【Complete guide】How to set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) with emphasis on conversion settings, etc.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google. It acquires high-level data and exhaustively analyzes such intelligent information about website, mobile app traffic and user behavior.

Many websites are using this standard version of a free web analytics tool. Google also offers a premium version of an upgraded service that comes with a lot of additional analytical capability with tier-based pricing.

Google released Google Analytics 4 on October 14, 2020 to replace Universal  Analytics. In order to set up measurement and start using Google Analytics 4, however, it is necessary to understand the difference between these two tools  in terms of measurement mechanisms and concepts.

This article explains in detail how to set up Google Analytics 4 to start analysis, including the background of this new system. We will especially focus on conversion settings.

Feature of Google Analytics 4

GA4 has the following features:
- Gathers data from both websites and apps for a more complete view of the customer journey
- Uses event-based data rather than session-based data
- Privacy management features such as cookie-free measurement, behavioral modeling, and conversion modeling
- BigQuery export available in the free version
As GA4 has some metrics that are differently defined than in the UA version, the same indicators cannot simply be used  in UA and GA4. In particular, it is important to note that the Bounce rate indicator, which was commonly used in UA, is defined very differently in GA4.
Google Analytics 4 has the concept of engagement, where a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds or a conversion event occurs is measured as an engagement. The engagement rate is the percentage of engaged sessions out of all sessions.
GA4's Bounce Rate is 1 - Engagement Rate, which is quite different from the Bounce Rate defined as a one-page session in UA.

Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) is ending and needs to be migrated to Google Analytics 4

We can use both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 until July 1, 2023 when Google Analytics will completely stop processing data and be replaced with Google Analytics 4. Therefore, you need to migrate from UA to GA4. In this migration process first you need to set up new measurement tags for GA4to configure GA4 settings from scratch again.

How to create a GA4 property

Google has recently announced that UA properties that have not been associated with GA4 will be subject to an automatic migration to GA4, starting February 28. Your choices are i) let Jumpstart automatically migrate from UA, or ii) switch the auto-migration option off by Feb. 28.

While Jumpstart offers a simple solution for migrating, there is a possibility that your UA settings are not properly set in GA4 due to the different mechanisms used between UA and GA4.Therefore, we highly recommend that you  create new properties for and migrate to GA4 by yourself.

There are two ways to do this:i) to link UA and GA4 properties, or ii) to create a completely new property. The procedure is almost the same.

Here we explain how to create a new property.

Receiving traffic

First, create a property and receive traffic data of your site in GA4.

Create Property

Click on Admin and click on CREATE ACCOUNT.

Set the account name, check the checkboxes you need and click next.

Select Property name, time zone, and currency, then click Next.

Select your business and click create.

Check the terms of use and service agreement, and click "I accept".

Select the type of service you want to provide yourself.

Enter the Website URL, Stream name is the same, Enhanced measurement is left checked. Finally, click on Create stream.

The property has now been created.

The data is retrieved by reflecting the created property information on the site.

There are several ways to set this up. In this context we will explain how to do it using Google Tag Manager.

 Use the MEASUREMENT ID that appears on the screen when property creation is complete.

Click on variables in Google Tag Manager, then click on new.

Click in the middle and select constant.

After entering the variable name and measurement ID, click SAVE.

 

Then click on TAGS and click NEW.

Enter tags name , click center  select Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration

Select the variable you just set.

Click on the Triggering area and select Initialization-All Pages.

When you are done, click "save" in the upper right corner.

 Remember to SUBMIT the tag manager.

This completes the setup. If everything is set up correctly, data acquisition will begin in a few moments.

Basic Settings

The next step is to set up the basic GA4.

Change Data Retention

The default data retention period is set at 2 months. This setting applies only to exploratory reports. Therefore, an unlimited amount of historical data can be viewed in reports, Looker Studio, etc. Set up as follows:

Define Internal Traffic

How to exclude access from within your company. You can prepare for exclusion by specifying specific IP addresses. Set up as follows:

Click in the following order

 click define internal traffic

Enter the IP address information you wish to exclude.

