GA4 Event Setup: Tracking What Actually Matters

Page views mean nothing if they don’t convert. Double traffic with zero revenue increase just raises server costs. GA4 custom events track the actions that correspond to business value: purchases, tool usage, signups.

Beyond Vanity Metrics

Traffic reports feel good but obscure reality. High visitor counts don’t indicate revenue without conversion data. The relationship between traffic sources and business outcomes requires deliberate tracking configuration.

GA4’s default events capture page views and basic engagement. Business-critical actions like purchases, form submissions, and feature usage require custom setup.

Essential Events to Track

Purchase events should include transaction value. Without value parameters, you see counts but can’t calculate revenue or return on ad spend. Every e-commerce transaction needs associated revenue data.

Tool usage events reveal feature adoption. Track when users click core functionality buttons. This data shows whether visitors engage with your product or bounce from landing pages.

Registration and login events mark funnel progression. Separating signups from purchases allows conversion rate analysis at each stage.

Implementation

Use gtag to fire custom events when users complete tracked actions. Place event calls within click handlers or success callbacks for the interactions you’re measuring.

In GA4’s admin interface, mark these custom events as key events (formerly conversions). Only marked events appear in conversion reports and become available as ad optimization targets.

Attribution Analysis

Configure attribution models to understand which channels drive value. Position-based attribution credits both first touch (how users discovered you) and last touch (what convinced them to convert).

Compare channel performance on key events rather than traffic. A channel sending half the visitors but twice the conversions deserves more investment than traffic volume suggests.

Testing Your Setup

Verify events fire correctly using GA4’s debug view. Misconfigured events produce misleading data. Confirm value parameters pass correctly for purchase events. Wrong data is worse than no data.