Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s free analytics tool for websites and apps. It measures events: visits, traffic sources, clicks, form submissions, purchases. In practice, it answers the two questions every marketing decision depends on: where people come from, and what they do on your site before they become customers.
What does GA4 do for a business in practice?
It settles arguments that would otherwise end in guesswork. Does traffic from Facebook convert at all? Which blog articles bring in enquiries? Where do people abandon the form? In our clients’ accounts, GA4 often proves gut feelings wrong: the channel that ‘definitely works’ turns out to bring in visits without a single conversion, while underrated traffic from Google generates most of the enquiries. Without this data, you can’t set sensible KPIs or properly assess any campaign.
Where should you start?
The minimum we set up on every project: a correct installation (directly or through Google Tag Manager), the events that matter to the business marked as key events (form submissions, clicks on your phone number, purchases) and a connection to your ads account, so that Google Ads campaigns learn from real data. A common mistake: GA4 installed ‘because you have to’, with no key events defined. An account like that collects traffic but can’t answer a single business question. You can read more about planning your online marketing in our article How to promote your business online effectively.
Related terms: conversion, KPI.