The setup does not end here. Since we have just defined the internal traffic here, there are still settings for how to handle that data.

Select Data filters

If filter state is set to "active", the set IP address will be excluded.

List unwanted referrals

This setting is used to retrieve data on the original source of inflow to the site when an e-commerce site transitions once to an external payment system or to an external form.

Click on List unwanted referrals under define internal traffic. Set the domain criteria for the sites you want to exclude.

Google signals data collection

Google Signals is turned off at the default setting, but you can set it up into get the following effects:
- Audience lists created within GA4 can be used in Google Ads.
- Gender and age of users can be used anonymously in reports
- User identification is possible using Google login IDs.
While this is a useful feature, it is necessary to consider whether there are any problems in terms of the company's information handling policy, even though the user information is collected anonymously.

To turn on Google Signals, configure as follows

Be sure to check this one as well.

How to set up conversions

Conversion shows how well your website is doing in order to achieve your goal. How to set conversion is a key to measure whether that goal has been achieved or not. It is the most important setting in web analytics. There are several ways to do this.

How to set up on Google Analytics4

Create the event you want to measure as a conversion.

Specify detailed event criteria and click CREATE.

When the created event is actually measured, it will appear in the event list. On the right side of the event list, there is a "mark as conversion" checkbox, and the event will be set as a conversion.

In rare cases, the target event may not appear in the event list even though the event has been measured. This may be caused by data thresholds. Try shortening the period of the event list to see if the display changes.

Connect with other Google services

It can be used more in conjunction with other Google services.

Google Search console

Linking with Search console will allow you to check Search console data in GA4. It also has the following advantages
Google Organic Search Query Report will be available; Google Organic Traffic Report will be available.

Google Ads

Linking to Google Ads will allow you to see ad-related figures with GA4. For example, you can see the data of your Google Ads campaign in the Customer Attraction Summary Report. In addition, you will be able to use the audiences created in GA4 to perform Ri-marketing of Google Ads.

Google Big Query

This service is used to store GA4 data on Google's cloud. Although BigQuery is a paid tool, it also offers a free usage limit.. You can use it within this free range if you do not have a large site.

Create a report once GA4 is set up.

Collecting data alone is not enough to fully utilize the data. Analyze the acquired data to improve the site. GA4 provides two approaches of analysis: reports and explore. Reports allow you to see trends in key figures and other information in a predefined format. Explore, on the other hand, allows you to combine the data you want to check and select the format in which you want to view it.

Looker Studio Report

You can also use Google's Looker Studio, a free BI tool.
The differences between Explore and Looker Studio include:
Looker Studio can be shared with people who don't have GA4 privileges whileExplore can't.
Looker Studio has more table formats.
Looker Studio offers more design flexibility.
Looker Studio can import non-GA4 data.
Looker Studio can utilize data older than 14 months.

88studio sells a wide variety of looker studio templates.

Please see the gallery of templates on the site. We can offer demo reports of each template.

Presents GA4 free templates

This is Looker Studio's versatile GA4 report template , which can be used for both report automation and efficient daily monitoring. Just select a site in the pull-down menu to view the report. The powered-up Looker Studio's official Google GA4 connector allows you to retrieve historical data for the entire period of time.

Report List

• Monthly
• Weekly
• Daily
• Acquisition：Channel
• Acquisition：Source/Medium
• Acquisition：Source/Medium/Campaign
• Engagement：Page
• Engagement：Landing Page
• User：User Attribute
• User：Device
• Region

How to use (3 easy steps)

• Step1：Submit the form
• Step2：Open the introduction manual you receive by email and open the free GA4 template.
• Step3：Select the GA4 account you want to appear in the report from the pull-down menu at the top of the report

Notice

The free template is based on the [one-time purchase]GA4 Standard Report Template[4004] with the following limited features.

All of the features will be available in the paid version, so please purchase the one-time purchase template if you need the following features.

• Select Date range
• PDF download and URL sharing of reports
• Logo change
• Keyword reporting using Search Console
• Customize data items and layout

Get Free GA4 Looker Studio Report Template