Now that we've successfully set up your GA4 property and data stream and granted access to the relevant individuals, let's discuss some helpful tips for getting started. Setting up GA4 correctly is quite simple, as you've seen. However, there are a few things you can do now to make your future experience easier. We'll cover a couple of these tips, and later sections will delve into different types of reports.

Firstly, it's important to extend your data retention period so that you can utilize it for a longer duration and avoid losing it after just two months. By setting it to 14 months now, you'll have a more extensive data window.

Secondly, we need to adjust our data collection settings to align with our privacy approach.

Lastly, if any changes need to be made to attribution settings, it's advisable to do so at this stage.

Now, let's return to my demo GA4 property. Currently, we're in the home view, and as you can see, no data has been received yet since we haven't installed it anywhere. If you need to access your settings from this view, simply click on "Settings," then select "Admin." This will bring you back to the main view.

Here, at the property level, we'll focus on data settings. Underneath data settings, we'll start with data collection. You'll find various options here, such as Google signals for collecting cross-device data, additional location data, advanced user settings, and user data collection acknowledgements. For this demo site, we won't make any changes to these settings at the moment, but I recommend configuring them according to your specific privacy goals and objectives. We may discuss Google signals in more detail later.

Next, let's move on to data retention, which is crucial to get right from the beginning. This is a step I always include in my checklist when setting up a new GA4 account. At the property level, you can adjust the retention period from two months to 14 months and save the changes. Please note that GA sometimes doesn't provide clear confirmation when changes are saved, so you can either exit the page and return to check if it saved properly or refresh the page. It can be a bit frustrating when the confirmation message disappears without certainty.

Lastly, we'll address attribution settings. Here, you'll find options related to attribution modeling and the look-back window. Attribution determines how we credit different forms of traffic, and it's important to use the preferred model. If you already have a preferred model and settings, such as when transitioning from universal analytics, feel free to edit them now for your convenience in the future.

By following these steps, you'll ensure a smoother experience with GA4.