GA4 E-Commerce: A Comprehensive Guide

In the E-Commerce industry, measuring your business success is the only way to understand if there is growth or the need to take extra measures to ensure success in the long run. There are many things to measure in the E-Commerce business; instead of other online companies, it involves Direct Transactions. 

Trying to measure the number of traffic that you visit your website every other day might not guarantee success; that’s not to say that traffic isn’t essential for your E-Business growth, but you need to analyze other Intricate Data. 

However, to do this, you need to ensure that you have the proper success measuring tool. It would be best to have a device with a wide range of Data including Website Performance, Web Traffic, Website Sales, and other marketing activities.

Google Analytics (GA) does this effectively, and the best thing is that it’s completely free. So if you are looking to get GA4 E-Commerce for a business analysis on a budget, this is the right choice. 

So, before talking about what makes Google Analytics great, you will be surprised to know that its popularity has grown to over 29 million websites worldwide. These websites use the platform to track their business growth, making Google Analytics the most used tool to monitor online Business Performance. In this article, you will learn everything related to GA4 E-Commerce.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Google Analytics 
  • Key Features of Google Analytics
• Introduction to GA4 E-Commerce
  • Key Features of Google Analytics 4 or GA4
• Steps to Set up GA4 E-Commerce
  • Step 1: Creating Google Analytics Account
  • Step 2: Set a New GA4 Property
  • Step 3: Add a Data Stream
  • Step 4: Configure Your Website
  • Step 5: Define Conversions on GA4 E-Commerce
  • Step 6: Configuring Custom Events with Google Tag Manager on GA4 E-Commerce
• Conclusion

Introduction to Google Analytics 

GA is a Web Analytics tool offered by Google that helps to track and report Web Traffic. The service was launched in November 2005, although as a separate service but was eventually added to the Google Marketing Platform. 

The service was created to provide businesses with a free tool that can help with Data Gathering and Analysis in one place, thereby allowing you to gain a deeper understanding of their users on your website and provide calculated decisions. 

Key Features of Google Analytics

Firstly, Google Analytics is completely free to use. That’s number one; besides, it provides crucial information about the business and its visitors. It also provides;

• Monitoring website load speed to visitors
• Visualize sales funnels
• Monitor traffic source data
• Track email marketing success
• Check sales figures
• Measure visitor engagement
• Measure marketing efforts
• Provide information about your marketing campaigns
• Devices and technologies your visitors use
• Customer demographics
• Country of origin
• Conversion rates
• Conversion rates etc.

More so, as part of the Google Analytics family and as part of the brand’s commitment to providing an efficient analytics tool, Google launched four different versions (Urchin, Classic Analytics, and the Universal Analytics, as well as the current version; Google Analytics 4 or GT4)

This post will look at GT4, with a comprehensive guide on all you need to know about this new analytic tool from the Google analytical tool family. 

For further information on Google Analytics, check the official website here.

Introduction to GA4 E-Commerce

The next generation of Google Analytics, GA4, represents a vital technology leap that’s bound to change how companies utilize Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Systems, privacy-first data collection, and audience strategies. 

The latest GA4 E-Commerce update comprises increased Predictive Insights, Deep Integration with Google Ads, Advanced-Data Controls, and Cross-Platform Measurement capabilities. 

While announcing GA4, Google explained that;

“To help you get better ROI from your marketing for the long term, we’re creating a new, more intelligent Google Analytics that builds on the foundation of the App + Web property we introduced in beta last year.

“It has machine learning at its core to surface helpful insights automatically and gives you a complete understanding of your customers across devices and platforms.”

This version of Google Analytics provides a complete cross-platform view of the customer lifecycle. It uses that information with predictive marketing attributes to give the marketers advanced data and effective ways to use these insights. 

