situations where Amplitude is ahead of the game… how many of the following boxes do you tick? …
- You have a complex product with many possible user journeys
- You focus on product changes as much as marketing
- You think of your users based on their product behaviour as well as who they are
- You are very data-driven and can handle detail
- You want to look at the behavioural drivers of revenue or activity, not just the revenue or activity itself
If you said “Yes!” to a few, I think you’ll love Amplitude.
Here are 5 of my favourite features of Amplitude and why I recommend the tool:
Complex Funnel Analysis
Amplitude funnel charts let you specify different conversion sequences which are meaningful for your product, slice-and-dice by different user segments, look at changes over time, and even the time each step takes!
Retention Deepdives
Amplitude has a really powerful retention chart, which is great for diving into different cohorts.
Highly Customizable User Segmentation via Cohorts
The Amplitude Cohorts feature lets you define very specific user groups, based on behavioural patterns and user properties.
Hands-on Data Management via Govern
Data can be messy, and you often need to handle things carefully to avoid miscounting. Govern lets you do things like exclude events for a certain period, rename them, transform property data, and create custom events for complex set of actions that are meaningful for your case.
Insightful (premium) Features like Compass
With the scholarship or paid plan, you’ll also get access to incredible charts like Compass, which allows you to quickly analyse the correlation between certain actions and ending up converting or being retained. I often turn to this when trying to answer questions about which actions in a product experience are most important, hypothesize about causation, and design experiments.
Can’t GA4 do those things?
GA4 does have some of the above features, and I can imagine they will improve them over time. However, my opinion is that Amplitude is simply ahead, and will remain so because they are focussed on a narrower use-case.
Doesn’t Amplitude Cost a Lot?
The free plan from Amplitude is really generous, and if you have a high volume case and are new to the tool you can also likely take advantage of the scholarship plan.
Doesn’t Amplitude need a lot of Implementation Time?
I think it’s a myth that Amplitude, or any platform with an event tracking approach, requires more time. Rather, you have the opportunity to track more actions, and each thing you track requires a little implementation.
In my experience, if you have access to a developer, tracking a basic action is easy. What often takes more time is if you add complex event properties, because these can require additional coding logic. That said, those properties can also generate a lot of additional insights, and that can be what adds the most value in the end!
Want me to do it for you?
I work as an analytics consultant, and have implemented Amplitude 10+ times in the last 2 years. I’ve spent a good chunk of time in Google Analytics too! If you’d like some help getting Amplitude set up, please get in touch.
