How to Track Conversions with Google Analytics 4 to Maximize Your Marketing Efforts

Google Analytics is the missing piece for many companies looking to understand their ad performance through accurate data and audience insights. The newest version of Google Analytics 4 provides numerous resources to track conversion rates and understand ad performance to improve future campaigns and convert more leads. While Google Analytics 4 provides essential resources to expand their ad campaign reach, not all users can benefit from the platform without knowledge of the GA4 conversion tracking process.

Understanding conversions in Google Analytics 4 and mastering GA4 goals and the tracking process is critical to maximizing the benefits of this platform. GA4 is notable for its ability to track conversions as events, making it easy to identify the most effective ads garnering the most leads. GA4 provides the tools necessary to track several conversions, from purchases to subscriptions.

However, many professionals aren’t taking full advantage of Google Analytics’s benefits. This article will provide crucial information about how to track conversions in Google Analytics 4 and why the practice is so important, outlining the ins and outs of enabling events as conversions and how to effectively track conversions for more profound insights. Through this comprehensive guide, you can start taking full advantage of their Google Analytics 4 insights to improve ad performance. Let’s jump in!

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Conversions in GA4 describe any user action that is considered highly important, including purchases, web activity, newsletter subscriptions, form submissions, and similar actions that indicate further interest in a brand, product, or service.

There are three primary options for configuring conversions in GA4. Google provides the following to ensure that you have various opportunities to create and track conversions as they occur.

You can use existing events in GA4 and enable the events as a conversion. This option is ideal for a broad or standard conversion action that people frequently take that they want to track as a conversion. Using a current event as a conversion is possible by viewing existing events under the “Events” tab.

These events are already sharing data with GA4, and you can quickly select which events to track as conversions by selecting “Mark as Conversion”.

Another option you have in GA4 for tracking conversions is by creating a new event. This option is ideal for those who don’t want to report every page as a conversion but want to mark specific pages as conversions. Creating a new event based on a current event in Google Analytics allows you to create conversions without modifying their implementation. You can operate everything from within Google Analytics with this option.

The final option to track conversions in Google Analytics 4 is Google Tag Manager. You can choose this option when you can’t base a conversion on an existing event or an event created in GA4. Google Tag Manager allows you to track custom events, simplifying the conversion tracking process and providing critical insights into overall performance.

Tracking conversions with Google Analytics 4 is an excellent way to identify strengths and weaknesses in ad campaigns and optimize content to convert more leads. By tracking conversions, you gain actionable insights to better meet audience expectations in future campaigns.

Incidentally, Narrative BI platform provides you with the necessary resources to automatically interpret raw data and track GA4 conversions effectively for thorough campaign insights and receive automated reports on a schedule.

You no longer need to spend time manually reporting. With Narrative BI, you can automate Google Analytics 4 reporting process in a few clicks to enable the following actions:

• Efficient tracking for Events and Conversions
• Insights into audience behavior
• Comprehensive, AI-powered insights and data analytics
• Information on your most profitable marketing channels
• Analysis of conversion funnels
• Automated scheduled reporting
• Thorough understanding of online traffic
• Transforming raw data into actionable narratives and natural language reports
• Concise narratives to instantly identify audience trends, opportunities for growth, and data-driven insights to scale businesses

Start tracking your GA4 conversions

Depending on your needs, you may focus on the following individual event categories:

• Automatic: This option automatically tracks basic events.
• Enhanced: Enhanced tracking monitors additional events enabled in GA4 by default.
• Recommended: These events are specific to different industries to measure additional features and user behavior as outlined by Google.
• Custom: This category encompasses any event that does not fall into the other three categories.

Knowing how to track conversions in Google Analytics is critical to overall ad campaign success. Tracking conversions with GA4 is possible through the following steps:

1. Select “Configure,” then choose “Events.”
2. This action will reveal a list of events predefined by GA4: click, first_view, page_view, scroll, and session_view.

Because there are several options to track unique events and conversions in GA4, the following steps depend on whether you create a new event based on existing options or configure a tag in Google Tag Manager.

Enabling events as conversions is a relatively simple process. However, it’s important to note that this action will mark all given events as a conversion, which might not be ideal for all business needs.

1. To view your current list of events, go to the Admin panel and select “Events” in the property category.
2. All events will have a “Mark as conversion” toggle option. Choosing this option will mark related events as conversions; for instance, if you select “page_view” as a conversion event, all page views will be considered a conversion rather than specific instances.

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Most often, you don’t want to count every single action and view it as a conversion. GA4 allows you to track views of select pages and events to count as conversions.

Setting up these conversions requires you to create a new event based on a pre-existing one. This process can be accomplished through the following steps:

1. Select the proper account.
2. Navigate to “Admin”, “Events”.
3. Under “Events,” select “Create event”.

4. Name the event to easily identify it.
5. Add parameters to the event: “Event name” equals “page_view” or another event depending on the desired conversion type. This parameter allows you to link a new event to an existing one. “Page location” containing part of the URL, such as “/sign-up”, to specify the conditions for the conversion to occur.