Key Features of GA4 E-Commerce 

The key features of GA4 E-Commerce are: 

• Customer Lifecycle-Framed Reporting.
• Codeless Event Tracking.
• New AI-powered Insights and Predictions.
• Marketers can do deeper audience integration with Google Ads.
• More Granular User Data Controls.
• Analytics in a Cookie-less Future.

Steps to Set up GA4 E-Commerce

For beginners, let’s talk about how to set up a GA4 E-Commerce. The following is a comprehensive guide on this process. 

• Step 1: Creating Google Analytics Account
• Step 2: Set a New GA4 Property
• Step 3: Add a Data Stream
• Step 4: Configure Your Website
• Step 5: Define Conversions on GA4 E-Commerce
• Step 6: Configuring Custom Events with Google Tag Manager on GA4 E-Commerce

Step 1: Creating a Google Analytics Account

The first step is to create a new Google Analytics account if you don’t already have one. Please note that because GA4 is the current updated GA version, the new GA4 is the default. More so, you should use this method if you are setting up an account from scratch. Otherwise, you need to upgrade your account from GA to GA4. With this, you get to keep both of your GA accounts. 

Move to the next step if you already have an active GA account. 

Creating a new Google Analytics account should take you more than fifteen minutes. Visit the official Google Analytics page here and create an account for the first time. Follow the prompt and get your account sorted. Once you are done, go to the Property and Create a Property Name for your website. 

Step 2: Set a New GA4 Property

There are several ways to create a New Property for your website. Go to Admin on the left-hand side widget. 

Under the primary section (Account column), make sure to choose the account you want to create the GA4 E-Commerce Property with. As such, ensure you’re working on the right website.

Presently, in the subsequent section (the Property column), you additionally need to ensure you’ve chosen the right property for your Universal Analytics account. 

Once it’s completed, feel free to tap on ‘GA4 Setup Assistant‘ and click ‘Get Started.

You may be asked to create another property for your site. Provided that this is true, click on ‘Create Property’ to continue. You ought to have the option to see this message:

Then, click ‘See Your GA4 Property‘ to ensure it is saved correctly; however, worry less if you don’t see the ‘Get GA4 Assistant‘. You go ahead and click on ‘Create Property‘ and follow the prompts to set a new property by filling the details with information about your business.

Click ‘Create‘ when you are done after agreeing to Google Analytics terms and conditions. Then click Next.

Step 3: Add a Data Stream

Setting up a Google Analytics account doesn’t end with website property setting. You need to add a Data Stream. The process is different when you create your GA4 E-Commerce account for the first time and have an already existing account. 

A) Setting up Data Stream for an Existing Analytics Account

If you have an already existing account, follow this link to visit your GA4 E-Commerce Dashboard and check out the Admin section. In the first column, make sure you select the proper account. Also, check the second column to make sure you set the right website property. 

Once you are done, click on ‘Data Streams‘ and proceed. 

B) Setting up Data Stream for a New GA4 account

If you are setting up a new account, you should follow all the prompts you get. At that point, you should be able to see the screen below after you click on ‘Data Streams.’ Likewise, don’t forget to accept GA4 terms and conditions. 

The next step in setting up GA4 E-Commerce is to choose the platform you are using to collect User Data. You can choose from three options; Web, Android, and iOS. Please note that you can create several data streams on a single property, but these come from a single platform. 

Move to ‘Add Stream‘ and select your chosen app. If you choose to go for iOS, you will be asked to provide an iOS bundle ID, the Application name, and the iOS store ID to register your application. The case is the same with Android too. You will need to input the package name and application name to register your application. Don’t also forget to follow all the prompts to add a new data stream. 

On the other hand, you will need to provide your website URL and stream name if it’s the website you want to track. You can also enable ‘Enhanced Measurement‘ and decide on what metric you need to measure. You can measure the following Metrics with GA4 E-Commerce regardless of the platform.

• Pageviews, 
• Outbound clicks, 
• Scrolls, 
• Video engagement, and 
• Site reach.

When you are done, click on the ‘Create Stream‘ button, and that’s about that.

