Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool that you can use to see how well your website is working for your business. By tracking engagement on your platforms, GA4 offers insight into how users interact with your website. Simple to start and offering a variety of metrics and reports, GA4 can help you optimize your online store.
In our previous article, we explored a few of the metrics we can find illustrated on “Report Snapshot,” under “Reports.” However, another aspect of GA4 that we can use to aid our business decisions is “Events,” a metric that tracks specific interactions on your website.
When we first introduced GA4, we briefly discussed its predecessor, universal Analytics. One important change between Universal Analytics and GA4 is the concept of “Hits” and “Events.” In Universal analytics, interactions are defined as “Hits” and fell into predefined categories that you could track. Broadening the data that you can track, GA4 replaced “Hits” with “Events.” Events allow you to track any interaction in your site and give you the ability to pick and choose what’s important to you.
Types of events in GA4
While you can create events on your own, GA4 comes with a few default events that you can start tracking immediately. You can find these events along with events you create on your own in the “Engagement” tab under “Reports.” Let’s explore a few of categories that GA4 tracks automatically.
Page Views & Sessions
Some events that are automatically tracked follow user traffic on your pages. Whether it be for the first time, or a reoccurring user, GA4 identifies and tracks the pages a user loads, how long they stay on that page, when they leave, and much more. By giving users identifiers, GA4 can collect quality data that can separate a user reloading a page many times from multiple new users visiting your site. Such information can help you identify which pages are attracting users to remain on your site and which pages could be irrelevant or difficult for users to interact with, offering room for improvement.
Transactions & E-commerce
Default events for tracking the exchange of money are available for use in GA4. These events help you note when a user converts to a purchaser, diving into detail about the page and product that led to this development. These events also can track when, for example, a subscription-based customer cancels their subscription. Such data aids in defining what sells well and what products or services are not selling, backing your future business decisions.
Other User Interactions
Other default events that can be found as you start using GA4 are more granular interactions with your page. Downloads, link clicks, video play backs, and scrolling are just a few of the events you can find. Such data can be tied to specific pages, offering detailed data concerning what attracts your customer to dive deeper into your website. With a better understanding of your customers, you can improve customer experience and increase the conversion rate of your online store.
Want to Learn More?
Interested in using GA4 to gain a deeper understanding of your business? Want to learn more about the capabilities that GA4 has to offer? Save your seat today for Carrie Saunders’ “4-Day Google Analytics 4 Boot-camp.” In this bootcamp, Carrie will guide you in getting your GA4 account set up and exploring the many ways you can use it to optimize your business!
