GA4 Is Powerful, but Most Businesses Barely Use It
Google Analytics 4 replaced Universal Analytics as Google’s primary analytics platform. It’s more powerful than its predecessor, but also more complex. Here’s how to use GA4 to actually improve your marketing and grow your business.
Essential GA4 Setup
Configure Conversions
The most important step: define what a “conversion” means for your business. Form submissions, phone calls, purchases, or email signups. Without conversion tracking, GA4 is just a traffic counter. Mark key events as conversions in GA4 settings.
Set Up Key Events
Track important user interactions: button clicks, scroll depth, video plays, file downloads, and outbound link clicks. GA4’s event-based model makes this more flexible than Universal Analytics. Use Google Tag Manager for advanced event tracking.
Reports That Matter
Acquisition Report
Shows where your traffic comes from: organic search, paid ads, social media, direct, referral. Use this to understand which channels drive the most valuable traffic (not just the most traffic).
Engagement Report
Shows what visitors do on your site: pages viewed, time spent, events triggered. Identify your highest-performing content and most engaging pages.
Conversions Report
The money report. Shows which channels, pages, and campaigns drive actual business results. This is where data becomes actionable decisions about where to invest.
Actionable Insights
Check GA4 weekly. Look for: traffic trends (up or down and why), conversion rate changes, top-performing pages (create more like them), underperforming pages (fix or remove them), and traffic source changes.
