Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that allows you to track and analyze user behavior on your website or app. To get the most out of it, you need to set up custom events that help you understand what users are doing on your site.
Custom events in Google Analytics 4 can be triggered by various actions, such as button clicks, form submissions, or video plays. You can also use them to track specific user interactions, like scrolling to a certain point on the page or searching for a specific keyword.
To set up a custom event, you'll need to create a new event in the Google Analytics 4 interface. This involves selecting the event type, defining the parameters, and specifying the trigger conditions. It's a straightforward process, but it requires some thought to get it right.
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Understanding Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that helps you understand your website's behavior and user interactions. It's a significant upgrade from Universal Analytics, offering more advanced features and a more comprehensive view of your data.
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Google Analytics 4 uses a data model called the "event-based" model, which means it focuses on tracking specific user interactions, such as button clicks or form submissions. This approach provides a more detailed and accurate picture of how users engage with your website.
With Google Analytics 4, you can track custom events, which are user interactions that aren't automatically tracked by the platform. By setting up custom events, you can gain a deeper understanding of how users interact with your website and make data-driven decisions to improve their experience.
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What Are?
Custom events are optional events you can create in Google Analytics to capture data about user interactions that Google doesn't already record.
You can create a custom event to track specific page views, like a confirmation page, to see how many times users visit that page.
Google Analytics allows you to see which forms people use most often to sign up for your newsletter by creating a custom event.
Custom events can be used to track various user interactions, but they're optional, so you only create them when you need to capture specific data.
By creating custom events, you can gain a deeper understanding of your users' behavior and make data-driven decisions to improve your website or app.
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Tracking 101
Custom events are optional events that you can create in Google Analytics 4 to capture data about user interactions on your website or app that Google doesn’t already record.
You can create a custom event to track how many times a specific page was viewed or see which forms people use most often to sign up for your newsletter.
To track custom events, you don't need to use parameters like event category, action, or label. Instead, you can use other recommended parameters or come up with your own.
There are 4 event types in Google Analytics 4: Automatically collected events, Enhanced Measurement events, Recommended events, and Custom events.
To avoid confusion, make sure your custom event names don't match those already defined by Google. You can follow a simple process to structure your events properly:
- Check if the event you want to track is among the automatically collected events.
- If not, check if your event name resembles any event among the Enhanced Measurement events.
- If none of the above categories apply, you'll need to create a custom event.
The configuration of Custom events is pretty much identical to recommended events. The only difference is that you'll need to come up with event names on your own.
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When configuring custom events, remember that your event name should not exceed 40 characters.
Here are some examples of custom event names: image_click, click_image, etc.
To ensure your custom events are firing properly, check the "Realtime" report in Google Analytics 4. You can manually trigger your event and see if it appears in the report.
If your event is being tracked, you should see it show up under "Event count by Event name" in the "Realtime" report.
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Custom Events
Custom events are a powerful tool in Google Analytics 4, allowing you to track any action or piece of information you like. You can send data to Google Analytics using events, making it easy to track pages people view, button clicks, and more.
You can track a wide range of actions with events, including pages people load on your website, actions people perform within a page, and even information from the URL of the page. This flexibility makes events a great way to customize your analytics and get a more detailed understanding of your users' behavior.
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
- Details you’ve collected about a user
Parameters
Parameters are a crucial part of custom events in Google Analytics 4. They allow you to collect more information about the action that took place.
Each parameter consists of a key-value pair, with the parameter name describing the information you're collecting and the parameter value being the actual value associated with it.
The parameter name is the same across sessions, while the parameter value should get updated depending on what the user does in the session. For example, if one user makes a donation of $1.00, then the 'value' parameter would be '1.00', while if another user makes a donation of $2.00, then the 'value' parameter would be '2.00'.
You can use parameters to measure various aspects of an event, such as whether the action was successful, when the event occurred, or choices users made during the interaction.
Here's a breakdown of what makes up a parameter:
- The parameter name, which describes the information you're collecting.
- The parameter value, which is the value associated with the parameter in that interaction.
Name
The name of a custom event is whatever name you choose for the event, and it should describe what you intend to measure with the event.
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The name should be chosen carefully to ensure it adheres to the event naming rules, such as being case sensitive and starting with a letter.
A custom event name cannot be a reserved name, and it must be fewer than 40 characters in length to ensure that Google Analytics collects and processes the event.
Implementing Custom Events
Implementing custom events in Google Analytics 4 is a straightforward process that can be done in either the GA4 interface or Google Tag Manager.
To create a custom event in the GA4 interface, you'll need to navigate to the "Events" page, click "Create Event", and then configure the event details, including the event name, matching conditions, and parameters. For example, if you want to create a custom event for a "thank you" page, you can enter the conditions: "event_name equals page_view" and "page_location contains /thank-you/". This will automatically track a "thankyou_page_visit" event when a page_view event is fired on a page containing "/thank-you/" in the URL.
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You can also create custom events in Google Tag Manager, which offers more flexibility and control over data collection. To do this, you'll need to create a new tag with the "GA4 Event" tag type, name the event, and add the parameters and values you want to send to your reports. It's also a good idea to name your events in a way that makes sense and follows Google's naming conventions, such as using "snake case" (all lowercase letters and underscores for spaces) and keeping the name to 40 characters or less.
Here are some key rules to keep in mind when naming your custom events:
- Event names must start with a letter
- Event names can only include letters, numbers, and underscores—no spaces or other special characters
- Event names are case sensitive
- Event names shouldn’t use any of the reserved event names or prefixes
Additionally, be aware of the character limits for custom event and parameter names: 40 characters for event names, 40 characters for event parameter names, and 100 characters for event parameter values.
