Thursday, November 21

Tag: Google Analytics 4

Scroll tracking with Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager

Scroll tracking with Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager

Compared to Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 offers more built-in tracking capabilities. This includes file downloads, outbound clicks, scroll tracking, and more. But did you know that the built-in scroll tracking in Google Analytics 4 tracks only when someone scrolls below the 90% percent mark of the page height? What if you want to track other thresholds as well (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%)? Maybe in the future, that will also become built-in, but as of the moment of writing this blog post, it’s either 90% or nothing. In this blog post, I wanted to show you how to implement scroll tracking with Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager. There are two possible approaches here and I’ll explain them both. Also, I’ll show several examples of the Analysis Hub report where you can see your scro...
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“Pages per Session” Conversion in Google Analytics 4

In Universal Analytics, conversions were called “goals” and there were several types of them that you could create: destination-based goal, event-based goal, session-duration-based, and a goal that counted based on the number of pages per session. When Google Analytics 4 was introduced, it was still pretty simple to recreate destination-based and event-based goals/conversions. But about the other two types? Currently, conversions based on session duration (e.g. if a session is longer than 5 minutes, that’s a conversion) would still require some additional code (or input from developers), thus it’s quite challenging (I’ve added this idea to my backlog of ideas for blog posts). But if you want to track conversion if a visitor views 3 or more pages per session, that is completely possible ...
How to Use Exploration Reports in Google Analytics 4
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How to Use Exploration Reports in Google Analytics 4

Compared to Universal Analytics, Google Analytics is missing a lot of predefined reports that we are familiar with (e.g. landing page, site search, etc.). I don’t know if this will change in the future, but I hope so! In the meantime, we got a pretty powerful suite of reporting capabilities called Analysis Hub. It’s the place where you can do ad-hoc analysis and dig deeper into your data. In today’s blog post, I wanted to focus on one particular part of it, Exploration Reports in Google Analytics 4. Table of contents Main components Variables Segments Dimensions and metrics Tab settings Segment comparisons Rows Columns Values Filters The Output (report) Examples of Exploration reports Landing pages report Order coupon code report Additional things ...
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Enhanced Measurement in Google Analytics 4: The Guide

When installed on a website (without any additional configurations), Universal Analytics (a.k.a. GA3) was tracking just page views. If you want to see any other interactions in your reports, you’d have to implement additional event tracking. To improve that, Google Analytics 4 offers more out-of-the-box interactions that are tracked without the need to change the website’s code or configure a GTM container. That suite of auto-tracking features is called Enhanced Measurement. Of course, you will still need to implement a bunch of recommended or custom events to get the most out of GA, but the enhanced measurement is a welcome addition for those who are just looking for very basics. However, there are some nuances as well (that I’ll also talk about).   Table of Contents + Hide table of co...
Google Tag Manager

Track Clicks with Google Analytics 4 and GTM

If you are just starting to get a grip on Google Tag Manager, click tracking is probably one of the most demanded things you want to implement. There are many clickable elements on your website and you want to understand how website visitors are interacting with them. In this blog post, we will take a look at how to track clicks with Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager. First, we will look at some automatic click-tracking capabilities in GA4, and then we will extend the list of tracked events with help of GTM. By the way, if you are completely new (or just starting) with Google Analytics 4, download my free e-book below. Ready? Let’s get started. Table of contents + Hide table of contents + Why track clicks? Automatic click tracking in GA4 (Enhanced Measurement) Track...
A Guide to DebugView in Google Analytics 4
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A Guide to DebugView in Google Analytics 4

When you implement something in Google Analytics (or any other platform), never trust your gut. Always verify that the data was actually received by the platform and is displayed in reports the way you expect it. In Universal Analytics, this was done by checking real-time reports (to verify events, conversions, page views). But if you wanted to debug things like Enhanced Ecommerce, you had to wait until the data lands in the standard reports. This means hours of delay between the configuration and the actual debugging. Luckily, that has changed in GA4 with a new feature called DebugView (I mean, it’s new if we compare to Universal Analytics). DebugView in Google Analytics 4 allows checking the incoming data at a more granular level (without the need to wait for hours). Table of Conte...
Recommended Events in Google Analytics 4
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Recommended Events in Google Analytics 4

There’s a lot to cover when it comes to event tracking in GA4. But since the platform is now event-based, it’s natural that I have a bunch of guides related just to events. In this quick guide, we’ll take a closer look at one group of events, recommended events. The list of recommended events (in alphabetical order) I presume that some of the visitors of this blog post are just looking for the full list of all recommended events in Google Analytics 4. If you’re one of them, then here it is. I have combined all lists from Google’s documentation into a single list. But if you want to learn the full picture of the recommended events, then jump to the next chapter and read/watch with great attention. add_payment_info (when a user submits their payment information). Parameters: coupon, curre...
A Guide to Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics 4
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A Guide to Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics 4

The thing with Google Analytics (or any other similar tool) is that it won’t help you much if you use it just “out of the box”. I’m talking about the classic “just add one line of JavaScript to your site and start tracking”. If you want to benefit from a platform, you have to customize your data collection. Every business is unique and you might want to track different things in order to understand how different parts are performing. And one of the ways how you can customize it is custom dimensions. Instead of just having some generic data, you can go really deep with your setup. Even though Google Analytics 4 offers better automatic tracking capabilities (compared to Universal Analytics), that’s not enough. In this blog post, I’ll show you how to configure Custom Dimensions in Google A...