GA4 (Google Analytics 4) measures website activity in two key ways: sessions represent periods of engagement with your website, while users represent the distinct individuals visiting. As of early 2026, understanding this distinction is crucial for accurate marketing performance analysis, particularly with increasing privacy regulations.
- Sessions: A session begins when a user lands on your site and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity, or at midnight. Multiple pageviews within that timeframe count as one session.
- Users: GA4 attempts to identify unique users, even across devices, using Google signals (if consented to) and device identifiers. This provides a more accurate count of *who* is visiting, not just *how often*.
- User Scope: GA4 now features enhanced user-scoped custom dimensions, allowing you to attach data to individual users for more personalised reporting – vital for Australian businesses building customer loyalty.
In 2026, Australian businesses need to be particularly mindful of data privacy. Current systems include robust consent management integrations within GA4, ensuring compliance with the Privacy Act 2010 and evolving digital rights. Accurately differentiating between sessions and users helps you understand the true reach of your marketing campaigns and optimise spend, avoiding inflated metrics or misinterpreting engagement levels. For example, a high session count with a low user count might indicate users are quickly bouncing from a single page.
Instead of grappling with these technical nuances and ensuring full compliance, let ROI.com.au handle your GA4 setup and analysis. Contact our team today and we can take care of all this for you.