Step 4: Configure Your Website (If Necessary)

This concludes the process of setting up your account. You need to pay attention to this step if you use your website as your Data Stream platform. Using web demands adding a new Google Analytics Tag to track data on your new GA4 E-Commerce property. 

You can do this with two different methods. One is by adding a new on-page tag or using an existing on-page tag. Either way, you have to add a Global Site Tag, adding some code to the Web Page existing Tag, or even using Google Tag Manager. 

However, you need also to have it at the back of your mind that the data won’t populate itself immediately. Give it a few hours. 

Step 5: Define Conversions on GA4 E-Commerce

We are done with setting up your GA4 E-Commerce account; the next step is to define conversions. This step will explain to you how to create and enable conversion events for GA4 E-Commerce. 

It would be best if you started by creating an event. Creating events on GA4 E-Commerce is almost similar to that of the previous versions of GA but with a bit of difference. The GA4 Tag will be deployed, ensuring that the GA4 E-Commerce tracks every user activity and maps them to its events. This process is automated by Artificial Intelligence.

Proceed to create an event. Usually, you get a full report of all events within 24 hours. After 24 hours to see the full report, go to Event >> and click ‘All Events.’ You will get a similar page to the one below. 

Please note that if your website has no downloadable content, you will not get all the information above. The table will contain default events that Google Analytics assigns to your website. 

In the next section, we will be talking about how to track custom events like Phone Calls, Contact Forms, and the rest. For this purpose, we will use the Google Tag Manager to set up events. 

Step 6: Configuring Custom Events with Google Tag Manager on GA4 E-Commerce

Please note that before creating a custom event, you may need to ensure that Google’s automatic, enhanced measurement and recommended events have been confirmed. The following steps must be implemented:

Step A: The first step is to log into your Google Tag Manager by creating a new account or log in to an existing one. 

Step B: The subsequent step is to click on ‘Add a New Tag‘ and then name your tag. Then click on the ‘pen‘ icon pop-up beside the ‘Tap Configuration‘ button when it’s complete. 

Step C: On the right-hand side, select ‘Google Analytics: GA4 Events.’

Step D: Proceed to click ‘Select Configuration Tab‘ on the drop-down menu under the Configuration Tag. If you had effectively set a configuration tab, you could feel free to choose it. Something else, go with None – Manually Set ID. 

At this point, feel free to enter your Measurement ID (can be found under “Data Stream” in the Administrator segment of your GA4 E-Commerce Account). On the GA4 E-Commerce Dashboard, go to “Administrator” and then Data Stream (in the property section) ~> and click on the Data Stream. 

Enter the event name, a similar name you entered here:

You can mark this event name since it will show up in your GA4 E-Commerce report.

Step E: Click on the event parameter, and proceed to ‘Add Row.’ This displays two boxes; Parameter Name and Value. In the Parameter name box, type “button_name” and then click the plus sign in the value box. 

In the overlay, pick “Event,” however you’ll need to edit it. The fact is to attempt to utilize an extremely descriptive value since this will show up in your GA4 E-Commerce report. For example, if you’re setting up a “Contact Page” event, you can utilize “Via Contact Page” as your value, as it cozily depicts the interaction the client used to get to your contact page.

Step F: The next step is to set up a trigger. A Trigger is the last page that a client lands on after they have finished a particular activity. For instance, when signing up for your newsletter, getting to a “Thank You Page” signifies they have completed the action. You can then use the public tag after you’ve set your Triggers.

You can use your GA4 E-Commerce platform for so many things, but these are just the basics. 

Conclusion

This article introduced you to Google Analytics and its features. It also explained how to carry out a GA4 E-Commerce setup with a few easy steps. Now that you have GA4 set up on your website and application, it is time to start leveraging its awesome features to take your business to the next level. Extracting complex data from a diverse set of data sources can be a challenging task and this is where Hevo saves the day!

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