{"id":8849,"date":"2023-03-30T14:52:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T14:52:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:52:37","slug":"event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Event tracking in Google Analytics 4: What marketers need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-analytics-4-migration-guide-386201\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Analytics 4<\/a> (GA4) rebuilt the platform from the ground up with a new central focus on events, enhancing users\u2019 ability to customize tracking for specific actions across websites and apps.<\/p>\n<p>To set up GA4 properly, you should think through the events that make sense to track for your site. <\/p>\n<p>This article covers the events you can track by default and how to set up custom events, along with suggested use cases for each.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Built-in_events\" >Built-in events<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Page_view\" >Page view<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Scroll_tracking\" >Scroll tracking<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Outbound_click_tracking\" >Outbound click tracking<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Site_search\" >Site search<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Form_interaction\" >Form interaction<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Video_engagement\" >Video engagement<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#File_downloads\" >File downloads<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Creating_custom_events\" >Creating custom events<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Internal_click_tracking\" >Internal click tracking<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Logged-in_activity\" >Logged-in activity<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Ecommerce_events\" >Ecommerce events<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#App_engagement\" >App engagement<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/event-tracking-in-google-analytics-4-what-marketers-need-to-know\/#Start_creating_events\" >Start creating events<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Built-in_events\"><\/span>Built-in events<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Out of the box, GA4 includes events for several categories that can be automatically collected, including the following as of the time of this article.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Page_view\"><\/span>Page view<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The <em>page_view<\/em> event fires whenever a page is loaded or the browser history state changes. This can\u2019t be disabled.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scroll_tracking\"><\/span>Scroll tracking<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The <em>scroll<\/em> event fires when a user scrolls 90% of the way through a page.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Outbound_click_tracking\"><\/span>Outbound click tracking<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The <em>click<\/em> event only fires for clicks leading to separate domains.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Site_search\"><\/span>Site search<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This tracks internal search activity if you have the option included on your site.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <em>view_search_results<\/em> event fires every time someone completes a search.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <em>search_term<\/em> parameter will include the actual term that was searched.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Form_interaction\"><\/span>Form interaction<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This fires<em> form_start<\/em> at the start of an interaction with a form (i.e., the user clicks inside a text field) and when the form is submitted (<em>form_submit<\/em>).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You can fire additional parameters to show <em>form_id<\/em>, <em>form_name<\/em>, and <em>form_destination<\/em> to delineate interactions with specific forms.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Video_engagement\"><\/span>Video engagement<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Video engagement tracks starts (<em>video_start<\/em>), completions (<em>video_complete<\/em>), and watch duration (<em>video_progress<\/em>) for embedded videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Parameters within the events can indicate the specific percentage or timestamp within the video when an action occurs and the video title and URL, regardless of its visibility on the page.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"File_downloads\"><\/span>File downloads<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This fires the <em>file_download<\/em> event for clicks leading to several common file formats, such as text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, executable files, compressed files, video, and audio<\/p>\n<p>Note that, apart from page views, you need to manually enable these events via Enhanced Event Measurement for them to fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To do so, from within the Admin section of your GA4 account, go to <em>Data Streams<\/em> under your GA4 property and select the stream you\u2019re working from.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<\/div>\n<p>From here, you\u2019ll see the <em>Enhanced measurement<\/em> option near the top. <\/p>\n<p>Toggle the switch on and select the gear to see the options for measuring specific events. You can then toggle on all the events you\u2019d like to include.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Of course, these built-in events have limitations and barely scratch the surface of GA4\u2019s capabilities. Before discussing other uses for events, let\u2019s cover how you can create new events.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<div class=\"nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-7 col-xl-6  pe-lg-0\">\n<div class=\"form-nl-inline\">\n<div class=\"row g-0\">\n<div class=\"form-group col-12 col-lg-8 mb-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-4 col-xl-4 mb-0\">\n<div class=\"d-none\">\n<p>Processing\u2026Please wait.