How do you read a Google Analytics 4 report?

In Google Analytics an event is an interaction measured on a site or in an app. A key event is an event you have marked as particularly important to the success of the business. Any event you collect can become a key event. Once it is marked, reports are there to show the users who perform the action and the channels that lead them to it.

The mark applies from the moment it is made. It does not rewrite earlier days. It can take up to 24 hours to appear in standard reports. The Realtime report updates within a few minutes of a user triggering the action. Removing the mark stops new collection. Rows already collected stay in reports as key events.

A standard property can mark 30 events as key events. An Analytics 360 property can mark 50. On web and app, purchase is already marked. On app only, first_open, in_app_purchase, app_store_subscription_convert and app_store_subscription_renew are on the default list as well. If Ads Personalization is on for a linked Google Ads account, a longer list is marked too, including add_to_cart, begin_checkout and session_start. The Key events column then counts those alongside the form. To read one action, choose that event in the report's All events menu.

The Key events column shows how many times users triggered a key event. If the same person does it twice, the column writes two. User key event rate, in the User acquisition report, is the share of users who performed the action. Session key event rate, in the Traffic acquisition report, is the share of sessions in which at least one key event happened. The three can sit in one view. Their denominators are not the same.

The definition of an engaged session moves the rate as well. A session counts as engaged if it lasted 10 seconds or longer, had at least one key event, or had at least two page or screen views. Engagement rate is engaged sessions divided by sessions. The help page describes it as the inverse of bounce rate. After a form is marked as a key event, a shift in engagement rate need not mean people stayed longer. The definition counts a short session with a single key event as engaged.

The User acquisition report shows where new users first found the site or app. Its dimensions begin with First user. That value stays as the user returns. Analytics can treat the return as the same user when the reporting identity selected for the property can match them. How that match works sits outside this article. The New users metric counts user IDs that logged first_visit or first_open.

The Traffic acquisition report shows where a session started, for a new or returning user. Its dimensions begin with Session. The value is set again each time the user returns. The report's default dimension is Session default channel group. Direct, Organic Search, Paid Social, Organic Social and Email are among the values in that group. The list is longer than those five. The group is a rule, not a list of accounts that have been opened. Where a channel sits in the work is covered separately in the piece on choosing a channel.

Adding the rows of the two reports into one number treats the first arrival and a later session as the same occasion. Which report answers which question in the plan is set in order in the strategy piece. The reading rule here is this: the first-arrival question belongs to the First user row, and the question about sessions in this period belongs to the Session row.

User-scoped and session-scoped dimensions use the paid and organic channels last click model. The attribution model selected on the property does not change those two scopes. The User acquisition and Traffic acquisition reports sit in this scope.

Event-scoped dimensions have no First user or Session prefix. Source and Medium are of that kind. They distribute credit across touchpoints on the way to a key event. The model is the one selected on the property. The default is data-driven. The model comparison and key event paths reports show this scope. For an event that is not a key event, source and medium read (not set). That blank does not mean the tag fell off. It means the event is not marked as a key event.

A channel row in an acquisition report and the credit on a key event path can therefore show different numbers. The split is that the two models do not share credit the same way. The scopes page says a session that starts as a direct entrance can be attributed to the UTM values already known for that user. A later visit from a bookmark can appear on the earlier campaign's row. How the parameter carries that name is in the piece on UTM parameters.

A Google Ads conversion is a record created separately from an Analytics key event. The step is not open on every property. The help page says the feature can vary by property. A Google Ads conversion created this way does not appear in standard Analytics reports. It is read in Google Ads, or in the Advertising section of Analytics.

Why the two products' numbers can miss a sales, form or call record is covered in the piece on the conversion count. This article does not walk through tag setup. That a key event count also does not say whether the person fits the work is covered in the piece on lead quality. In a digital marketing plan, the report is there to answer the single question chosen before the spend.