Easy tips to get familiar with Google Analytics 4 dashboards

Once you’re familiar with the basics of Google Analytics 4, there are several advanced settings and features to explore. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your Google Analytics 4 account.

Table of contents

1. Exploring the Interface and Navigation Options
2. Setting Up Custom Reports
3. Analyzing Events Data in Detail
4. Universal Analytics in GA4 reports
5. Create your own funnels
Conclusion

 

1. Google Analytics 4 dashboards – Interface and Navigation

Create a custom dashboard overview to see all the important metrics you need from your account in one place. This way, you can quickly access data that is most important to you without having to scroll through multiple menus.

With the new GA4, you now have greater control to customize your UI. This feature allows for a personalized experience that simplifies report access and organization.

You can create tables, charts, dashboards, collections and more in the Library of GA4. In short, GA4 should be definitely in your toolset for marketing.

To create one of those fancy tabs with your name on it go to:

Library > Create new collection.

You can add any type of data into the dashboard by simply drag/drop.

Once you are done, you can publish the collection and it will appear on your GA4 menu.

Tadaaa!

You get your own personalized data overview with your favourite reports. Do not forget that GA4 relies on the data implemented on your site, therefore the datalayer has to be up to date in order to see GA4 reports full of information. You can get more information on our article about the GA4 datalayer or directly from the Google Analytics 4 documentation.

Now let’s get into how easy it is to build your own reports in GA4. Keep reading.

 

2. Setting Up Custom GA4 Dashboards & Reports

Make basic edits to your dashboards such as adding graphs, changing the date range, and filtering out data is possible in GA4. The reports are not so static as in UA and you can add and update anything you wish. You can also create custom goals and set up automated alerts for when certain conditions are met.

With the new GA4, you now have greater control to customize your UI, which allows for a personalized experience.

Go to any existing report or add a new one as follows:

With “Create overview report” you will be able to add multiple charts and tables into a full dashboard.
With “Create detail report” you will be able to create a detail chart or table that later you can add to any dashboard.

To add new changes to an existing report just click the pencil icon:

The edit page will allow you to add any type of data you have available on your GA4 library.

 

3. Analyzing Google Analytics 4 Events Data in Detail

If you’re curious about what’s happening on your website in a timely manner, the new Realtime report offered through Google Analytics 4 dashboards has great features. The reporting is quite user-friendly and understandable; you can gain insight into visitor behaviour within the past 30 minutes with ease.

Instead of waiting for post-mortem analysis or manual troubleshooting, you can use this data to quickly adjust your strategies and content in order to maximize engagement, conversions and ultimately achieve success with every campaign.

It is even possible to sneak into the snapshot of an anonymized user that GA4 presents to you when you click on “View user snapshot” at the top-left side of the dashboard “Realtime”:

Also, from the same “Realtime” dashboard it is possible to click through the specific details about each event. Every GA4 event has its own dashboard. Here an example of the dashboard or the event “purchase”. Also, each event has its own realtime overview, so within 30mins you can see all about a specific event.

 

4. Universal Analytics in GA4 dashboards

We all will miss features from Universal Analytics. But luckily, GA4 contains enough datapoints to create those UA dashboards that we are all used to.

Use secondary dimensions so you don’t miss out on the analytics you know and love from Universal Analytics. Though there are some differences in metrics, most of the standard Google Analytics metrics and reports can be found in Google Analytics 4. With these tips, you’ll be able to get the most out of your google analytics 4 account and start using it more effectively.

In every report in Google Analytics 4 it is possible to add/update the primary and secondary dimensions so we can get overviews that are similar or identical to the ones from Universal Analytics.

For example, here is a way to get the famous overview of Source/Medium from UA applied to each product:

 

5. Create your own funnels

Universal Analytics’ Ecommerce reports are a popular favourite, and the Checkout funnel is often the star of those reports. Unfortunately, App+Web doesn’t offer similar Funnels reporting out-of-the but you can build your own funnels.

Building funnels will help you to spot the improvements that you need to do in order to upgrade your website performance. You could do a funnel to check if your blog posts generate any conversion or if the product page leads to as many sales as you want. In GA4 you can build any type of funnel.

Yes it does require some effort on your end; however, you can take advantage of enhanced features that come along with this approach such as adding additional conditions to create a customized funnel, and making sure that all data points you want are included.

Go to the sidebar menu tab “Explore” and then click “Funnels”. Then the edit funnel page will popup and you can start adding all the data you need. It is quite a process but once you build your first funnel it is quite addictive so you start building more funnel to analyze every interaction on your webshop.

You can add:

• Segments: Let’s say that you want to create a funnel only for the users from Facebook ads; you create a traffic segment in this step.
• Dimensions: This helps to analyze users based on their location, gender, device, etc.
• Metrics: You can add any data points you want.
• Funnel Steps: Of course how you want your funnel to be in terms of the steps that users will take. It could be as simple as: User view item > User add to cart > User purchase

With every GA4 data point you can select the rule/filter that will apply, so for example for the final step “purchase” I selected 2 events: “purchase” and “in_app_purchase”. When that rule is met, the users will be measured and it will appear on my funnel stats.

Conclusion

These are just simple tips to get you ongoing. Taking the time to become familiar with Google Analytics 4 is very important so you can use the tool in the best way for your business.

With these simple examples I challenge you to click around GA4 and you will find out more interesting features that will add value to your marketing strategy.

If you have made it this far through the blog…

Chances are that you are seriously looking to improve your Google Analytics game. That’s great we are here for it!

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