Hey there, I'm Benjamin from Loves Data. In
this video, you are going to learn all about events in Google Analytics 4 (or
GA4). We will cover what events are, and how events in GA4 compare to events in
the previous version of Google Analytics. We will also explore the events that are
automatically tracked into your reports, along with Google's recommended events,
and custom events. Okay, let's get started! With the introduction of Google Analytics 4,
the team at Google also introduced a new data model. The new data model gives you more control
and flexibility over the information you collect about your audience, their actions, and your
website. More options and greater flexibility also mean events can be confusing. And if
you've been using Google Analytics for a while, then you're probably already familiar with event
tracking, which has been available since 2007. So we will start by talking about the events we could
track in the previous version of Google Analytics (called Universal Analytics) and compare them to
the new events in Google Analytics 4. If you would like to skip ahead to a particular topic, then you
can find links to each of the topics we are going to cover in the description below this video.
First up, what are events in Universal Analytics? In Universal Analytics, events were designed to
track actions within your website's pages (or in your app). For example, if you wanted to track
the number of times people downloaded a file from your website, you would implement event tracking
and use the event reports to see the number of downloads. The two main issues with the previous
version of event tracking were the limits on the amount of information you could collect and the
constraints around reporting. When you implemented event tracking for Universal Analytics, you could
name the category of the event, name the action, include an optional label (to capture additional
information), and assign an optional value (like a dollar value). Here we can see an example of a
Universal Analytics event used to track a video embedded on a website... We can see the event
category is 'Video', the event action is 'Play', the event label is the URL of the embedded video,
and the event value is the amount of time someone has watched the video. If you wanted to capture
additional information, you would need to either replace one of the existing values or squeeze
the extra information in. For example, if you wanted to use event tracking to report clicks on
different promotional banners, you might define the event category as 'promotion', then the event
action as 'click', and the event label as 'summer specials', like we can see in this example. But
what if you had two banners for the promotion? You would then need to decide which of the
event parameters you would rename. For example, you might have one event label for 'summer
specials top' and another event label for 'summer specials sidebar'. This is okay, but it isn't
flexible, especially when it comes to reporting. If you want to report on the performance of the
promotion, you would need to include both labels. Otherwise, you would be missing data. Once you
implemented event tracking on your website, all of the events would be included in
the event reports. Let's take a look... In Universal Analytics, we can find the events
reports under 'Behavior'... And then 'Events'... When we select 'Top Events'... All of the events
that have been tracked are in these reports. So in Universal Analytics, events were
designed for tracking actions within a page. However, in Google Analytics 4, events are used
to send all types of data to your reports. This includes actions, details about your users,
and other information about your website. If we compare this to Universal Analytics,
data was always sent as a 'hit'. And there were predefined types of hits you could send,
which meant that you were out of luck if you wanted to collect custom information that
didn't match one of the predefined hit types. The hit types in Universal Analytics were:
pageviews, events, ecommerce, social interactions, exceptions, user timings, and screens. Hits are
replaced by events in Google Analytics 4, which means you can collect data for anything you like.
You're no longer restricted to these predefined options. This brings us to our next topic... What
can you track with events in Google Analytics 4? Well, in Google Analytics 4, you can use events
to track any action or piece of information you like. From the pages people view (which are
automatically tracked) to button clicks or even information you've collected in another
platform (like your email marketing platform or CRM). You can send the data to Google Analytics
using events. We will cover different ways you can use events in a moment, but here are some
examples of what you can track with events... Pages people load on your website... Actions
people perform within a page... Elements people have clicked... Information from the URL of
the page... Transaction and product details... Elements that are visible in the browser... And...
Details you've collected about a user... There are plenty of ways to use events, and it comes down
to your business, your audience, your objectives, and the type of reporting and analysis you want
to perform. Okay, so events let us track all types of things into Google Analytics 4. The next
important concept we need to cover are parameters. Parameters send extra information with events.
For example, the 'page_view' event is sent to your reports with the 'page_location' and the
'page_referrer' parameters. The 'page_location' parameter lets you see the URL of the page that
someone viewed, and the 'page_referrer' parameter lets you see the URL of the previous page they
viewed. Let's head to Google Analytics 4 to take a look... We're looking at the DebugView which lets
us see incoming events while we're testing our implementation. And we can see some events have
come through... Let's select one of the events... And we can now see all of the parameters that have
been sent with the event... Selecting a parameter, then lets us see the value or information
assigned to it... Google Analytics will automatically send parameters with each event.
These can include: The 'ga_session_id' parameter which includes the unique identifier assigned
by Google Analytics for the user's session. The 'page_location' parameter which sends the
URL of the page currently being viewed. The 'page_title' parameter which sends the title
of the page currently being viewed. And the 'page_referrer' parameter which sends the URL
that someone viewed before the current page. This can include other pages on your website
or third-party websites (if someone clicked through to your website from another website).
