What is event tracking in GA4: a guide to boosting your data insights

When Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was introduced to the general audience, it was presented as an event-based tracking tool that views everything from pageviews to purchases as events within its system. GA4 uses an event tracking code to monitor user interactions, providing detailed insights into user behavior. 

One key concept in GA4 is the ‘event name.’ Think of it as a filing system for your data. It's a classification used to organize and track similar events in Google Analytics. Understanding event names is crucial for effective reporting and capturing user interactions. GA4 has been around for quite a while now, so there are tons of manuals, tutorials, and guides on how to track events and set up this tool correctly. Yet, it can be challenging for a newcomer to master event tracking from scratch.

If you're new to the world of event tracking and data insights management, you're in the right place. What is event tracking? It's like having a magnifying glass for your website or app, allowing you to see every user interaction in detail. How do you figure it out, and why do you need to start asap? All the answers are waiting for you below. Let’s start.

What is event tracking, and how does it work?

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), event tracking is all about understanding how people interact with your website or app beyond basic page views. GA4 relies on a tracking code to capture user interactions and collect data, enabling businesses to gain insights into user behavior and optimize their strategies. It lets you capture many user actions, like button clicks, video plays, downloads, form submissions, and more. GA4 relies heavily on these events to gather data, making it a powerful tool for exploring user behavior.

Below, you can see a simplified flow of GA4 event tracking. It consists of four steps.

What events can you track in GA4?

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), events that track user interactions on your website or app are divided into key types. Here they are:

Automatically collected events

• page_view
• session_start
• user_engagement
• first_visit

Enhanced measurement events

• scroll
• click
• file_download
• video_start, video_progress, video_complete
• form_submit

Recommended events

• sign_up
• login
• purchase
• add_to_cart

Custom events

• my_custom_event

E-commerce events

• view_item
• add_to_wishlist
• begin_checkout
• purchase
• view_cart
• view_promotion
• remove_from_cart
• view_item_list
• select_item
• add_shipping_info
• add_payment_info

These event types allow GA4 to offer more detailed insights into user behavior. Thanks to them, you can customize tracking to your specific needs.

What makes event tracking in GA4 stand out?

1. Event parameters. Events in GA4 aren’t just freestanding actions—they come with extra details called parameters. For example, if a user makes a purchase, you can track the product name, price, and quantity, giving you richer insights into user interaction. Event tracking can also measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in terms of user engagement and conversions. Event tracking enables businesses to collect, analyze, and act on user behavior data, providing a comprehensive understanding of user interactions across multiple channels.
2. Custom events. GA4 doesn’t just limit you to standard or recommended events. You can create custom events tailored to your specific needs, which means you can track just about any vital interaction for your business.
3. User properties. Beyond tracking events, GA4 also lets you record information about your users, like their subscription level or user type. It helps you create more personalized and effective audience segments.

Why does event tracking matter in GA4?

1. Better insights. Event tracking data allows you to go beyond basic metrics and understand detailed user interactions on your site or app. This data helps you clearly understand what users are doing and why.
2. A clear user journey map. By tracking events, you can map out the entire user journey, spot where users drop off, and make adjustments to improve conversions and overall experience.
3. Flexible conversion tracking. In GA4, events can be directly tied to conversions, which is vital for measuring how well your marketing efforts drive desired actions.
4. Actionable data. The detailed event data you collect provides actionable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement, enabling you to make smarter decisions to boost engagement and performance.
5. Cross-platform tracking. GA4 is designed to work across both websites and apps, so you can track events and user behavior across different platforms and devices, giving you a complete view of your audience.
6. Advanced analytics with machine learning. GA4 leverages machine learning to offer predictive insights, like the probability of a user making a purchase, which can help you proactively engage users who are most likely to convert.
7. Flexibility and customization. Since GA4’s tracking is event-based, it offers much more flexibility than the old Universal Analytics. You can tailor the tracking to fit your business's unique needs, making it easier to get the insights that matter most to you. This level of customization should reassure you that GA4 can be adapted to suit your specific requirements.

Event tracking in GA4 helps you to understand your audience better. By knowing exactly how users interact with your site or app, you can take control of your marketing and sales campaigns. With this understanding, you can adjust your strategies, improve user experience, and drive more sales. It's all about putting the power in your hands.

How to set up event tracking in GA4?

Setting up event tracking in GA4 may seem daunting initially, but it's a straightforward process. Breaking it down into clear and simple steps, you'll find that it's not as complex as it may appear. Accurate data collection is essential, and ensuring the correct implementation of the event tracking code is crucial. With the proper guidance, you can master event tracking in GA4.

Here’s how to get started with event tracking in GA4*:

*Check your platform naming taxonomy/documentation for more details.

Step 1. Plan your events

Start by deciding what your needs and expectations are. Create a data tracking map that outlines what you want to track for effective Google Analytics event tracking, focusing on core event components like event name, parameters, triggers, and event category. Keep naming consistent - it helps keep your data clean and easy to analyze. To clarify, event categories are not strictly defined.

