Google announced the inclusion of Bounce Rate for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in early July. Bounce Rate has traditionally been a metric that many brands use to measure user engagement. This metric was notoriously missing within GA4, and now it’s back by popular demand. However, bounce rate is not calculated in GA4 the same way that it’s done in Universal Analytics (UA).
UA calculates Bounce Rate based on the percentage of single page sessions in which there was no interaction. Many organizations used it as a benchmark to understand the quality of the audience brought to their page from different sources/mediums.
On the other hand GA4 calculates Bounce Rate as the percentage of sessions that where not engaged sessions. Engaged sessions are the number of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, or had a conversion event, or had 2 or more screen or page views. In other words, Bounce Rate under GA4 is the opposite of the Engagement Rate.
We know Bounce Rate has been a metric used by many organizations, however under it had many limitations. We would often see it be misunderstood by users in UA, and be dependent on too many factors to make it a reliable metric. Engagement Rate on the other hand tells a more compelling story to measure audience engagement, and under its new methodology so will Bounce Rate.
Is Bounce Rate Still a Relevant Metric for Marketers in Google Analytics – Final Words
While we know many will be divided on the topic, the reality is that GA4 is here to stay, and given its capability to capture custom events and variables, we are not limited to only standard and predefined metrics to measure user engagement. Bounce Rate in GA4 gives us a better picture of engagement, and as marketers, we can go well above and beyond it with all that GA4 has to offer.
-Fran