According to Google, GA4 “provides a next-generation approach to AI-based predictive data, privacy-first tracking, and cross-platform measurement.”

But let’s be real ...

The only reason Google created GA4 is because they're under constant pressure due to their privacy practices ...

To the point where the previous version of GA was deemed illegal in the EU.

The bottom line is that Google Analytics can no longer accurately track individual users as they make their way through your sales funnel.

Google is forced to use lots of AI, machine learning and data modeling ...

... which are all just fancy names for guessing.

And if you care at all about the results you get from your ads, accurate tracking and conversion attribution are non-negotiable.

GA4 tries to tell you what’s happening on your website, but the data they provide is anonymous and extremely fragmented.

If your sales funnel includes things like nurture sequences, webinars, or sales calls, you need a solution that ties the entire customer journey together.

With GA4 you can’t see any details or verify anything ...

All they’ll tell you is that you got 4 sales today, and you have to trust them.

ClickMagick on the other hand gives you every detail about every click and every conversion, down to the customer’s name and email address.

For each and every visitor you can visually see the entire visitor journey, and all their activity is attributed all the way back to the source.

When iOS 14.5 came out in September of 2021, it turned the online advertising industry upside down.

ClickMagick was unaffected, but major ad networks and Google Analytics can no longer track iOS users who opt out of tracking.

iOS users make up approximiately 28% of all the people clicking your ads — and 96% of them are opting out of iOS tracking ...

... so this renders the stats in Google Analytics almost useless.

Even worse, all of this missing conversion data significantly hinders your ad network's ability to optimize your ads (more on this in a minute).

But that’s not all, there are more problems with Google Analytics ...

This one is pretty cut and dry — some privacy focused browsers like Brave outright block all Google Analytics tracking.

Other popular browsers like Safari, Edge and FireFox have privacy modes that are easy to enable that also completely block Google Analytics tracking ...

And then there are popular privacy plugins like uBlock for Chrome which completely blocks all Google Analytics tracking as well.

uBlock alone has over 40M users, and while no one knows exactly how many people are using apps that block Google Analytics — it's A LOT.

ClickMagick allows you to easily set up a custom tracking domain so your tracking code cannot be blocked ...

But when you're relying on Google Analytics all of this untracked traffic leads to even less accurate stats and degraded ad optimization.

The average person owns 3 devices and constantly switches between them.

This is a big problem for GA4, because their “cross-device” tracking relies on users being logged in to Google on all their devices all the time.

But studies show that Google users are only logged in to Google about 61% of the time while using the Internet ...

Which means when your visitors switch devices, there's a roughly 40% chance Google Analytics won't track them properly.

The same thing happens when people switch to private browsing mode right before making a purchase (which they do all the time) ...

Google Analytics can no longer identify the user, so they have no idea where the sale came from.

And this leads to even less accurate stats, and even worse ad optimization.

Conversion attribution in GA4 is where everything just falls apart.

First there are all the technical issues, like the fact that you need a dedicated “thank you” page for every event or sale you want to track ...

... which is often impossible to do for things like order bumps and upsells due to limitations in the other apps you use and your specific tech stack.

GA4 will also record duplicate conversions because GA4 sessions timeout after 30 minutes, and they’ll record additional conversions each time people re-enter your funnel or reload your thank you pages for any reason.

You also can’t track any phone sales or other offline conversions.

And some conversions just won’t be tracked at all due to GA4’s limited 30-90 day attribution window ...

... which also ruins tracking of repeat customers and Customer Lifetime Value.

But GA4’s “data-driven” attribution modeling makes it even worse:

“Google uses modeling to estimate online conversions that can’t be observed directly. Modeling allows for accurate conversion attribution without identifying users (for example, due to user privacy, technical limitations, or when users move between devices).”     From [GA4] About attribution and attribution modeling

It may be their fanciest “AI attribution” model yet, but at the end of the day it’s still just guessing and making predictions because that’s all GA4 can do.

I guess that’s better than nothing if you had no other choice ...

But ClickMagick’s attribution is 100% accurate because it’s based only on your actual clicks and conversions, with no guessing.

The only other attribution model that GA4 offers aside from data-driven attribution is the “last click” attribution model.

Last click is generally good at showing you what gets people to buy ...

But it doesn’t give you any insight at all into top and middle of funnel performance, so you can’t rely only on last click attribution.

And you can't scale cold traffic acquisition campaigns with last click.

In addition to last click, ClickMagick provides advanced multi-touch attribution models — like Linear, Position-Based and Time Decay ...

... which provide even deeper insights on how the different pieces of your marketing are performing, and help you scale like never before ...

Because you’ll be able to fully optimize the different steps in your funnel independently, rather than your entire funnel as a whole.

I could go on and on but hopefully you get the picture — you can’t rely on GA4.

Growing your business with paid ads is just a matter of scaling what’s working and killing what’s not, but you can’t do that effectively with the inadequate tracking and attribution provided by GA4.

But that's only the half of it, because GA4 pushes all this bad data to Google Ads, and their AI algorithms use this bad data to optimize your ads.

And bad data means their AI ad optimization doesn't work as well ...

... which means they end up showing your ads to people who are less likely to engage with your business, and your results and ROI both suffer.

On the other hand, ClickMagick sends your enhanced, first-party conversion data to Google in real-time, with extreme precision and accuracy.

And because ClickMagick's attribution is so accurate, we can always send back the Google “click id” and the other data Google is hungry for ...

Which leads to increased “event match quality” scores, improved ad optimization and increased ad ROI. Guaranteed.

In addition to fixing all of these problems, only ClickMagick gives you the direct response stats and reports you need to truly optimize and scale.

Here's what you get with ClickMagick:

And you can see each and every one of these stats for each and every traffic source, campaign or ad you have!

ClickMagick has better and more visual reporting as well.

The UTM Performance Report identifies your best and worst performing ads.

The Conversion Velocity Report reveals how long it takes visitors to convert.

The Lifetime Value Report shows you the cost to acquire a customer, how long it takes to breakeven, and how much customers are worth over time.

And the Funnel Steps Report paints a visual picture of the different paths visitors take through your funnel, and gives you the data you need to optimize your funnel for the most profitable paths.

I could go on, but you just don’t get these kinds of actionable, direct response stats and reports from Google Analytics.

“Bots” are automated software programs that click your links, click your ads and waste your money, and even “opt in” to your list.

Then you’ve got competitors, and other people doing “market research” repeatedly clicking your ads ...

And even your own existing customers who search for you on Google and click your paid ad every time they want to get back to your site (happens a lot!)

Google Analytics doesn't protect you from any of this.

But ClickMagick has industry-leading bot filtering, and ClickShield™ ...

Which allows you to set up rules to define the type of click behavior that’s acceptable to your business, and block the rest.

That means more accurate stats, less wasted ad spend and increased ROAS.

ClickMagick has helped over 122,000 small businesses with tracking and attribution. I'd guess we have more experience with this than anyone.

And we're pretty well-known for our amazing support.

At ClickMagick, we offer onboarding calls, live chat, fast responses to tickets, and even Zoom support if you need it.

And many users have told us our support is better than anything they've ever experienced before, because ...

Our team consists of real marketers with decades of experience — not low-paid, outsourced “customer support” reps who've never run an ad.

You just can't get help like this anywhere else, and with all the recent and ongoing changes in the industry I really can't stress just how valuable this is.