How to Use Google Analytics (GA4)

Aaron Haynes

Nov 1, 2024

google analytics

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

Quick navigation

Alright, folks, the jig is up. Universal Analytics has officially left the building and (if you missed the cut-off date) has taken your old data with it.

So, there’s no avoiding it. It’s time to get acquainted with GA4.

Lame, I know. But it is what it is, right?

Let’s get you up to speed with the setup, the interface, the reports, and all the cool tricks that’ll make you a GA4 pro.

Setting Up Google Analytics 4

Alright, enough chit-chat. It’s time to roll up those sleeves and get our hands dirty with GA4.

Here’s where to start:

Step 1: Set up an Analytics Account

First, if you haven’t already got one, you’ll need to set yourself up with Analytics by creating an account. To do so, follow these steps:

Go to https://analytics.google.com. Enter your Gmail email address and hit Next, or select Create account and select whichever option is relevant to you—personal or business use.
Click Start measuring.
Enter an account name, scroll down the page, and click Next.
Enter a property name, enter the relevant reporting time zone and currency, and click Next.
Enter the business details, including the domain’s category and business size.
Set your business objects, slap that Next button, accept the Terms of Service, and choose your platform of choice—Web, Android, or iOS.
Set up the web stream by entering your domain’s address, setting a stream name, and hitting Create & continue.

After a moment, the Set up a Google Tag window will appear. We are going to use Google Tag Manager to set up Analytics so close this for now.

Last but definitely not least, copy the Measurement ID and store it somewhere safe for later.

Step 2: Create a Data Stream

Once your account is set up and you’re logged in, it’s time to set up a Google tag. To do so, head to Google’s Tag Manager platform and hit “Create Account.”

Next, enter your chosen account name, country, container name, and target platform, and hit “Create.” Then, accept the TOS and click “Yes.”

Nice! Your new account and container have now been created. You’ll now be presented with two pieces of code.

The first is the most important. This is the JavaScript container code and should be placed inside all of your website’s pages in the <head> tag, ideally as one of the first elements.

The second piece of code is the “NoScript” version of the container, which will load if someone has JavaScript disabled. However, since most tags in Google Tag Manager are JavaScript-based, this NoScript version won’t significantly improve data accuracy. So, if you can’t add this extra code, don’t sweat it.

Step 3: Add the GTM to Your Website

Copy both snippets of code and place them in the <head> and <body> sections of your website’s code. The process of doing this varies for different CMSs. Here’s a guide for Spotify, a guide for Wix, and a guide for Squarespace.

If you’re using a different website platform, search the support documentation from your platform provider for instructions on how to add the Google Tag Manager container code.

If you use WordPress, close the “Install Google Tag Manager” window and copy the container ID. The ID is easy to spot. You’ll find it on the top navigation bar, starting with “GTM-” followed by random letters and numbers.

Next, download and activate the plugin GTM 4 WordPress. Then, select Settings.

Enter your GTM ID as shown below and hit Save Changes. Under Container code ON/OFF, make sure it is toggled to On. If not, do this next and hit Save Changes again.

Once you’ve added the container code, your website will be connected to your Google Tag Manager container, and you’ll be able to manage and deploy tags through GTM.

Step 4: Configure the Tag

Now, you need to add Google Analytics to your website. Head back to the Tag Manager dashboard and hit Add a new tag.

Give the tag a name and click Tag Configuration.

Choose Google Tag as the tag type. Instead of pasting your Tag ID directly, create a new variable to store it by clicking the variable icon next to Tag ID. This allows you to reuse the ID for other tags and easily update it if needed.

In the top right corner, click the plus sign to make a custom variable, give the variable a name, and hit Variable Configuration. Then, under Utilities, select Constant as the variable type.

Now, paste the Measurement ID (remember from step 1?) as the value. And last, click Save.

When you’re back to the Tag Configuration window, click Triggering. Choose the Initialization – All Pages trigger to fire the tag on every page of your website before any other tags (except for consent-related tags).

Save the tag and then click Submit to publish your changes. You can name your version and add a description if needed. Click Publish to deploy the tag on your website.

After waiting 24 hours, you should start seeing data in your GA4 reports. Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed Google Analytics 4 using Google Tag Manager!

Linking Google Ads and Google Search Console to GA4

You can also link Google Ads and Google Search Console (GSC) to GA4. Let’s start with Google Ads:

Linking Google Ads

From the dashboard, head to Admin, located at the bottom of the left-hand navigation menu.

In the Product Links card, select Google Ads Links.

