top of page
Blakfy logo: digital marketing agency

Google Analytics 4: A Beginner's Complete Guide

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) replaced Universal Analytics as Google's standard web measurement platform. If you are coming from UA, GA4 will feel unfamiliar — and that is because it is fundamentally different, not just redesigned. Understanding those differences is the starting point for using it effectively rather than fighting against it.

This guide covers what GA4 is, how to set it up, what its core reports show, and which metrics actually connect to business outcomes.

⠀

How GA4 Differs from Universal Analytics

⠀

Universal Analytics organized data around sessions — groups of interactions within a set time window. Bounce rate measured how many sessions had only one pageview. Goals were configured separately and tracked specific actions.

GA4 is built around an event-based model. Every user interaction — a pageview, a scroll, a click, a form submission, a video play — is recorded as an event with associated parameters. There are no sessions in the traditional sense; GA4 still calculates session metrics, but the underlying data structure is events all the way down.

This shift has several practical consequences:

  • Bounce rate is replaced by engagement rate. An engaged session is one that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a conversion event, or has at least 2 pageviews. Engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that meet any of these criteria.

  • Goals are replaced by conversions. Any event can be marked as a conversion in the GA4 interface without separate configuration.

  • Cross-platform tracking is native. GA4 can track both web and app interactions in the same property, using the same event schema.

  • Data-driven attribution is the default. GA4 uses machine learning to distribute conversion credit across touchpoints, rather than defaulting to last-click attribution.

⠀

⠀

Setting Up GA4

⠀

Step 1: Create a GA4 Property

⠀

  1. Go to admin.google.com/analytics.

  2. Click Admin (gear icon, bottom left).

  3. Under Account, select the account or create a new one.

  4. Click Create Property, enter your property name, timezone, and currency.

  5. Fill in the business details in the next screens (industry category, business size, intended use).

⠀

Step 2: Add a Data Stream

⠀

After the property is created, you will be prompted to add a data stream. Select Web, enter your website URL and stream name. GA4 creates a Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX). You need this ID to install the tracking code.

Enhanced Measurement is enabled by default and automatically tracks scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement, and file downloads without additional code. Leave it enabled unless you have a reason to customize it.

Step 3: Install the GA4 Tag

⠀

Via Google Tag Manager (recommended):

  1. In GTM, create a new tag.

  2. Choose tag type: Google Analytics > Google Tag.

  3. Enter your Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX).

  4. Set the trigger to All Pages.

  5. Submit and publish.

⠀

Direct installation (without GTM):

Copy the Global Site Tag code snippet from your GA4 property's data stream settings. Paste it in the <head> section of every page, or use your CMS's header code injection feature.

Allow 24-48 hours after installation before the reports start populating. Use the Realtime report to verify the tag is firing by visiting your site and confirming an active user appears.

⠀

Key Reports in GA4

⠀

GA4's reporting interface is organized into several sections. Here are the ones most useful for day-to-day analysis:

Acquisition Reports

⠀

Found under Reports > Acquisition. The Traffic Acquisition report breaks down sessions by channel (Organic Search, Direct, Referral, Paid Search, Social, Email). The User Acquisition report shows where your new users came from, using first-touch attribution.

Use these reports to understand which channels drive volume and which drive quality. A channel with high sessions but low engagement rate is sending the wrong audience.

Engagement Reports

⠀

Found under Reports > Engagement. The Pages and Screens report shows which URLs get the most views, average engagement time, and conversions. Events report lists all events being tracked and their counts. Conversions report shows events you have marked as conversions.

The engagement reports replace the old Behavior section. Average engagement time is a more reliable signal than average session duration, because it only counts time when the page is actually in focus.

Monetization Reports

⠀

Relevant primarily for e-commerce and app monetization. If you have Google Ads linked and e-commerce tracking implemented, this section shows revenue, purchase conversion rate, and item-level performance.

Retention Reports

⠀

Shows new vs. returning user ratios and user retention curves. For content sites and SaaS products, the 1-day and 7-day retention metrics indicate how well your content or product brings users back.

⠀

Setting Up Conversions

⠀

In GA4, a conversion is any event you designate as one. The default events you can mark as conversions include purchase, sign_up, generate_lead, and first_visit. For custom actions (contact form submission, PDF download, specific button click), you first need to ensure the event is being tracked, then mark it.

