Finding the Data that Matters to You

There’s a lot of data reported in Google Analytics — like, a lot. And with GA4 we have all been required to learn a brand new interface with different reporting collections while doing our best to maintain consistent monthly and quarterly website performance reports to clients, colleagues and superiors. Additionally, GA4 builds reports on more advanced data modeling presenting a challenge for occasional users of Google Analytics, which many of us are.

But fear not, we're not letting this data party overwhelm us! Let us help you continue your monthly and quarterly collections so you can deliver your performance reports to clients, colleagues, and big bosses. First off we'll run through GA4 default reports so you can start to find the data that matters to you.

Default reports in GA4 are organized into key reporting areas, also called 'collections.' These collections are displayed as in your left navigation with GA4 out-of-the-box, and include:

🌟 Life Cycle Collection: Follows a user's journey. From getting them on to your site or app to keeping them entertained and encouraging them to stay for the long haul.

The life cycle collection includes Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, and Retention reports and it helps you understand user activity from acquisition to conversion:

• Acquisition focuses on new and returning users and the method of acquisition (e.g. medium, source, campaign).

• Engagement shows user activity by event count, the amount of time users engage with your site or app, and the number of times users return to your site or app.

• Monetization helps you understand the revenue you generate through ecommerce purchases, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and mobile ads.

• Retention covers how effectively you're able to turn new users into returning users and the percentage of users who keep returning.

👤 User Collection: Gives you better insight into the people using your website or app, providing more details about them—what they like, where they're from, and the gadgets they use. I

The user collection includes the reports:

• Demographics categorizing users by age, location, interests, and more.

• Tech includes the technologies people use and the adoption of different releases.

📱 App Developer Collection: For websites with linked apps, this collection includes information on app usage

These default collections are roughly replicate the UA interface we are all familiar with. But you can customize these collections and your default reports by creating and publishing a collection based on how you want to focus your report.

This chapter covers GA4 standard reports so you can get started on your journey to GA4 mastery.

Confused about where your UA reports are located in GA4? Read chapter 7 to see a side-by-side comparison between UA reporting and GA4 collections.

Acquisition reports can be found under Life cycle reports and tell you how people find your website or app. These are the reports that you’ll want to go to if you’re looking to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts or to find opportunities for new marketing channels.

Using acquisition reports, you can answer questions such as: :

• User acquisition —How many new users did youtube drive in the last week?

• Traffic acquisition — How much organic traffic did I receive last calendar month?

What is the difference between the User Acquisition and Traffic Acquisition reports?

These reports offer insights into distinct stages of the user journey. User Acquisition focuses on marketing channels that initially brought in your visitors and attributes all events and conversions to that specific traffic source, reporting primarily on the number of New Users. On the other hand, Traffic Acquisition provides information about the most recent traffic sources that brought users to your website or app, it reports primarily on the total number of Active Users.

When you want to see how people interact with your site after you send them there from social media, email newsletters, etc., this is where you’ll want to go.

Previously called Behaviour reports in UA, Engagement reports in GA4 show you how people interact with your website or app. This is a great way to see what content people are enjoying, what they value, and more.

The dimensions of Engagement reports include:

• Events —How engaged were your users?

• Conversions — Did site visitors complete the most important goals on your site? What is your site’s conversion rate and where were these goals completed?

• Pages and screens — What are the most popular pages on your site? How do people interact with each of those pages?

• Landing pages — What page do people arrive at when entering your site?

Understanding how users interact with your site and what their journeys consist of can help you create better content. If you want to know which pages are working and which may need some help, these are the reports you’re going to want to look at.

What’s changed for Engagement reports in GA4?

Engagement reports have had a big overhaul in GA4. These that are no longer shown under the Engagement collection:

• Exit pages — Page exit metrics are not available in the standard reports in GA4, but the metric 'Exits' is available in the Explorer.

• Behavior flow — GA4 doesn’t have a behavior flow report. Instead, you can use your exploration templates to follow your user’s journey.