To link the accounts, you’ll need the appropriate permissions in both Google Analytics and Google Ads. In Google Analytics, you’ll need “Editor” or “Administrator” access. In Google Ads, you’ll need “Administrator” access. If you don’t have these permissions, you’ll need to request them from someone who does.

Once you’ve confirmed your permissions, click the Link button in the top right corner. Choose the Google Ads account you want to link to your GA4 property. Review the linking settings and click Confirm. You can usually leave the default settings as they are, but feel free to customize them if needed.

Click Submit to finalize the linking process. You should see a “Link Created” message confirming that your Google Ads and GA4 accounts are now connected.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully linked your Google Ads and GA4 accounts,

Linking Google Search Console

Select Search Console Links. To link the accounts, you’ll need the appropriate permissions in both Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Same thing as before, in Google Analytics, you’ll need “Editor” or “Administrator” access. In Google Search Console, you’ll need to be a verified owner of the property.

Once you’ve confirmed your permissions, click the Link button in the top right corner. Then, click Choose accounts. Select the Search Console property you want to link to your GA4 property. Review the linking settings, click Confirm, and then Next. Then, select the web data stream that corresponds to the website you’re linking from Search Console. Click Next.

Click Submit to finalize the linking process. You should see a success message confirming that your Search Console and GA4 accounts are now connected.

Using Google Analytics Reports

Now we’re all set up, let’s quickly explore GA4’s dashboard and then jump into the most important part: the reports.

Top Navigation Bar

At the top of the dashboard, you’ll find a drop-down menu. Here, you can view and select the Google Analytics accounts and properties you have access to. You might only have access to a single account, so you’ll only see one mentioned here. Or, if you manage multiple websites, several different accounts might be listed.

Each account can have one property or multiple properties listed. A property is a set of reports, so if you have multiple reports set up across multiple properties, you’ll see them all listed here.

You can think of an account as a folder that stores reports for different websites, while a property is a set of reports for a website.

Home

When you first log in to GA4, you’ll land on the Home report. It provides a top-level overview of a website.

At the top, you’ll see key metrics like event count, key events, purchases, and new users over the last x amount of days. You can easily adjust this date range to see how these metrics have changed over time. The trendline shows you the overall trend for the selected metric, while the dotted line provides a comparison to the previous period.

The next card displays the number of users currently active on your site in the last 30 minutes, giving you a real-time pulse of your website’s activity. Below this, you’ll find quick links to recently viewed reports and settings, making it easy to jump back into your analysis.

The Insights and Recommendations card is where GA4’s machine-learning magic comes into play. It surfaces automated insights tailored to your website, showing predicted ranges for important metrics and highlighting any unexpected spikes or dips. You can also configure custom insights based on your specific needs and goals.

At the top of the screen, you can easily switch between different Google Analytics accounts and properties. Next to the account and property switcher, you can use the search bar to quickly find specific reports, help articles, or insights based on your data.

And on the left-hand side, you’ll also find the navigation menu, giving you access to the different sections of GA4, including Reports, Explore, Advertising, and Admin.

Reports

The Reports section is where you really get into the nitty-gritty of your website’s performance. It’s filled with charts, graphs, and tables that reveal your site visitor’s behavior. From the top right-hand corner, you can select different date ranges. You can select from predefined ranges or create your own custom range. By default, it will be set to 28 days.

From the left-hand-side navigation bar, you’ll find a range of different reports you can cast your analytical eye over. These include the Reports Snapshot, along with the Realtime report, and reports for Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, and so on.

The specific reports available in the menu depend on the options chosen when the property was created. Someone with editor or administrator access can also customize the menu and reports through the Library option, which appears at the bottom of the reporting menu.

If you see a different set of reports in your GA4 property, it might be because different options were selected during setup or someone has customized the menu. Just remember that you have the option of customizing the standard reports in Google Analytics to fit your specific needs and preferences.

Reports Snapshot

The Reports Snapshot provides a top-level overview of your website, similar to the home report. It shows key metrics like the number of users, new users, average engagement time, and revenue. It also includes a card showing the number of users who have been to the website in the last 30 minutes.

Below this, you’ll find additional cards that show top-level summaries of various aspects of your website’s performance, such as:

Top channels driving new users
Top marketing channels driving sessions
Geographic location of users
Number of active users
User retention
Top pages viewed
Events collected
Key events used for conversions
Products purchased

Realtime Overview

Want to see what’s happening on your website right now? The Realtime report processes data within seconds, so you can see up-to-the-minute insights into user activity.

It’s particularly useful for tracking the immediate impact of campaigns or promotions. For example, if you’ve just sent out an important email campaign, you can check if people are clicking through to your website and viewing the pages you expect.