  1. Go to Admin > Events.

  2. Find the event you want to track as a conversion.

  3. Toggle "Mark as conversion" to on.

⠀

If the event is not listed yet because it has not fired, you can create a custom event in GA4's interface or via GTM. At Blakfy, we always configure at least contact form submissions and phone number clicks as conversions before any site analysis — without conversion data, all traffic reports lack context.

⠀

Explorations for Custom Analysis

⠀

The standard reports in GA4 are limited in flexibility. Explorations (found in the left navigation) is GA4's custom analysis workspace. It offers several analysis templates:

  • Free-form exploration: A pivot-table style interface where you drag dimensions and metrics to rows and columns. Use this to cross-analyze channels with landing pages, or segment new users by device type.

  • Funnel exploration: Define a multi-step funnel and see where users drop off. Essential for e-commerce checkout analysis and lead generation flows.

  • Path exploration: Shows the sequence of pages or events users follow. Useful for finding unexpected navigation patterns or common exit points.

  • Segment overlap: Visualizes how different user segments intersect.

⠀

Explorations are saved to the property and can be shared with other users. They are the most powerful analytical feature GA4 offers and are worth learning before relying on third-party BI tools.

⠀

Connecting GA4 to Other Google Tools

⠀

Google Search Console: Link in Admin > Property Settings > Product Links > Search Console Links. Once linked, the Search Console reports in GA4 show organic query data alongside GA4 engagement data — you can see which search queries drive engaged users versus shallow visitors.

Google Ads: Link in Admin > Product Links > Google Ads Links. This enables auto-tagging, which passes GA4 conversion data back to Google Ads for bid optimization. Without this link, your Ads campaigns cannot use GA4 conversions for smart bidding.

⠀

Key Metrics to Track

⠀

Not all GA4 metrics are equally actionable. Focus on:

  • Engaged sessions: Sessions that meet GA4's engagement criteria. More meaningful than total sessions.

  • Engagement rate: The percentage of sessions that were engaged. Below 40% on a content site suggests traffic quality or content relevance issues.

  • Session conversion rate: Conversions divided by sessions. The core performance metric for any goal-oriented traffic.

  • Average engagement time per session: How long users actually interact with your content. Compare across channels and landing pages.

  • New user vs. returning user ratio: Context-dependent, but a site with 95% new users and 5% returning users has a retention problem worth investigating.

⠀

⠀

Privacy and Data Retention Settings

⠀

GA4 defaults to 2 months of event data retention. Extend this to 14 months in Admin > Data Settings > Data Retention. This extends the lookback window for Explorations — standard reports are not affected, but custom analyses are.

Review your data collection settings (Admin > Data Settings > Data Collection) to understand what consent-mode and measurement features are active. In markets with GDPR requirements, ensure your consent management platform is integrated with GA4 to avoid collecting data from users who have not consented.

⠀

⠀

FAQ

⠀

Is GA4 better than Universal Analytics?

For cross-device and cross-platform measurement, GA4 is significantly more capable. For simple web analytics that match what marketers were used to, the learning curve is steep. The answer depends on what you are measuring — for most businesses running web-only properties, GA4 is different but not necessarily better or worse once you learn where everything is.

Do I need Google Tag Manager to set up GA4?

No, but it is strongly recommended. GTM makes it much easier to add and modify tracking without touching code, which is valuable when you need to add custom events or conversion tracking later. Direct installation works for the base tag, but you will hit limitations quickly without GTM.

Why are my GA4 numbers different from what Universal Analytics showed?

GA4 and UA measure differently. GA4's session calculation, bot filtering, and attribution model are not the same as UA. Expect discrepancies of 10-30% on session counts and engagement metrics. Use GA4 data as a baseline for measuring your own progress going forward, rather than benchmarking against UA historical data.

Can GA4 track form submissions automatically?

Enhanced Measurement does not automatically track form submissions. You need to set up custom event tracking via GTM (listening for form submission events) or via your CMS's built-in analytics integration. Confirming form submission tracking is working correctly should be one of your first implementation checks.

bottom of page