The Definitive Guide to Google Analytics Audiences

Universal Analytics (UA) sunsetted in July 2023 and has been replaced with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). With it went some familiar features in the Audiences section.

In this article, we’ll cover what you can and can’t do with the new version of Google Analytics Audiences.

Need a primer on GA4 in general? Read our guide.

Further reading: Google Analytics for Beginners: Getting Started with GA4

What Is Google Analytics Audiences?

Audiences in GA4 allows you to group website visitors based on specific criteria, like user interactions, age, and gender. You can also track the specific campaign that led visitors to your site.

Marketers and business owners use Google Analytics Audiences to get actionable insights from their website data and to group users for running targeted ads.

You can create a group of users or an “audience” in virtually any combination that’s important to your business. Think of it as creating specialized buckets for your website visitors.

For example:

• A bucket of users who’ve recently signed up for your newsletter
• A bucket for users in San Francisco who’ve recently signed up for your newsletter and also made a purchase

The size and level of granularity is up to you. It’s all aimed at helping you narrow down your target audience.

Further reading: To learn more about audience research and how you might want to group your audiences, read our guide: What Is Audience Research?

What Can You Do with Google Analytics Audiences?

Google Analytics Audiences uses...