Each card in the Realtime report includes a bar chart that displays user activity over the last 30 minutes. The current minute is on the right, and each bar to the left represents another minute, allowing you to see how user activity has changed over time.

You can also see the total number of users on your website in the last 30 minutes, their geographic location, and how they found your website. This includes information on whether they came from organic search, social media, paid campaigns, or other sources.

The report also shows you:

Audience inclusion: See if users are being included in any defined audience lists.
Content viewed: Track the pages people are currently viewing on your website.
Events collected: Monitor various events, such as page views, scrolls, and other interactions.
Key events and conversions: See which key events are being triggered, including those that indicate conversions.
User properties: View any user properties that have been collected.

For an even more granular view, you can check out the View User Snapshot feature. This randomly selects a current user and displays the events they have triggered on your website, including page views and other interactions. You can click on individual events to view more details, such as the page they viewed and other parameters collected with the event.

Acquisition

The Acquisition Overview report provides a high-level summary of your traffic sources, including the number of users, new users, and a real-time card showing current activity. You can also see how new users are finding your website, broken down by channel groupings like Organic, Direct, Referral, and CPC.

To get even more granular, you can modify the dimensions in each card. For example, you can switch from First User Medium to First User Default Channel Group to see a more detailed breakdown of the channels driving new users to your site.

The User Acquisition report looks at how users first found your website, allowing you to analyze metrics and dimensions related to their initial visit. You can also add a second dimension to the report, such as Landing Page, to see the combination of how users found your website and where they landed.

The Traffic Acquisition report goes beyond the first visit and shows you how users found your website to start each of their sessions. This report provides more session-based metrics and allows you to analyze user behavior across different sessions.

Engagement

The Engagement reports reveal what users are actually doing on your website. Think of it as your website’s activity tracker, revealing which pages are getting the most love, how users are interacting with your content, and where they might be losing interest.

The Engagement Overview report provides a summary of key engagement metrics, such as average engagement time, engaged sessions, and event counts.

The Events report dives deeper into the actions users take on your website. This includes the default page view event, automatic events from enhanced measurement (like scrolls and outbound clicks), and any custom events you’ve set up to track specific interactions.

The Pages and Screens report is your content popularity contest, showing you the pages people are viewing on your website, ordered by the number of page views. You can see the page path for each page, giving you insights into the most popular sections and content on your site.

Monetization

The Monetization Overview report gives you a snapshot of your total revenue, including the total value from all events and the e-commerce revenue from transactions. Typically, these metrics will be identical unless you’re tracking revenue from non-e-commerce events by assigning them monetary values.

You can also see the total number of users who have made a purchase, the number of first-time purchasers, and the average purchase revenue per user.

The Ecommerce Purchases report provides a more detailed breakdown of the items people are buying. It shows metrics for each item by item name, and you can change the dimension used for the report using the drop-down menu.

User Attributes

The User Attributes report gives you a high-level summary of your audience’s characteristics, including their geographic location (by country and city), gender, interests, age, and language preference.

If gender, interests, and age are missing, it means you haven’t enabled Google Signals.

The Demographic Details report offers a more granular breakdown of your audience’s geographic location. You can see metrics by country or city, and you might notice some users categorized as not set. This simply means that Google Analytics couldn’t determine the specific city for those users, so it’s essentially an unknown category.

Tech

The Tech Overview report gives you a high-level summary of your audience’s tech stack, including their operating systems, device types, browsers, and screen sizes. You’ll also see a breakdown of device categories, such as desktop, tablet, and mobile.

You might notice some blank cards in the report. These are typically used for reporting on app data, so they won’t be populated if you’re only tracking a website.

The Tech Details report offers a more granular breakdown of the technology used by your audience. By default, it shows the browsers people are using, but you can easily switch to other dimensions like Device Category using the drop-down menu. This allows you to see metrics broken down by the types of devices people use to access your website.

Explorations

The Explore section is your sandbox for advanced data analysis. It’s where you can go beyond the standard reports and create different custom reports and visualizations. Across the top of the Explore section, you’ll notice a bunch of premade reports that you can click on and customize:

- Free-form exploration is the default view, similar to the traditional reports, but with more flexibility for customization. You can easily drag and drop dimensions and metrics to create custom tables and charts.
- Funnel exploration allows you to visualize your users’ conversion journeys step-by-step, identifying any bottlenecks or drop-off points.
- Path exploration shows the flow of users through your website, highlighting popular paths and identifying any unexpected loops or dead ends.
- Segment overlap lets you compare different segments of users, such as visitors from organic search vs. paid traffic or new users vs. returning users. You can see how these segments overlap and identify any unique behaviors or trends.
- Cohort exploration allows you to analyze groups of users who share a common characteristic, such as when they first visited your site. You can track how these cohorts behave over time and identify any patterns or trends.
- User lifetime lets you see additional lifetime user metrics, such as the total number of sessions and the average session duration.