Additional parameters can also be sent for events that are automatically tracked by Google
Analytics. This brings us to automatic events. When you add the Google Analytics 4 tag to
your website, it will automatically track a number of events when someone views a page. For
example, Google Analytics will automatically track an event when someone spends at least
10 seconds on your website. Events that are tracked automatically include: The 'first_visit'
event which is collected the first time someone visits your website. This event is also
used to calculate the 'New Users' metric in your reports. The 'page_view' event which is
used to report on the page the user is viewing. The 'session_start' event which is used to
determine when the user's session started. A new 'session_start' event is triggered when
there is a period of inactivity of 30 minutes. The 'user_engagement' event which can
be collected periodically and is used to report when someone has spent at least 10
seconds on your website. These automatic events can't be switched off or disabled. They are the
critical components needed for Google Analytics, so you will find them in all Google Analytics 4
properties. Next, we have Enhanced Measurement. Apart from the automatic events we just covered,
you also have the option of using the Enhanced Measurement feature to collect additional data
automatically. Enhanced Measurement is configured for each data stream in Google Analytics 4. The
best way to think about Enhanced Measurement is that it lets you track optional automatic
events (while the automatic events we covered previously are mandatory). So with Enhanced
Measurement, you can choose to turn particular automatic events 'on' or 'off' depending on
what you would like to see in your reports. Enhanced Measurement lets you automatically
track one or more of the following actions: 'Scrolls' for people scrolling at least 90% of
a page. 'Outbound clicks' from your website to other websites. 'Site search' for the keywords
entered into your website's search function. 'Video engagement' of people watching embedded
YouTube videos. And 'Files downloads' for people downloading files from your website. Okay, let's
head back to Google Analytics to take a look... We're in the admin area of Google
Analytics. Let's select 'Data Streams'... And let's open the data stream... We can see
details for the data stream at the top, and then below this, we can see that Enhanced Measurement
is enabled. Let's select the configuration icon... We can then turn any of the Enhanced Measurement
events 'on' or 'off' in the interface. They will be set to 'on' by default, but if there are events
you don't want to track you can disable them. Enhanced Measurement also provides advanced
settings for the automatically collected page view events and site search events. For page views,
you can disable the 'Page changes based on browser history events' option... By default, this option
will automatically track page views when the URL of the page changes without the page reloading
or if content is loaded into the existing page without the page reloading. For example,
if JavaScript is used to include additional content on a page. It's looking for history
events in the browser. The other option you can adjust in Enhanced Measurement is the
configuration for the Site Search event... Apart from the default query parameters,
you can also adjust the query parameters Google Analytics uses to identify the keywords
people are using to search within your website. And you also have the option of adding
additional query parameters to collect further insights. For example, if your search
function lets people refine their search by choosing a search category, you could add this
to the 'Additional Query Parameters'. If you're just getting started, I recommend watching my
getting started with Google Analytics 4 video covering Enhanced Measurement. I've included
a link in the description below this video. Okay, we've covered events that are automatically
tracked into your reports, but what if you want to track something else? Something a little more,
custom? It's time to look at recommended events. Recommended events are a list of events and
parameters that are provided by Google. They're designed to give you a starting point for anything
custom you want to track into Google Analytics 4. They're grouped by industry, but you can use
any recommended events that fit your needs. Google provides a list of recommended events for:
All websites and apps. Retail and ecommerce. Jobs, education, local deals, and real estate.
Travel. And games. Let's head to the Analytics Help articles to take a look... We can see
the recommended event names on the left, the recommended parameters on the right, and
when to trigger the event in the center. Let's look at the recommendations for retail and
ecommerce websites (and apps)... We can see 'generate_lead' included in the list of
recommended events. However, we don't need to be running an ecommerce website for this
event to be useful. Any website aiming to capture leads should be using this event to report on the
number of people entering their contact details. The main thing to remember is that you
can use any of these recommended events on your website if they're appropriate. My
top picks from the list of recommended events include: The 'select_content' event
for tracking actions within a page. The 'select _promotion' event for tracking the
number of times a special offer was clicked. The 'view_promotion' event to understand the
number of impressions of a special offer. The 'generate_lead' event to track
the number of leads you've captured. The 'view_item' event to understand
when people view particular products. The 'add_to_cart' event to track people adding
items to their shopping cart. The 'purchase' event for successful ecommerce transactions. If
you would like to learn more about implementing recommended events on your website, then watch my
tutorial on 'click, button, and form tracking'. In the video, I show you how to track these
elements, and you will see recommended events (and parameters) being configured in Google Tag
Manager. I've included a link in the description below this video. If you've reviewed the
events that are automatically tracked (including the Enhanced Measurement options), and
you've checked the list of recommended events, then the final option is to create custom events.
This is where you decide how to name your events. You should aim for a consistent naming
convention. And, ideally, it should follow Google's recommended event names. This will help
keep things clear and logical in your reports. For example, you might let people rate products
on your website. You could then create a new event named 'product', 'dash', 'rating' that collects
people's rating selections. Although you can name your events anything you like, it's probably
better to follow Google's naming convention. If we look at the recommended events, we will see
the naming convention for products include 'view', 'underscore', 'item' and 'select', 'underscore',
'item', so we see the action or behavior is used first, followed by an 'underscore', then 'item'.
