How to Monitor and Optimize Manual Custom Event Tracking in GA4?

Are you looking to track the record of individuals who click on any buttons on your website or submit a form? But the first question in your mind is how to track? Well, the answer lies in a tool called Google Analytics and GTM. Tracking custom events on your website or app is important for understanding user behavior, enhancing user experience, and maximizing marketing campaigns.

Also Read: Why your business needs to hire professional SEO experts in 2024?

In this blog we will learn how Google Analytics 4 (GA4) helps you to track users' records effectively.

Now, let's take a deep understanding of event tracking. Have you ever wondered how to track more than just a single page_view? Here you will get the answer to every question raised in your mind.

But firstly, we need to know why custom events are essential for monitoring and optimizing events?

What are Events and Why Manual Custom Event Tracking is Essential?

Basically "events" are users' actions or interaction with your website or app. These activities could be anything that include clicking a button, submitting a form, downloads, video views, scrolling down a page and other actions that show user behavior and preferences.

Manual custom event tracking is essential because according to your unique needs you can track these events easily. This provides you more accurate and detailed data that helps you understand user behavior and monitor website's performance.

However, the events in GA4 are categorized into several types. Here we will discuss about its types and importance in tracking:

Types of Custom Events in GA4: Accurate Data Collection

In Google Analytics 4, events can be of four different types. We discuss each one below, along with their purposes and ways to collect data.

1. Automatically Collected Events:

GA4 tracks these events automatically. You don't require any additional actions to monitor these user interactions. Here are the examples of automatically collected events:

• session_start event
• first_visit event
• user_engagement event

Now we will discuss each of the above automatically collected events with examples in brief to make you understand insight deeply.

• Session_Start Event: In GA4, a session_start event automatically tracks the record of a user's visit to your website or app. It also generates ga_session_id for proper session reporting and ga_session_number for numbers of users on your site.

The session event includes page_view, scroll, clicks and file download and other custom generated in GA4 tools.

• First_visit Event: The first visit event also automatically tracks records when a user visits for the first time in your website. It helps you identify new visitors, understand user behavior and their interaction with your site initially.

• User_engagement Event: GA4 user engagement is the amount of time spent by a user in your website or app. These events will help you to identify users' interaction with your website page. The average time must last 10 seconds or more.

2. Enhanced Measurement Events:

GA4 enhanced measurement events automatically track users interaction by default without setting up manually. This provides you valuable insights and helps you understand overall performance on your website.

It includes various interactions with users like page view, scroll, outbound clicks, site search video engagement, file downloads and form interactions.

Check your enhanced measurement event with below steps:

Firstly, Go to the admin section then click on the Data Stream property setting.

Now, click on Data Stream. 

After that you need to enable the blue bar of measurement. Here you can see seven enhancement measurement events. You can now enable or disable events and save your preferences according to your need.

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3. Recommended Events: 

The recommended events in GA4 allow you to track users' interaction with your site or app. These include ecommerce events like add_to_cart, begin_checkout, purchase, and video play. Monitoring these events will allow you to determine user behavior and engagement. 

4. Custom Events:

Google does not provide suggested names for custom events, so you need to set up custom events for your business. This event tracking allows unique user interaction, form submission and user engagement.

Curious about how to set up custom events and how they provide detailed user information for your business? 

Let’s discuss the custom event that requires manual setup for your website or app that allows you to get data on unique activities relevant to your business needs.

How to Set Up Custom Events in GA4?

The answer lies in below detailed information where you will be able to track some of the necessary user activities on your website. 

Here are the steps to create custom events in GA4:

Step 1. Go to the admin panel section.

Step 2. Go to Data Display and click on the Event section. Then Click on Create event on the left corner.

Step 3. Click on Create Event to begin.

Step 4. Create events by entering the name of your events like page view, button click, thank you page or video play. Then enter the parameters and values carefully. 

Note: The value must contain the url of the page we are tracking.

Step 5. Click on the real time overview. Here you will get the real-time event data.

How to Access Event Tracking Reports in GA4?

The answer is quite simple! You need to follow below steps where you can collect reports for accurate data analysis and insights.

Step 1. Click on "Reports" navigate to "Engagement" and select "Event" to view detailed event tracking and user interactions.

Step 2. Custom Events on a Landing Page in GA4

Landing page report helps you understand how visitors interact with your website. With this we can easily identify which pages are performing well and which one needs improvement.

Conclusion:

It is important to monitor and optimize event tracking in GA4 for taking deep records of insights, user behavior and engagement on your website. By following the above steps you can set up custom events properly. This will help you to make strategies on improving your website's performance and achieve your business goals.

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