Before You Create
Before you create a custom event, make sure the event you want to create isn't already collected through an automatically collected event or recommended as a recommended event. It's always better to use an existing event because these events automatically populate dimensions and metrics that are used in your reports.
You can implement a custom event in a few different ways, depending on how you set up your website or app measurement. These include gtag.js (for websites), Tag Manager (for websites), and Google Analytics for Firebase (for mobile apps).
Before creating a custom event, review Google's list of automatically collected events and recommended events to see if Google can already collect the data you're looking for.
To ensure your custom event doesn't use the same name as any of GA4's automatically collected, enhanced measurement, or recommended events, keep the following rules in mind:
How to Implement
To implement custom events, you need to refer to the developer documentation for specific implementation details.
You can create custom events in the Google Analytics 4 interface, which is a convenient option for those who don't use Google Tag Manager or want to avoid technical complexities.
In the GA4 interface, custom events consist of parts such as name, matching conditions, and parameters.
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To create a custom event in the GA4 interface, go to Admin > Events page, click Create Event, and then click Create.
When naming your custom event, keep in mind that event names must start with a letter, can only include letters, numbers, and underscores, and should be clear and concise.
You can also create custom events in Google Tag Manager, which allows you to create new events that don't need to be based on existing events.
In Google Tag Manager, you can create a new tag using the 'GA4 Event' tag type, and then name the event and add the parameters and values you want to send to your reports.
Before creating a custom event, make sure to check if the event you want to track isn't already collected in GA4, and review Google's list of automatically collected events and recommended events.
Here are the key rules for naming custom events:
- Event names must start with a letter
- Event names can only include letters, numbers, and underscores
- Event names are case sensitive
- Event names shouldn't use any of the reserved event names or prefixes
Additionally, keep in mind the character limits for custom event and parameter names:
- Event names have a maximum limit of 40 characters
- Event parameter names have a maximum limit of 40 characters
- Event parameter values have a maximum limit of 100 characters
Sending Custom Events
Sending Custom Events is a great way to track specific actions on your website. You can create a new event based on an existing event, like the page_view event, and then modify it to fit your needs.
For example, you can create a new event for people viewing a specific thank you page on your website by using the existing page_view event. This new event will be reported every time the page_location parameter from the existing page_view event contains "thank-you".
Using Google Tag Manager is the best way to send custom events to Google Analytics 4. You can create a new tag using the 'GA4 Event' tag type and then name the event and add the parameters you would like to send to your reports.
You can send an event when people click on a promotional banner featured on the website by creating a new tag in Google Tag Manager and adding the necessary parameters.
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Tracking in a Nutshell
Google Analytics 4's event tracking doesn't require parameters like event category, action, or label to function correctly. Instead, you can use other recommended parameters or come up with your own.
There are 4 event types in Google Analytics 4: Automatically collected events, Enhanced Measurement events, Recommended events, and Custom events.
To avoid confusion, check if your event name resembles any event among the Automatically collected events or Enhanced Measurement events before creating a custom event.
Custom events are configured similarly to recommended events, with the only difference being that you'll need to come up with your own event names.
When naming custom events, keep in mind that your event name should not exceed 40 characters.
Here are some tips for structuring your events (names and parameters) properly:
- Check if the event you want to track is among the Automatically collected events
- If not, check if your event name resembles any event among the Enhanced Measurement events
- If none of the above categories apply to your events, you will need to create a custom event.
For example, if you want to track clicks on a particular image, you can use any of these as the event name: image_click, click_image, etc.
Limits and Considerations
You can track up to 500 unique events in Google Analytics 4. Most people won't reach this limit, but it's good to know the constraint.
There are some specific limits to keep in mind when it comes to event names. Each event name can be a maximum of 40 characters.
Event parameter limits are also important to consider. You can send up to 25 parameters with each event, and each parameter's name can be a maximum of 40 characters, with a value of up to 100 characters.
You can collect up to 500 distinct events per mobile app user per day. This limit only applies to custom events, and automatically collected and enhanced measurement events don't count towards it.
Here are some specific guidelines for creating event names: they must start with a letter, contain only letters, numbers, and underscores, and be no more than 40 characters long. It's also best practice to use small characters, like snake_case.
Here's a summary of event parameter limits:
Best Practices and Tips
To get the most out of Google Analytics 4 custom events, it's essential to track events that are meaningful to your business. This means focusing on events that drive revenue, such as purchases or sign-ups.
Use event parameters to capture additional context about each event, like the product purchased or the plan chosen. For example, if you're tracking a purchase event, you can use parameters to capture the product ID, price, and quantity sold.
Track events that occur on every page load, like page views and scrolls, to get a complete picture of user behavior. This helps you understand how users are interacting with your site.
Use the event name to describe the action taken by the user, making it easy to understand what happened. For instance, if you're tracking a "button_click" event, it's clear what action was taken.
Set up custom events for every important action on your site, from form submissions to video plays. This gives you a complete picture of user behavior and helps you make data-driven decisions.
Use the Google Analytics 4 user interface to easily set up and manage your custom events. It's also a good idea to regularly review and update your event tracking to ensure it remains relevant to your business goals.
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Sources
- https://www.lovesdata.com/blog/google-analytics-4-events
- https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12229021
- https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/how-to-track-custom-events-with-google-analytics-4/
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/custom-events-google-analytics-4/
- https://measureschool.com/ga4-custom-events/
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