This doesn't quite align with our custom event of 'product', 'dash', 'rating'. Instead,
we should probably consider a custom event with the name of 'rate', 'underscore', 'item' to
follow a similar naming convention to other events that are already available in our reports. You can
then follow a similar approach for any parameters you send with your custom event. For example, we
would use recommended parameters like items and 'item', 'underscore', 'id' and a custom parameter
rating (or similar) for the actual rating people selected. This means we would end up sending the
following event to Google Analytics for someone who rated a product five out of five... And if you
want to see the event parameters in your reports, you will also need to register them as custom
dimensions or metrics. We will cover registering parameters in a moment. Now that we've covered
the different types of events, including Enhanced Measurement, recommended events and custom
events, it's time to look at how we can send events to Google Analytics. The first option is
creating a new event based on an existing event. For example, if you want to create an event for
people viewing a specific thank you page on your website. You can create a new event using the
existing 'page_view' event. Let's head to Google Analytics to see how we can do this... We begin by
selecting 'Events'... And then 'Create Event'... We can then name our new event... I'm going
to name this event 'generate', 'underscore', 'lead'... We can then enter the conditions for
our new event. This tells Google Analytics when to trigger our new event. For this event,
I'm going to select 'page_location' as the parameter... Then 'contains'... And then I'm going
to enter 'thank', 'dash', 'you' as the value. This will mean our new event will be tracked
whenever someone views a page on our website that has a URL containing 'thank', 'dash', 'you'.
When you're happy, you can create your new event. And apart from creating new events in the
interface, you can also modify existing, incoming events too. For example, if you want to change
the value of a parameter to clean up your reports. If you would like to learn more about modifying
events, then I've included a link for you in the extra resources below this video. If
you're not able to base your new event on one already being sent to Google Analytics, you
can create new event tags in Google Tag Manager. This lets you send new events for just about any
action taking place on your website. Let's head to Google Tag Manager to take a look... Okay,
let's say we want to track people selecting a promotional offer on our website. To do
this we're going to create a new event tag. Let's create a new tag... And let's name
the tag 'Google Analytics GA4 Promotion'... Let's select 'GA4 Event' as the tag type... Then
we need to select our existing GA4 configuration tag... And we can name our event. Let's name
this event 'select', 'underscore', 'promotion'... And let's select 'Event Parameters'... And add
a row... Let's name the parameter 'promotion', 'underscore', 'id'... And let's click the
variable icon... And choose 'Click Classes'... This will automatically send the CSS class
for our promotional element as the value of the parameter. Now let's add another row...
And enter 'location', 'underscore', 'id' as the name... And let's click the variable
icon again... And choose 'Click URL'... This will send the URL of our promotional element
for the parameter. Now we just need to add a trigger to fire our tag when the promotion is
clicked... We can then save the tag... And publish the changes when you're ready. If you would like
to learn more about creating these types of tags, I recommend watching my Google Tag Manager
tutorial series on YouTube and checking out my Google Tag Manager Course. I've included
links in the description below this video. Now that we've covered how to send events to
Google Analytics 4, we need to touch on reporting. The most important thing to point out is that
if you want to see the values of the parameters you've sent with your events, you will need to
register them in Google Analytics. If you don't register the parameter, you won't see them in your
reports. Let's head back to Google Analytics to take a look... To register a parameter we navigate
to 'Custom Definitions'... Then we need to choose either 'Custom Dimensions' or 'Custom Metrics'.
Custom dimensions are generally used to report text-based information. For example, the name of a
Country or the URL of a link someone has clicked. In comparison, custom metrics are used to report
a numerical value, like a count or a percentage. For example, if you're sending a dollar value as
a parameter, you would register this as a metric. Let's create a custom dimension so we can
report on the different outbound links people are clicking on our website. Let's create
a new custom dimension... Let's name the dimension 'Link URL'... We will leave the scope
for the dimension set to 'Event'... We can enter a short description... And then we need to select
the name of the parameter we want to register... Any parameters that have already been sent to
your reports will be available in the drop-down. If you haven't sent the parameter yet, then you
can also enter it exactly as it will be sent. Let's select 'link_url'... And we can
then create our custom dimension... After your parameter is registered, you
will find it in your Google Analytics 4 reports moving forward (this doesn't
include historical data). Let's find our 'Link URL' parameter in the reports.
To do this, let's select 'Events'... And then select 'Click'... At the bottom of
the standard report we can now see details for the parameter we registered. And if
you don't see the details straight away, this is because it can take some time for it to
appear in your report. Apart from finding the parameters in the standard reports, you will also
be able to use them when creating custom reports (under 'Analysis' and then 'Analysis Hub').
Before you start configuring new events in Google Analytics 4, I recommend you take the time
to review your current implementation and decide what events you need to track. Begin by checking
the events that are automatically sent by default, then review Enhanced Measurement. You can
then look at the recommended events and custom events depending on what you want to send
to Google Analytics. What events are you going to send to GA4? I'd love to know - Let me know in
the comments below this video! And if you found this video helpful, then please like it, so I know
to make more videos like this. See you next time!