Previously Conversion reports in UA, Monetization reports in GA4 show you when and if people are converting on your website. GA4 is an event-based analytics tool. Everything is an event now. Purchases, page views, everything. So if you want to configure conversions, you first must configure event tracking in Google Analytics, covered in Chapter 1 of this guide.

The Monetization report includes: :

• Ecommerce purchases — The number of product SKUs sold on your website.

• User purchase journey —A step-by-step visualization of your ecommerce conversion funnel. Steps in the funnel include ‘view product’, ‘add to cart’, and ‘begin checkout’.

• In-app purchases —GA4 allows you to track iOS and Android app usage, as well as purchases of items available within your app.

• Publisher ads —This section allows you to track in-app advertising and the engagement and revenue associated with each.

• Promotions — How impactful your promotions have been on revenue?

You can add new conversion events in Admin > Property > Conversions > New conversion event.

If you’re looking to see how well your site is converting visitors or what visitors need to see before converting, these are the reports you’ll want to refer to.

Previously called Audiences in UA, User Attributes in GA4 gives you insight into who is coming to your website, from where in the world, and how often. An audience is a group of website visitors who share common characteristics. These characteristics could be location, age, gender, or interests.

In GA4 there are two main areas where you can report on and manage your website’s audiences. Audience reports help you understand who your audience is and how they are interacting with your website or app. You can segment by dimensions, metrics, and events to include practically any subset of users. These can then be exported for use in remarketing lists.

In this report, you can find the following dimensions:

• Technology — What are the most popular devices and operating systems used by your site visitors? Looking at the hostname report, is your site traffic going to your primary domain or a subdomain?

• Demographic information — Including age, gender, location, language, interests.

• Acquisition channels — How are users finding your site? What are the traffic sources, campaigns, mediums and channels associated with your site traffic?,

• User trends — Do people come to the site more than once? If so, how often do they visit the site?

If you’re interested in better understanding who is coming to your site, these are the reports you’re going to want to look at.

If we zoom out from the micro picture of GA4 reporting and where everything is located, you'll see that the out-of-the-box structure roughly overlays with a transitional customer acquisition funnel.

At the top of the funnel you have awareness, it's all about getting noticed. All of the dimensions and metrics you need to track at this stage should be available in the Acquisition reports.

In the middle, where things heat up, you can get a sense of whether what you are dishing up is a hit, Engagement reports have what you need.

Moving down the funnel, you have the Conversion or Monetization reports. This is where you can see conversions from purchases, subscriptions and advertising.

And don't forget about post-sale – that's where the Retention reports step in, keeping tabs on your audience even after the confetti settles.🚀🔍

There is an abundance of data stored in Google Analytics. Luckily, the platform is designed to help you parse through the noise and find what you need. Aside from choosing the type of data you want to see, there are a few other tools you can use to find exactly what you are looking for.

Selecting reporting date range

Upon opening Google Analytics, you are taken to a “Reports snapshot” that is defaulted to show you data from the last 28 days.

To change the date range on the Homepage, find the button that says “last 28 days” select the button, and define the date range you would like to see.

The date range is displayed in the top right corner. If you click on the date range, you will be able to select either a custom start and end date, or you can select a preset date range. From this menu, you will also be able to select the comparison date range should you want to.

What’s changed in reporting date ranges in GA4?

The most notable difference between UA and GA4 is the distinct change to the look and feel of the user interface and how the date range is displayed. Additionally, UA defaulted for the last 7 days. GA4 also offers a wider selection of preset date ranges to choose from.

Sharing your reports

Should you want to share your insights, Google Analytics has built in reporting tools. Under the date ranges, there is a menu with a Share icon.

Upon selecting the share icon, a panel opens that allows you to copy the share link. Anyone with access to this property, that you share this link with, will be able to view the shared report.

Updated by Jo Cameron and Zach Edelstein on the 4 August, 2023.

Keep learning

• Whiteboard Friday - GA4 Audiences: Not Just for Ads!
• How to Avoid Duplicate Conversions and Recreating the Conversion Funnel for GA4
• Explore the GA4 Integration with Moz Pro
• Your GA4 Migration: 10 Things You DON’T Want to Miss