To make things easier and the picture more precise, you can set event categories like:

• User interaction event
• Navigation event
• Content engagement event
• E-commerce event
• System event
• Custom event

One important thing to note here is that you should have some events on your website or inside your app. That would be overwhelming. Prioritize tracking events that deliver valuable insights you can take action based on. In other words, track events linked to your business goals and KPIs.

Step 2. Set up your data layer

The data layer is where you define the data you want to pass to GA4. A data layer is a JavaScript object that collects details about user interactions on your website. With its help, you can collect virtually any data, starting with product views and up to the user's operating system. Utilizing data layers in GTM enables you to configure more targeted tracking tags and triggers, providing richer insights into user behavior.

We encourage you to go check out our end-to-end guide on the data layer ​​in Google Taag Manager.

Step 3. Use GTM and server-side event-tracking tools

1. Set up Google Tag Manager server container. You can find the setup guide and learn about the benefits of server-side tracking on our blog.
2. Set up your Stape account. You can find the setup guide here.
3. Set up GA4 event tracking through Google Tag Manager.

Event tracking tools like GTM simplify the process of coding, tracking, and analyzing user behavior. Get started with server-side tracking for better results, improving data accuracy, and reducing tracking issues. This setup also helps keep your data compliant with privacy regulations.

Server-side tracking in GA4 boosts data accuracy, strengthens privacy, and improves load times by processing event tracking on the server instead of users' devices. This method bypasses ad blockers, ensuring more reliable data collection and better control of data sharing, enhancing user privacy.

Stape is a top choice for server-side tracking because it offers an easy setup, cost-effective options, and reliable infrastructure. It provides pre-configured templates and integrations specifically designed for GA4, simplifying implementation without needing extensive technical knowledge. Stape also complies with data protection regulations, ensuring your tracking aligns with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

With robust support and optimized server performance, there is practically no reason why you shouldn’t try efficient, compliant, and reliable event tracking for free today.

How to work with event data and interpret user interactions?

Analyzing event data helps improve user engagement by providing insights into user behavior and interaction patterns. Tracking examples include common names like authentication and error events, but you can also create custom name for events that are meaningful to your business. Once you’ve begun recording events, the next phase is to examine the data to derive valuable insights.

Follow these steps to get through the process of working with event data:

• Use Events Report in Google Analytics 4. This section shows a summary of all the events that you set up. Here, you will see how often the events occur, giving you an overview of how users interact with your website.
• Categorize your data. Dividing your data into categories lets you understand how different user groups interact with your website.

• Explore event funnels. Explore what actions led users to the same events on your website.

• Compare different time frames. This can help you gain insights into hourly, daily, seasonal, and other time-based trends in user behavior.

After your Google Analytics 4 website event tracking is set up and running, ongoing supervision is necessary to ensure it remains perfectly configured to meet your tracking needs. Consistently verify that the data was received by GA4 and displayed in reports as you planned.

How to monitor, debug, and troubleshoot event data tracking in GA4?

First, monitor events from your website or mobile app as Analytics collects them. 

To monitor your events, check:

• Realtime Report. GA4's Realtime section provides an overview of users' live interactions with your website or app.

• Event Report. The Events section of GA4 summarizes all the events, including their names, parameters, and metrics.

• GA4 Debugger. You can use Google Tag Assistant and browser extensions to verify your tags are firing correctly.

DebugView shows the events and user properties collected by Analytics from a user in real-time. It helps you troubleshoot issues while setting up your tags or monitoring an external user's live activity. 

Enable Debug Mode

Any events that are sent from the Preview GTM get into Debug Mode. You can view them there.

Access DebugView

Navigate to the "DebugView" section in GA4 under the "Realtime" report to view real-time event data.

How to troubleshoot GA4 event tracking

Below, we will cover the things that will likely go wrong as you start working with GA4 without any previous experience.

Below, we will cover the things that will likely go wrong as you start working with GA4 without any previous experience.

• Verify tag setup. Ensure your GA4 tags are implemented correctly in your tag management system. Make sure the correct event names and parameters are sent. 
• Check event data. Verify that events emerge as intended in the Realtime report. 
• Check event parameters. Ensure that the parameters linked to your events are transmitted and recorded accurately. Discrepancies in these parameters can result in data problems.
• Review DebugView logs. Use DebugView to track events flow and identify real-time discrepancies or errors.
• Follow Google’s guides. Review GA4’s official documentation for troubleshooting tips and best practices. There is an About events guide and a troubleshooting guide available.
• Perform regular audits. Periodically review your analytics setup to ensure that all events are being tracked as intended and to spot any issues that may arise.

By following these steps, you can effectively monitor and troubleshoot events in GA4, ensuring accurate data collection and analysis.

Final thoughts

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) transcribes user interactions through event tracking. Setting it up correctly can significantly boost your insights, help you optimize marketing strategies, and improve overall user experience.

GA4’s flexibility and advanced capabilities are essential for making data-driven decisions, whether you're just starting or refining your strategy. Customizing event tracking to align with your specific goals will give you a more precise view of your audience, leading to more innovative methods and better results. 

Server-side tracking in GA4 boosts data accuracy, strengthens privacy, and improves load times by processing event tracking on the server instead of users' devices. Dive into event tracking with Stape today and turn your data into insights that drive success.