6. If desired, you can add additional parameters to the event.
7. Save the event.
8. The event is now created but not marked as a conversion action. When the event appears under the “Events” section, you can mark it as a conversion.
9. If you don’t want to wait for the new event to appear, navigate to “Conversions” and select “New conversion event”.
10. Include the name of the recently created event when prompted to mark it as a conversion.

By doing so, you'll be able to label the recently created "sign_up" event as a conversion instantly, eliminating the requirement to wait for 24 hours for it to be visible on the Admin > Events page.

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The final option is to create an event in Google Tag Manager and mark the new event as a conversion. This option provides ample flexibility and gives you greater control over conversions in GA4.

In this scenario, suppose you have a form on your website that doesn't redirect to a new page. To track the submission button as a conversion, you can set up the event in Google Tag Manager accordingly.

Creating events in Google Tag Manager to mark as conversions requires completing the following steps:

1. Log into Google Tag Manager and choose “Variables.” For users new to Google Tag Manager, select the “Configure” option and double-check that all boxes under the “Forms” section are checked.

2. Afterward, click on 'Triggers.' Here, you'll need to generate a generic form submission trigger. By doing this, you'll be able to observe the form submission event within Google Tag Manager and determine the specific form ID required to activate your tag and conversion event in GA4.

1. Once you have finished the previous steps, enter preview mode in Google Tag Manager, enter your domain, and proceed to fill out a form on your website.
   
   If everything is set up correctly, you should be able to observe the form submission event along with your variables in Google Tag Manager.
   
   Scroll down to locate the "Form ID" and take note of the code, as you'll require this later in the setup process.

3. Next, select “Tags” > “New” and name the tag. Select “Tag configuration” and “Google Analytics: GA4 Event” to complete the setup. Under the “Event parameters” section, you can assign a value to the event. This value is displayed in Google Analytics when the event is triggered. Double-check that the tag is only triggered once per event.

4. Now, to create the trigger select the “+” symbol located in the top right-hand corner. Choose the “Form submission” option, then select “Some forms.” Locate “Form ID” in the drop-down menu and copy the code into the field. Select “Save” once complete.

5. Now, return to preview mode in Google Tag Manager to verify if the tag is firing correctly. To test its functionality, complete another form submission on the webpage you want to track.
   
   Afterward, go back to the form submit event you created in step 2. If everything has been set up correctly, you should be able to see your submission recorded in Google Tag Manager.
   
   Next, navigate back to “Tags” and click on 'Submit' to save your changes. This ensures that your configuration is now active and will track form submissions as intended.

6. Return to your Google Analytics 4 property. Keep in mind that it may take a few hours for your newly created event to appear in the “All Events” view. Once it becomes visible, you can proceed to designate it as a conversion.
   
   After marking it as a conversion, you should be able to find your new event listed under “Conversions” along with other reports within GA4. This will allow you to track and analyze the performance of the event and gain insights from the data collected.

Marking events as conversions is only one part of the overall conversion tracking process. You require advanced solutions to track Google Analytics 4 conversions and understand their overall campaign performance. Platforms like Narrative BI provide you with the necessary resources to automatically interpret raw data and track GA4 conversions effectively for thorough campaign insights:

1. Narrative BI differs from other platforms because it goes beyond surface-level analytics to provide critical insights that make a difference in how you navigate their ad campaigns. 
2. Narrative BI provides in-depth knowledge of your marketing efforts to uncover patterns and opportunities for future growth while identifying anomalies and outliers that damage campaign performance.
3. Narrative BI ensures that you have the necessary tools to collect accurate and effective data to transform their ad campaigns and find greater success with their target audience. 

Start for free by signing up with Narrative BI today and find out how Narrative BI simplifies GA4 conversion tracking.

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Looking for more answers? Here are some frequently asked questions to ensure that you’re prepared to tackle and track GA4 conversions.

You can track several conversions in Google Analytics 4. GA4 no longer requires you to set goals based on limited conversion criteria. The new and improved system automatically marks 4 collected mobile app events as conversions while allowing you to mark up to 30 app or website events as conversions.

Google Analytics 4 does have conversion rates to understand performance and audience response to current campaign efforts. To locate conversion rates in GA4, you must mark specific events as conversions and set up conversions in Google Analytics and in their GA4 property.

After completing this process, you can access conversion rates. Rates automatically generate and can be included in Google Analytics reports for thorough performance analysis and insights.

Many users get confused when considering the differences between Google Analytics 4 events and GA4 conversions. The two elements are related to one another and contribute to a thorough understanding of overall ad performance and conversion rates.

All conversions are measured with GA4 events. Events in Google Analytics 4 are triggered when users interact with a website or online application and perform a specific action. The GA4 interface allows you to flag events contributing to your overall success and performance and mark these events as conversions. When an event is triggered, conversions are registered in the user’s GA4 property. You can then track conversion rates through GA4 reports with detailed insights.