Google Analytics 4 for Beginners Chapter 3
Chapter III: Conversion Tracking with Google Analytics 4
#3.1. What is a conversion in general?
A conversion is a specific and relevant action that you want your visitors/users to take. Conversions can be divided into micro and macro conversions. An example of a micro conversion could be a newsletter signup, white paper download, etc.
Micro conversions are often described as conversions that take your visitors/users one step closer to the main (macro) conversion.
Macro conversions are the most important interactions, like a purchase.
By tracking conversions, you can better understand what’s working for your business and what’s not. For example, you can create a segment of your users who have made a purchase and try to understand what they are doing, what their behavior is, etc. Additionally, conversions are used to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and redistribute your advertising budget.
Now, let’s learn how to track conversions with Google Analytics 4.
#3.2. Goodbye, targets. Hello conversions!
Those who have worked with previous versions of Google Analytics, for example Universal Analytics, are familiar with the term “Google Analytics Objective”. Basically, that’s what GA called conversions in the past.
If you want to treat a pageview of the order confirmation page as a conversion, you can create a destination goal.
There are other types of Universal Google Analytics goals with the following characteristics:
They are based on events and their parameters.
They are based on session duration (if a visitor spends more than X minutes on your site)
They are based on the number of page views per session
Also, it’s worth mentioning that you can create up to 20 targets per GA view. In GA 4, this limit is 30 conversions per property.
Well, with the advent of GA4, the concept of Google Analytics goals has disappeared. Now, the most important interactions are called conversions.
It is a change of concept that should have been made a long time ago. However, the name is not the only thing that has changed. Many things are different in Google Analytics 4 when it comes to conversions:
The way we have to configure them is different
Conversion rates are different
Speaking of ways to set up conversions in Google Analytics 4, there are two options (that you can control) and one preset. Let’s start with the last one.
#3.3. predefined conversions
There are several preset conversions that you can’t disable:
first_open (applies to mobile apps)
app_store_subscription_convert (applies to mobile apps)
app_store_subscription_renew (applies to mobile apps)
in_app_purchase (applies to mobile apps)
purchase (applies to websites and mobile applications)
If you go to your Analytics 4 property and click on Conversions (in the left menu) you will see the list of these pre-defined conversions (they will be shown if you have received at least one event with that specific name). If you only have the web feed connected to the property, its only default conversion will be purchase (and it can’t be disabled).
If you’ve connected any of the app’s data streams, you’ll likely see the rest of the aforementioned conversions as well. But since there isn’t much to configure, that’s all I can say in this section.
Now, let’s move on to the next group of conversions.
#3.4. Conversions that can be enabled
Now, if you want to mark an event as a conversion, just go to Settings > Events (in the left sidebar) and then toggle the switch next to the event that’s important to your business.
So, for example, if you have an event called ebook_downloaded , you can change the button and make it a conversion (Note: this will only apply to new data. Events that were collected in the past won’t convert to conversions retroactively).
Conversions that can be enabled
Alternatively, you can go to Settings > Conversions (in the left sidebar), click New Conversion Event and enter the name of the event, eg ebook_downloaded . There is no difference between entering the event name manually and clicking the toggle in the Configure > Events list. Except that if you decide to change the button, you’ll first need to wait until that event appears in the list.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll have to wait up to 24 hours to start seeing conversion data in the list of all conversions.
#3.5. Create events and mark them as conversions
What if you don’t want to mark ALL events (for a given event name) as conversions?
Example: You have a “thank you” page that users are redirected to when they sign up for a newsletter. Let’s say the URL is https://www.mywebsite.com/thank you/ . If I mark the page_view event as a conversion, then ANY pageview will become a conversion.
How can I separate only the page views obtained on the /thank you/ page?
You can send a dedicated event (with a different name) from Google Tag Manager/Gtag.js or use the Create Event function in the GA4 interface.
You will then need to enter the name of the custom event. Again, you can name it whatever you want. Just make sure the name clearly communicates what it means.
#3.6. Where can I see conversion data in GA4 reports?
Settings > Conversions section in the left sidebar menu. This place is like an overview of all the events you’ve marked as conversions.
Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and then there is a Conversions column in the table
If you’ve implemented ecommerce tracking, the data will appear in your monetization reports
Explore: For example, you can include the Conversions metric in your explore report.
Chapter IV: Reports in Google Analytics 4
With Google Analytics 4 reports you will achieve the following:
How to track and report site searches with GA4
Free form reports in GA4 (formerly Explorations)
How to track and report scroll events in GA4
How to report clicks on outbound links in GA4
Funnel Exploration Reports
Route Scan Reports