What has happened to bounce rate?

Anyone who has worked with Google Analytics might have noticed that a specific stat has gone missing (and if you're lucky enough to be still using UA, we have some news for you: a stat change is coming). We've all been in meetings where a manager looks at the stats on the screen and says we need to get the bounce rate down!

But there are changes afoot as we all adjust to the new stats, but thankfully for us, we are about to get a lot of extra information. It's now a lot more useful (and hopefully, we don't need to keep explaining how we need to break it down page by page).

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has replaced bounce rate with two new metrics: Engaged sessions and Engagement rate. Google's official word is that "This change was made because the traditional bounce rate metric was no longer considered to be an accurate measure of user engagement in today's dynamic web environment." (sounds fair to me)

But what are these two dimensions?

First up, we have Engaged sessions! These are sessions that last for at least 10 seconds or that have at least one conversion event.

The next one is the Engagement rate! This is the percentage of engaged sessions (see point above).

These new metrics provide an understanding of how users interact with your website or app. They can be used to identify areas where you can improve user engagement and track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

So, to summarize the key differences between bounce rate, engaged sessions, and engagement rate:

• Bounce rate: The percentage of single-page sessions.

• Engaged sessions: Sessions that last for at least 10 seconds or that have at least one conversion event.

• Engagement rate: The percentage of sessions that are engaged.

I can guess your first thought – 10 seconds seems very low. However, studies have shown that most users will act on a website in that time. So, they should start to scroll, press a button, or make a purchase. But what if you wanted to change that time? Are we back brushing up on our Java and heading into tag manager? Thankfully not.

So, if you have longer-form content or want it to be longer, changing the time is easy:

1. Access Data Streams:

   - Sign in to your Google Analytics 4 property.

   - In the left navigation panel, select "Admin."

   - Click "Data Streams" under the "Property" column.

2. Choose a Web Data Stream:

   - Locate the web data stream you want to modify.

   - Click the "Settings" icon (gear symbol) next to the data stream name.

3. Configure Tag Settings:

   - At the bottom of the page, click "Configure tag settings."

   - In the "Settings" section, click "Show all" to see all available options.

   - Click "Adjust session timeout."

4. Set the Session Timeout:

   - Enter the desired session timeout duration in hours and minutes.

   - For example, to set a 20-second timeout, enter "0:00:20" (hours:minutes: seconds).

   - Click "Save" to apply the changes.

Earlier, you might have seen I said this was a good thing. When I used to teach GA, when I asked about bounce rate, the response was users who went to the site and left straight away. Well, with the engaged rate, people who are not engaged will leave in under 10 seconds.

Break this data down by your channel (or if you're feeling like diving even deeper, Source/Medium). If you see a low engagement rate for your paid adverts, you can make those changes. Is the newsletter not getting people reading the content? Are you putting in the right content? Is your X account getting visits but not engagement? Do I need to make page changes? This takes away one of the biggest misconceptions about bounce rate, which is that users leave straight away – well, now you know! Combine this with the default scroll stats, and you have a great gauge to know if you should or should not make changes to the site.

But why else?

• Helps with different website architectures: With more sites becoming single-page applications (SPAs) and mobile websites, the old bounce rate measurement would not have fulfilled your needs unless you knew to put in events and tracking through Google Manager yourself. So, this can start to unearth some issues without the need to add more to your GA install.

• Find deep engagement: Engaged sessions can last for several minutes and involve multiple user actions, indicating deeper engagement. Couple this with content groups, and you can find the content users are responding to.

• User behavior will always change: Users' expectations for websites and apps are constantly evolving. Knowing what gets them engaged will help you make these changes and ensure you fulfill their needs.

Understanding user engagement metrics helps adapt to evolving user behavior and ensures that websites and apps meet users' expectations effectively. Plus, it means you no longer have that one manager who says that the bounce rate is high to sound like they know the lingo (you know who you are!)