How VANS Enhanced Data Collection Reliability by Migrating to GA4

99% data match accuracy

Objectives

Migrate from UA and set up GA4

Industry

Technology

Google Analytics 4

About the Client

VANS is an American apparel, accessories, and skateboarding shoe brand established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. Founded in 1966, Vans has been connecting with youth culture to promote creative self-expression, authenticity, and individuality for over 50 years. Today, the brand proudly celebrates its deep heritage in action sports, art, music, and street culture and is known as one of the world’s most influential action sports and youth culture brands.

Challenges

Our client approached us with a very specific and time-sensitive request: to seamlessly transition from Universal Analytics (GA UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) ahead of the planned sunset of GA UA. Their primary objective was to align their existing GA UA data with the new GA4 tracking system while adhering to industry best practices. While their existing GA UA set up could capture the data they needed, it had limitations in certain areas. For example, the client’s previous analytics setup could not track cross-platform user activity, such as identifying users who browsed the website on a mobile device but completed a transaction on a desktop. Additionally, the existing system didn’t provide insights into specific aspects of user engagement, like the amount of time spent on specific pages or the number of pages viewed during a single session.

Solution

Campaign Strategy

Google Tag Manager implementation, specifically utilizing data layer-based custom tracking
Current tracking logic adaptation to align with the GA4 event-based system, including adjustments in event naming and eCommerce tracking

To address the client’s needs and limitastions effectively, we proposed a robust solution leveraging Google Tag Manager, specifically utilizing data layer-based custom tracking. This approach is considered as one of the most reliable methods for managing tags and capturing analytics data. The migration involved adapting the current tracking logic to align with the GA4 event-based system, including adjustments in event naming and eCommerce tracking. GA4 event-based tracking also supports cross-platform user behavior analysis, addressing one of the client’s specific limitations. Overall, the solution aimed to make the client’s tracking system more comprehensive and aligned with future analytics requirements.

The areas the VANS team wanted to focus on included:

Basic tracking
Event tracking
Enhanced eCommerce
Custom variables
User properties
Cross-platform tracking (both web and mobile app)

Results

As a result of our collaboration, the client now benefits from a robust and reliable data collection system in GA4.

One notable advantage of the transition to GA4 is the client’s ability to consolidate website and app traffic data in a single interface, thanks to the GA4 event-based model.

Regarding data integrity, a comparison of metrics between GA UA and GA4 shows a close alignment, with data matching at 99%, based on August 2023 data.