Bounce Rate Calculation in UA vs GA4!

1.07K viewsGoogle Algorithm Updates

 Bounce Rate Calculation in UA vs GA4!

Google officially announced on July 11, 2022, that they have included Bounce Rate as a metric in GA4. However, the calculation for bounce rate is different in GA4 than in Universal Analytics.

 Bounce Rate Calculation in UA vs GA4:

 In Universal Analytics:
In UA a session can last an indefinite amount of time and will be counted as a Bounce if the user leaves without interacting.

Bounce rate is calculated as a percentage of single-page sessions in which there was no interaction with the page. A bounced session has a duration of 0 seconds. For example, if someone visits your website, spends several minutes reviewing content on your homepage, but leaves without clicking on any links or triggering any recorded interaction events, the session will count as a bounce.

 In Google Analytics 4:
In GA4, a session that lasts 10+ seconds (or the number of seconds set in Configuration) will count as an Engaged Session even without interaction, and not contribute to Bounce Rate.

Bounce rate is calculated as a percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. An engaged session is a session that lasts 10 seconds or longer, or has 2 or more page or screen views. For example, if someone visits your website, reviews content on your home page for less than 10 seconds, and then leaves without triggering any events or visiting any other pages or screens, the session will count as a bounce, and the bounce rate will increase.

 The question is how to check the bounce rate?

To check the bounce rate, you can customize your report in the Reports section and add bounce rate as a metric. If you cannot customize the report, it means that you do not have editor or administrative access to Google Analytics. Alternatively, you can use the bounce rate metric in the Explore section while analyzing the data and creating custom reports.

I hope it helps!

Feedback and additional pointers would be highly appreciated 

Nigetha Rajah Asked question February 24, 2023
1