Events in GA4: Concepts and Setup
After Google Analytics 4 (GA4) launched in late 2020, many changes were made compared with GA3. The concept of events is one of the biggest and most important changes. To use GA4 effectively, users need to understand this concept before GA3 is completely replaced. Below are the key points about events in GA4.
Differences in how data is recorded
GA3 measures user interactions on websites using "hits", such as page hits, event hits, ecommerce hits,...
GA4, meanwhile, measures all interactions or occurrences on websites and apps as "events". According to Google, GA4's data measurement model makes user behavior analysis more complete and specific than GA3
Example: A user visits this website: https://thesmile.vn/, reads all the content on the homepage, fills out a form and then leaves.
GA3 records hits: pageview, session
GA4 records events: pageview, user_engagement, click, scroll, form_start, form_submit
Click, scroll, start_form and form_submit are all events provided by GA4. In GA3, these events require additional setup.
Differences in event setup
GA3: events are created based on 4 main parameters, with Category and Action being the two required fields:
Event category
Event Action
Event Label
Event Value
GA4: events are created based on just two fields: event name and event parameter. Event parameters give users more freedom to choose and use multiple parameters to collect the data they want, with greater flexibility and customization than GA3.
Main event types
There are 2 types of events in GA4 (the content below covers website interactions only, not mobile apps):
Automatically collected events: default events available after installing GA4. Notable events include:
User_engagement: the time a user engages with the website is recorded when the user:
- Visits the website for longer than 10 seconds
- Completes a conversion
- Visits two or more pages
First_visit: the user visits the website for the first time
Session_start: the user visits the website
Enhanced measurement events: these events are activated when enhanced measurement is enabled. In addition to familiar events such as page_view, GA4 adds events such as:
Scroll: recorded when a user scrolls to view content on a web page
Click (outbound click): recorded when a user clicks a link on the website and is redirected to an external link. External links here include another domain, a phone number or a document download,...
Site search: the user enters information in the website's search bar
Form interaction: the user interacts with a form on the website, including:
Form_start: the user starts interacting with the form
Form_submit: the user completes the form and clicks submit.
Video engagement: the user interacts with a video on the website, including:
Video_start: recorded when the video starts
Video_progress: video viewing time reaches the 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% milestones
Video_complete: when the user watches the entire video
File download: the user clicks a link to download a file to their device
The events GA4 provides initially may not meet all users' requirements. Users therefore need to set up additional events for their tracking and data analysis needs. Fortunately, GA4 provides enough settings to configure events as you wish:
Recommended events: events GA4 recommends setting up to better track user interactions. They are not enabled by default because setup requirements vary depending on the website and the user's tracking needs. Most recommended events apply to e-commerce websites.
Custom events: events users can freely set up for their own needs that do not fall into the groups above. Custom events are created using two main elements: event name and event parameter.
Event parameters
Event parameters are additional values that help you configure events to track user behavior in detail. These values help you understand how users interact with the website and support more accurate data analysis.
Example: Remember the scroll event in enhanced measurement events? When a user scrolls through 90% of the page's content, this event activates a parameter called percent_scroll. However, this value does not provide much information for analysis in the default setup.
You therefore need to adjust this event using a custom event to collect more information. Optimus will show you how to reconfigure the parameter using Google Tag Manager (GTM):
Step 1: Open GTM => Variables => Configure => Scroll down to Scrolling and enable all the variables:
Scroll Depth Threshold: the numeric value at which the trigger fires. When the user scrolls to the scroll depth threshold, the trigger is activated with a value of 1
Scroll Depth Units: the unit used to measure the numeric value of Scroll Depth Threshold, either % or pixels
Scroll Direction: the user's scrolling direction, horizontal or vertical
Step 2: Create a trigger to activate the scroll event. Triggers => New => Trigger Configuration => Set Trigger Type to Scroll Depth. To track vertical scrolling, select Vertical Scroll Depths
Step 3: Create a tag to track the event.
*Note: To avoid duplicate events, turn off the scroll event in Enhanced measurement before setting it up in GTM
In GTM => Tags => New =>
Event name: scroll
Event parameter: percent_scrolled value: {{Scroll Depth Threshold}}
Step 4: Check the event and parameter in Debug mode. If the event is recorded correctly, the parameter section will show the percentage you configured.
Step 5: Create a custom dimension so scroll data appears in reports. Open GA4 => Admin => Property => Custom definitions => Create custom dimensions
To see the custom dimension you just created, go to the engagement report and select Pages and screens. Edit the report and add Percent scroll in the dimension tab.
You can now track the percentage of page content users have viewed. Based on the information above, you can set up the events and parameters you need to track to analyze user interactions on your website more effectively.
Conclusion
Although Google Analytics 4 has been available for quite some time, its features and applications are still fairly new to many businesses. If you need support with website tracking and are looking for a provider of professional marketing services, you can contact Optimus, an agency that provides advertising services and has experience setting up GA4.
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