Preserving 2017-2023 Universal Analytics History in Looker Studio Before GA4

01// The broken state

Integrity Service Companies needed to preserve their Universal Analytics history before the move to Google Analytics 4. They requested a complete backup of data spanning 2017 to 2023 (17.1 MB in total) so that historical performance insights would remain available for decision-making after the transition.

02// What we changed

1. aDesigned and built a Looker Studio report to back up the essential Universal Analytics data and present it visually across Audience, Behavior, and Acquisition.
2. bAudience view: scorecards for Users, Sessions, Page Views, Pages per Session, Average Session Duration, and Bounce Rate; time-series graphs for user and session trends; bar charts comparing Page Views and Pages per Session; pie charts for technology (browser, OS, screen resolution, device category); and 1, 7, 14, 28, and 30-day active-user metrics.
3. cBehavior view: scorecards for Page Views, Unique Page Views, and Average Time on Page; bar charts comparing Page Views vs. Unique Page Views and Bounce Rate vs. Exit Percentage; and tables for top pages, landing pages, and exit pages.
4. dAcquisition view: a pie chart of traffic channel share (organic search, direct, referral, social) and a detailed table of channel group, source/medium, campaign, and referrer with drill-down.
5. eAdded flexible date-range selection and views that can be filtered by channel group, source, medium, referrer, or campaign, with a structure that is easy to update as needs change.

03// The outcome

Ahead of the Universal Analytics shutdown, all historical UA data from 2017 to 2023 was captured into a single Looker Studio report totaling 17.1 MB. The dashboard preserves audience, behavior, and acquisition insights with flexible date ranges and filters, so nothing was lost in the move to GA4.