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"btn btn-dark inlineButton w-100 rounded-0 font-weight-bold\">SUBSCRIBE<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-2 col-xl-2 ps-1\">\n<p class=\"text-center mb-0\"><a class=\"nl-terms\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/termsofuse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See terms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Creating_custom_events\"><\/span>Creating custom events<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>From within the Admin section for your GA4 property, navigate to Events. You&#8217;ll see a <em>Create event<\/em> button, which you can click to begin the process.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Next, you&#8217;ll see a <em>Create event<\/em> screen from which you can click the <em>Create<\/em> button.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From here, you can add the event name and customize any parameters to pass additional information through to Google Analytics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<\/div>\n<p>If you want to use an event as a conversion, you&#8217;ll see a <em>Mark as conversion<\/em> option next to existing events listed in the Events section.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Toggle this to include the event in the Conversions report for the future and lump it together with metrics such as Conversion and Conversion Rate when creating custom explorations.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at a few practical uses for custom events on your website or app.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Internal_click_tracking\"><\/span>Internal click tracking<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While GA4 records events for outbound clicks by default, internal clicks leading to the same domain or domains included in cross-domain measurement are not tracked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, you may want to track these clicks to answer questions such as:<\/p>\n<p>How many people click an <em>Apply Now<\/em> button that leads from a landing page to an application process?<\/p>\n<p>How many people click a link to a store locator, indicating interest in visiting a location?<\/p>\n<p>Are people engaging with a carousel on your homepage that links to various internal pages?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/how-to-set-up-google-analytics-4-using-google-tag-manager-374584\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Using Google Tag Manager<\/a>, you can set up an event to target a click on a specific element within your site.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the exact approach may vary depending on the site, you could set up a trigger based on an HTML ID, a link URL, object text, or other criteria to ensure you&#8217;re picking up on the correct click.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Logged-in_activity\"><\/span>Logged-in activity<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If applicable to your site, you can fire a <em>sign_up<\/em> event when users register or <em>login<\/em> when current users log into their accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This tracking could help answer questions such as:<\/p>\n<p>What sources have the highest conversion rate for user registrations?<\/p>\n<p>How often are existing users logging into their accounts?<\/p>\n<p>What devices are users most likely to use for accessing their accounts?<\/p>\n<p>Beyond setting up these events, explore setting up user ID tracking, in which you assign a unique ID to each individual and can connect future sessions to the same user when they log in down the road.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Ecommerce_events\"><\/span>Ecommerce events<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>For ecommerce sites, be sure to incorporate tracking for cart, checkout, and purchase-related activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>GA4 recommends the following events which are relevant for common ecommerce actions you&#8217;d want to record:<\/p>\n<p>view_item<\/p>\n<p>select_item<\/p>\n<p>select_promotion<\/p>\n<p>add_to_cart<\/p>\n<p>remove_from_cart<\/p>\n<p>view_cart<\/p>\n<p>begin_checkout<\/p>\n<p>purchase\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>refund<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"App_engagement\"><\/span>App engagement<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>GA4 can track several events related to app interactions, such as when users:<\/p>\n<p>Update an app.<\/p>\n<p>Activate in-app purchases.<\/p>\n<p>Open the app via a dynamic link.<\/p>\n<p>Click in-app ads.<\/p>\n<p>Interact with notifications within the app.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These examples and others are automatically collected, but additional recommended events can be included, depending on the type of app.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, a game may include tutorials to teach new users how to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You can fire events for people working their way through the tutorial, showing how many individuals start the process and how many finish without dropping out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other in-game events can track starting\/ending levels, spending virtual currency, unlocking achievements, and posting scores.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Start_creating_events\"><\/span>Start creating events<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This is just an initial list of potential events to create for your site or app, but the possibilities are endless for tracking your particular setup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Consider the user actions crucial to your business or clients and how you can correlate events with these activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sooner you gather historical events, the more robust data you&#8217;ll have for future analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/event-tracking-google-analytics-4-395023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Event tracking in Google Analytics 4: What marketers need to know<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google Analytics 4 (GA4) rebuilt the platform from the ground up with a new central focus on events, enhancing users\u2019 ability to customize tracking for specific actions across websites and apps. To set up GA4 properly, you should think through the events that make sense to track for your site. This article covers the events you can track by default and how to set up custom events, along with suggested use cases for each. Built-in events Out of the box, GA4 includes events for several categories [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}