Hey there, I’m Benjamin from Loves Data.
In this video, you will learn how to configure conversions in Google Analytics 4 properties
(or GA4 for short).
Conversions are used to report on the most important actions taking place on your website
or in your app.
For example, you might want to report on the number of people completing a form on your
website, making a purchasing, or another important action.
Today we’re going to look at configuring a classic goal, based on people viewing a
thank you page after completing a form.
Let’s get started!
We’re currently in my GA4 demo property and we’re looking at the ‘All Events’
report.
On the right, we can see there is an option to enable any of our events as conversions...
We can see in my demo property, that there are five different events.
There are events named ‘click’, ‘first visit’, ‘page view’, ‘scroll’, and
‘session start’...
All of these events are automatically tracked by Google Analytics using the GA4 ‘Enhanced
Measurement’ feature.
If you see the event you would like to report as a conversion, then you can simply click
it, and then it will be enabled.
However, if we were to enable the ‘page view’ event as a conversion, this would
mean that every page view would then be reported as a conversion.
So if you wanted to only track a specific page as a conversion, this wouldn’t work.
This is the same for the other events you’re tracking...
For example, enabling ‘Scroll’ as a conversion means that every scroll event will count as
a conversion.
So if we want to track a specific page as a conversion, like our thank you page, we
need to track that individual page as a unique event.
There are two ways you can achieve this.
The first option is to create a new event inside Google Analytics based on an existing
event.
For example, we could create a new event when a page view event is reported for our thank
you page.
This is the easiest option since everything can be set up inside Google Analytics.
However, this feature is currently being released, so you might have to wait until it’s available
for your GA4 property.
The second option is to configure a new tag in Google Tag Manager that will report a unique
event each time someone views our thank you page.
For example, we could send an event called ‘generate lead’ when someone completes
the form on our website.
Let’s start by looking at the first option where we configure a new event inside Google
Analytics...
I’ve opened a different GA4 property and we’re looking at the ‘All Events’ report.
We can see this GA4 property has options to modify and create events...
If you don’t see these options, they are being released at the moment, so you can wait
until you see them for your property, or you can track new events using Google Tag Manager
(we will cover this in a moment).
Okay, let’s select ‘Create Event’...
And now let’s click ‘Create’...
I want to track people viewing my thank you page as a separate event, so I’m going to
name my event ‘generate’, ‘underscore’, ‘lead’...
And now we need to configure the conditions for when we want this event to be triggered.
We’re going to enter ‘page’, ‘underscore’, ‘location’...
Then ‘contains’...
And let’s enter ‘thank’, ‘dash’, ‘you’...
This will mean our new event will trigger every time someone views a page on our website
that has URL containing ‘thank you’.
Now let’s click ‘Create’...
Once our new event has been triggered, we can then enable the conversion in our reports.
Let’s select ‘Acquisition’...
And then ‘Traffic Acquisition’...
Moving forward, you will begin to see conversion data reported for the different ways people
are finding your website.
Just look for the ‘Conversions’ column in your reports...
That’s it!
If you don’t have the option to create new events inside Google Analytics yet, or you
would like to trigger an event based on a custom action, we also have the option of
using Google Tag Manager.
Let’s head to Google Tag Manager to take a look...
We can see we have an existing GA4 configuration tag.
This tag will automatically send events, including pageviews, to Google Analytics.
We’re going to create a new tag for our conversion.
So let’s create a new tag...
Let’s name the tag ‘Any Thank You Page GA4’...
Now let’s select ‘Tag Configuration’...
And let’s choose ‘GA4 Event’ as the ‘Tag Type’...
We need to select our existing GA4 configuration tag...
And let’s name the event ‘generate’, ‘underscore’, ‘lead’...
Now let’s select ‘Event Parameters’...
And let’s click ‘Add Row’...
We’re going to assign a value for each conversion, so let’s enter ‘Value’ as the ‘Parameter
Name’...
And let’s enter ‘10’ as the ‘Value’.
This means we will be reporting $10 as the average conversion value.
This is optional.
Now let’s add another row...
And enter ‘Currency’ as the ‘Parameter Name’...
And ‘USD’ as the ‘Value’...
And let’s add one more row...
Let’s enter ‘page’, ‘underscore’, ‘location’ as the ‘Parameter Name’...
And let’s click the variable icon...
And choose ‘Page URL’...
Now let’s select ‘Advanced Settings’...
And under ‘Tag Firing Options’, let’s select ‘Once per page’, so that our GA4
event tag only fires once per page.
Now let’s select ‘Triggering’...
And we need to create a new trigger that will only fire our GA4 event tag when someone views
a thank you page on our website.
Let’s click the blue plus sign...
Let’s name our trigger ‘Any Thank You Page’...
And let’s select ‘Trigger Configuration’...
You can create triggers for any action you’d like, but we’re going to create a trigger
that fires the tag based on the URL of the page someone is viewing on our website.
So let’s select ‘Page View’...
And then ‘Some Page Views’...
Now I’m going to select ‘Page URL’...
‘Contains’...
And I’m going to enter ‘thank’, ‘dash’, ‘you’...
This will mean that our tag is triggered whenever someone views a page that contains ‘thank
you’ in the URL.
Now let’s click ‘Save’...
And let’s save the tag...
You can now preview the changes to test them on your website, but I’m happy with the
new tag, so I’m going to publish the changes to my website...
Now we will begin to see the new event reported in Google Analytics and we can enable the
conversion in the ‘All Events’ reports.
And just to highlight, we’ve covered two options you can use to create events in Google
Analytics.
For each conversion you want to track, you only need to use one of these options.
You don’t need to do both.
So that’s how you can configure conversions in your GA4 property.
Remember that you will need to start by tracking the action into Google Analytics.
You can do this inside Google Analytics by creating a new event based on an existing
event.
Or you can use Google Tag Manager to send the event to Google Analytics for the particular
action you want to track.
Once an event has been enabled as a conversion, you will see it in the dedicated ‘Conversions’
report.
The event will also begin to collect attribution information that you can view in your reports.
If you’d like to learn more about GA4 properties, then join me in my GA4 course.
You can find a link to the course in the description below this video.
What events are you going to track as conversions?
I’d love to know!
Let me know in the comments below.
And if you found this video helpful please subscribe, share it with your friends, and
hit the like button so I know to make more videos like this.
See you next time!