Why GA4 alone won’t give you the full picture

For years, Google Analytics was the go-to platform for tracking website performance. It was free, straightforward, and offered endless dashboards and reports that even non-techy marketers could use. But with the shift to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) years ago now, many businesses are still left scratching their heads.

Why? Because half your data isn’t even making it into GA4.

Between cookie consent pop-ups, browser privacy settings, and the rise of tracking blockers, a huge chunk of visitor data simply disappears into the ether. Add to that the infamous “Direct” traffic bucket, that mysterious pot of visits GA4 can’t properly attribute, and suddenly your data story looks very incomplete.

On top of this depending on which report your run, there still seem to be mismatches and challenges with refining the data into useful and user friendly reports. What once was the bread and butter of tracking website visitors, is now a complex technical maze of data.

So, is GA4 still worth it? Or are we looking at the end of Google Analytics as we once knew it?

The problem with relying on GA4 alone

Let’s start with the pain points most businesses face today:

• Data loss due to privacy laws and cookies – Visitors who decline tracking or use private browsers vanish from your reports and there is not much you can do about it
• Overinflated “Direct” traffic – This category is often a black hole of misattributed traffic, hiding the true sources that drove visitors. Often this causes false assumptions as stakeholders and c-suite can take this metric as a customers are finding them by directly coming to the site. But who wakes up one day and comes directly to your web address and signs up! – No one who hasn’t already done their research, that’s for sure.
• Steep learning curve – What used to be a user-friendly tool now feels like you need to jump through 100 hoops just to build a basic report.
• Modelled data – GA4 tries to fill the gaps with machine learning, but many businesses don’t trust it.

That said, GA4 isn’t without value.

The benefits GA4 still brings

Before we write it off completely, GA4 does offer some smart features:

• Automatic event tracking – Actions like scrolls, clicks, and video plays are tracked without extra setup.
• Cross-platform view – GA4 can track users across websites and apps, offering a more holistic journey.
• Free access to BigQuery – You can now export raw event data for deeper analysis, something only GA360 users could do before.
• Privacy-first design – While frustrating, GA4 is built for the cookieless future, making it more compliant than Universal Analytics ever was.

The problem is, GA4 alone doesn’t answer the pressing business questions we want to know:

• Where do our B2B customers come from?
• What influenced them before converting?
• How can we invest smarter in marketing?

What businesses use over and above GA4

Forward-thinking companies are piecing together a broader data ecosystem. Here’s what’s filling the gaps:

1. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)

Tools like Segment or mParticle unify GA4 data with CRM, ads, and offline sources, creating a single customer view.

2. Product & UX Analytics

Platforms like Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Heap go beyond pageviews, helping teams understand user journeys, retention, and feature adoption.

3. Qualitative Insights

Hotjar, FullStory, Microsoft Clarity add the “why” behind GA4’s numbers with heatmaps, session replays, and surveys.

4. Attribution & Ad Performance Tools

Especially for B2B, GA4’s attribution isn’t enough. Platforms like Rockerbox, Hyros, or Triple Whale stitch together ad influence across multiple touchpoints.

5. CRM & Sales Data

HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho help tie anonymous web activity to actual deals, critical in long B2B sales cycles.

6. SEO & Performance Tools

Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs cover organic search data GA4 can’t, while Core Web Vitals/Lighthouse highlight website performance improvements.

So… are the days of Google Analytics dead?

Not quite. GA4 is still the baseline tool for measuring digital performance, but it can’t carry the whole load anymore. The truth is with all the complexities in the user buyer journey, all the developments in user privacy, automation, and AI:

• No single platform gives the full picture.
• Businesses need to blend GA4 data with other sources, from CRM to ad platforms to session replay tools.
• The smartest approach is setting up a lightweight, cost-efficient stack that pulls insights without creating more work.

The best tracking setup for B2B companies

Here’s a practical way forward:

1. Keep GA4 as your foundation for traffic and engagement metrics.
2. Export data to Looker Studio or BigQuery for clearer reporting.
3. Layer in your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) to connect web visits with deals.
4. Use a product analytics tool (Mixpanel/Amplitude) if customer journeys are complex.
5. Add qualitative tools (Hotjar/Clarity) for on-page insights.
6. Keep Search Console & ad platform data in the mix for ad performance, SEO and attribution.

By combining these, you’ll understand not just who visited your site, but also why, from where, and what influenced them along the way.

So what does this all mean?

GA4 isn’t dead, it’s just no longer the one-stop shop it used to be. Think of it as one piece of the puzzle. By supplementing it with CRM, product analytics, ad attribution, and qualitative data, B2B companies can finally unlock the full customer journey without burning huge budgets.

The challenge lies where SME’s and start-ups may not have the capacity or technical skills inhouse to integrate multiple solutions, hence falling back on one central toll tends to be the norm, and no-one got fired for using Google Analytics right!

Go back to your main goal. The smartest businesses today aren’t asking “Should we use GA4?” but rather “How do we connect and analyse our data to get the full story?”