User Exploration allows you to drill down on individual users, allowing you to pull apart just about any metric you want to track or explore.

Under the list of custom reports, you’ll see a list of reports you and someone on your team has created.

Creating a Custom Exploration Report

Let’s walk through the steps to create two exploration reports from scratch:

Creating a Campaigns-focused report

In the top left corner, name your report.
Choose the desired date range for your report (e.g., “Last 30 days”).
Click the plus sign next to Dimensions and search for Session campaign. It’ll show the names of the campaigns that are sending traffic to your website.
Click the plus sign next to Metrics and select Sessions, Total Users, and Key events. Click Import.
Double-click or drag the elements to the appropriate sections. Add Session campaign under Rows and the Metrics under Values.
To remove non-campaign data, add a filter. Select Filters, choose Session campaign, and then select Does not match regex. Enter the regular expression “^$.*$$” to exclude campaigns that start and end with parentheses.

Creating a Conversion-focused report

Name your report and set the data range, as you did before.
Under Technique, from the dropdown menu, select Funnel Exploration. This will allow you to visualize the steps you want people to take to convert to your website.
Specify the steps:
- Name the first step (e.g., “Checkout”) and select the corresponding event (e.g., “checkout”).
- Add another step and specify the desired sequence of events (e.g., “Payment Info,” “Purchase”).
- You can customize the funnel by enabling options like Make Open Funnel or Trended Funnel.

Advertising

The Advertising section is your go-to for understanding how your marketing campaigns are impacting your bottom line.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can do in the Advertising section:

Track campaign performance: See how your different marketing campaigns are performing, including metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue.
Analyze cross-channel performance: Understand how your marketing efforts across different channels (e.g., search, social media, email) are contributing to your overall goals.
Evaluate attribution models: Explore different attribution models to see how credit is assigned to various touchpoints in the customer journey.
Make informed budget decisions: Use the data and insights to optimize your budget allocation and ensure you’re investing in the most effective channels and campaigns.

The Advertising Snapshot provides a top-level summary of your marketing channels, including the performance of any linked Google Ads campaigns. You can compare the total number of conversions to those coming specifically from Google Ads, giving you insights into the effectiveness of your paid advertising efforts.

The snapshot also shows the overall number of key events broken down by channel, any automated insights, and the top paths leading to key events. This helps you understand the relationship between your marketing channels and how they contribute to conversions.

The Conversion performance report provides a visual representation of the marketing touchpoints people engage with before converting. You can see the different paths users take, including those that involve multiple channels, giving you a clearer understanding of how your marketing efforts work together to drive conversions.

The Attribution paths report provides a visual representation of the different touchpoints users interact with before converting on your website. It shows the various paths users take, highlighting the sequence of interactions they have with your marketing channels before triggering a conversion event. This report helps you understand how different channels work together to drive conversions and identify the most influential touchpoints in the customer journey.

The Attribution models report allows you to compare different attribution models and see how they assign credit for conversions to various touchpoints in the customer journey. It lists your marketing channels and shows the number of conversions and revenue attributed to each channel based on different models.

The report allows you to see how the choice of attribution model can affect the perceived value of your marketing channels and make more informed decisions about budget allocation and optimization strategies.

The Planning reports provide a more detailed look at your marketing channels and campaigns. The All Channels report shows the performance of all your channels, while the Google Ads report focuses specifically on your Google Ads campaigns.

Finally, the Advertising Segments report shows you how many users are available for targeting in Google Ads, which can be helpful for planning remarketing campaigns.

Looking for an alternative? We’ve got you 👉 Google Analytics alternatives.

Conclusion and Next Steps

So, there you have it—Google Analytics 4 in a nutshell. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve left a lot out (I could write 10,000 words about all of its features), but this will more than get you started.

If you need more help, why not reach out? Here at Loganix, we offer a ton of SEO and PPC services that’ll suit both agencies and website managers, including link-building, auditing, and Google Ads management services.

Ready to kick your marketing game up a notch?

👉 Head over to our services page, and let’s get you started down the road to success.

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

Explore Services

Written by Aaron Haynes on November 1, 2024

CEO and partner at Loganix, I believe in taking what you do best and sharing it with the world in the most transparent and powerful way possible. If I am not running the business, I am neck deep in client SEO.