Google Analytics 4: A Complete Guide to Setup and Key Reports

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's current analytics platform, which replaced Universal Analytics in July 2023. It uses an event-based data model — tracking every user action as an event rather than organizing data around sessions and page views — and includes machine learning features for predictive audiences, anomaly detection, and attribution modeling.

Most businesses migrated from Universal Analytics to GA4 reluctantly or incompletely, leaving gaps in tracking and configuration that undermine the accuracy of their data. This guide covers a correct GA4 setup and the key reports that deliver actionable insights.

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Why GA4 Requires Deliberate Configuration

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Unlike Universal Analytics, which provided basic page view and session data with minimal configuration, Google Analytics 4 requires deliberate setup to track the events and conversions that matter for your business. A GA4 account that has been created but not configured tracks basic behavioral data — page views, sessions, device types — but misses:

• Specific conversion events (form submissions, purchases, button clicks, phone number clicks)
• E-commerce data (product views, add-to-cart, checkout steps, transactions)
• Scroll depth and engagement events
• Custom events specific to your business objectives

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An unconfigured or poorly configured GA4 account produces data that looks comprehensive but cannot answer the questions that drive business decisions.

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Setting Up Google Analytics 4 Correctly

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Step 1 — Create the property and data stream

In your Google Analytics account, create a new GA4 property. Add a Web data stream for your website. Copy the Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX format).

The data stream can be implemented in two ways:

• Direct on-page implementation: Add the Google tag (gtag.js) to every page of your website via the site's header code. Suitable for simple websites where technical access is available.
• Google Tag Manager: Create a GA4 Configuration tag in Google Tag Manager and publish. Preferred for most implementations because it allows future tag management without requiring direct code access.

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Step 2 — Configure conversion events

Out of the box, Google Analytics 4 tracks form submissions, outbound clicks, file downloads, and video engagement as events — but does not mark them as conversions. Navigate to Admin → Events and mark the events that represent actual business outcomes as conversions.

Most businesses should configure conversions for:

• generate_lead (form submission) — or the custom event name for your form
• purchase (if e-commerce)
• phone_click (click on phone number links)
• contact_form_submit (if distinct from general lead capture)
• book_appointment (if relevant)

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Step 3 — Configure e-commerce tracking (if applicable)

E-commerce tracking in GA4 requires additional implementation — tracking view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, add_payment_info, and purchase events with the relevant product data. Most major e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento) have native GA4 integrations that handle this; verify that the integration is configured and sending data correctly by checking the GA4 Realtime report while browsing the store.

Step 4 — Link Google Search Console and Google Ads

Linking Search Console to GA4 (Admin → Search Console links) enables organic search queries in the Acquisition reports. Linking Google Ads (Admin → Google Ads links) enables ad campaign data in GA4 without manual UTM parameter management.

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The Key GA4 Reports for Marketing Decisions

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Acquisition reports

The Traffic acquisition report (Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition) shows how users arrive at your site by channel: Organic Search, Direct, Referral, Paid Search, Email, etc. This is the starting point for understanding which marketing channels are driving traffic and — when combined with conversion data — which channels are driving revenue.

Filter by date range to compare periods. The User acquisition report shows new users only; Traffic acquisition shows all sessions including returning visitors.

Engagement reports

The Pages and Screens report (Reports → Engagement → Pages and Screens) shows which pages are receiving traffic, how long users spend on each page, and how often users engage (scroll, click, interact) versus immediately leave. High engagement time with low conversion rates on a key landing page indicates a disconnect between traffic intent and page content.

Conversion reports

The Conversions report (Reports → Engagement → Conversions) shows how many conversion events occurred and which events. The Funnel exploration in the Explore section lets you build custom conversion funnels to visualize where users drop off in a defined sequence.

Retention reports

The Retention report (Reports → Retention) shows what percentage of new users return to the site in subsequent weeks. Retention data is particularly valuable for businesses where repeat visits are part of the purchase journey.

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Using GA4 Explorations for Custom Analysis

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The standard reports in Google Analytics 4 cover the most common analytics questions. For custom analysis, use the Explore section:

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Funnel exploration: Build step-by-step funnels for any conversion path — landing page visit → product view → add to cart → purchase. Identify where the largest drop-off occurs and prioritize optimization at that step.

Path exploration: Visualize the sequence of pages and events that users typically follow before converting. Reveals whether users are following the intended path through your site or navigating unexpectedly.

Segment overlap: Compare the characteristics and behavior of overlapping user segments. Useful for understanding how specific campaigns or channels influence conversion behavior.

User lifetime: Analyze the revenue and behavior of users over their entire lifetime with your business. Particularly valuable for subscription businesses and e-commerce with repeat purchase potential.

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Common GA4 Configuration Mistakes

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Tracking internal traffic: If your own team's visits are included in GA4 data, the analytics will show inflated traffic and distorted behavior metrics. Define an IP filter in Admin → Data streams → Configure tag settings → List unwanted referrals and IP filters to exclude internal traffic.

Unconfigured conversions: As noted above, events need to be explicitly marked as conversions. Many GA4 implementations track events but never configure conversions, making it impossible to measure actual business outcomes.

Not enabling enhanced measurement selectively: Enhanced Measurement automatically tracks scroll depth, outbound clicks, and file downloads. These are useful, but the outbound click tracking can create misleading "events" for purely cosmetic links. Review which enhanced measurement events are relevant and disable those that are not.

Cross-domain tracking failures: If users travel between two domains you own (e.g., from your main site to a booking subdomain), the journey may be attributed as two separate sessions. Configure cross-domain tracking in Admin → Data streams → Configure tag settings → Configure your domains to ensure these are tracked as single user sessions.

Blakfy sets up GA4 correctly for new clients, audits and corrects GA4 configurations for existing installations, and builds the custom reporting that surfaces the data that drives marketing decisions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Is Google Analytics 4 harder to use than Universal Analytics?

GA4 has a steeper initial learning curve because the event-based model is conceptually different from Universal Analytics' session-based model, and many standard reports require different navigation paths. Once the setup is complete and the team is familiar with the interface, GA4 provides more flexibility and more powerful machine learning features than Universal Analytics offered.

How do I know if my GA4 is tracking correctly?

Use the Realtime report (Reports → Realtime) while performing key actions on your website — loading a page, submitting a form, clicking a CTA — and verify that the expected events appear. The Google Tag Assistant browser extension also helps diagnose whether the GA4 tag is firing correctly on each page.

What is the difference between GA4 events and Universal Analytics goals?

In Universal Analytics, goals were explicitly defined business outcomes. In GA4, every user action is tracked as an event, and specific events can be marked as conversions (the equivalent of goals). The GA4 approach is more flexible — any event can become a conversion — but requires more deliberate configuration to produce meaningful conversion reporting.

Should I use GA4 or a third-party analytics tool?

GA4 is the standard starting point because it is free, integrates natively with Google Ads and Search Console, and provides comprehensive behavioral data. Third-party tools (Mixpanel, Amplitude, Heap) are better suited for product analytics (tracking feature usage in SaaS products) or for businesses that need more complex cohort and funnel analysis than GA4's Explore section provides.