Configure GA4 conversions: events and goals (guide)

GA4 collects dozens of data points per session. But without configured conversions, it doesn't know which action really counts for your business. A visitor who fills your contact form and a visitor who spends 2 seconds on your homepage have exactly the same weight in GA4's eyes: until you tell it otherwise.

This guide shows you how to configure conversions in GA4, from identifying useful events to validating everything works.

What is a conversion in GA4

In GA4, a conversion is an event you have designated as important for your business. It's not an action GA4 defines for you: you decide.

Conversions can be:

• Macroconversions: purchase, quote request, contract signature, paid subscription
• Microconversions: newsletter sign-up, PDF download, phone-number click, add to cart

The difference with Universal Analytics: UA had "Goals" with dedicated configuration. GA4 simplifies this: any conversion is first an event, that you then mark as important.

Step 1: identify your conversion events

Before configuring anything, list the value-actions on your site.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Which action in the visitor journey indicates real commercial interest?
• Which action leads directly to revenue?
• Which action is a strong signal of purchase intent?

Examples by site type:

Step 2: check events already collected by GA4

GA4 automatically collects several events without configuration. Before creating anything, check what's already available.

Where to check: Admin → Property → Events

Automatically collected events include:

• page_view: every page view
• scroll: scroll to 90% of the page
• click: clicks on outbound links
• session_start: session start
• first_visit: first visitor
• form_submit: form submission (if the GA4 tag is correctly installed)

If form_submit already appears in your event list and you have forms, you can directly mark it as a conversion without creating a new event.

Step 3: mark an existing event as a conversion

The simplest method: if the event is already collected.

1. Go to Admin → Property → Conversions
2. Click "Create conversion event"
3. Enter the exact name of the event (e.g. form_submit, purchase, sign_up)
4. Click "Save"

From there, every time this event fires, GA4 counts it as a conversion.

Caution: the name must match exactly the event as sent to GA4, including case (GA4 events are lowercase with underscores).

Step 4: create a new conversion event

If the event you want to track isn't yet collected, you have two options.

Option A: create the event directly in GA4 (no code)

GA4 lets you create events from existing events, by adding conditions.

Example: you want to track contact form submissions (page /thanks displayed after submission).

1. Admin → Property → Events → Create event
2. New event name: contact_form
3. Conditions:
   • Parameter: event_name: Operator: equals: Value: page_view
   • Parameter: page_location: Operator: contains: Value: /thanks
4. Save
5. Mark contact_form as a conversion in the Conversions tab

This method works if: you have a confirmation page after submission (e.g. /thanks, /confirmation, /thank-you).

Option B: configure via Google Tag Manager (recommended)

If you use Google Tag Manager (and you should), you have much more control over the events you can send to GA4.

To track a click on a specific button:

1. In GTM, create a trigger:
   • Type: Click: All Elements
   • Condition: the ID or CSS class of the button (e.g. id = "btn-contact")
2. Create a GA4 Event tag:
   • Event name: contact_button_click
   • Configured with your GA4 Measurement ID
   • Trigger: the trigger created in the previous step
3. Publish the GTM version
4. In GA4 → Conversions → mark contact_button_click as a conversion

GTM is more powerful because it doesn't require modifying the site code for every new tracking.

Step 5: validate that conversions work

Before letting it run, check that conversions are properly counted.

Real-time test

1. Open GA4 → Reports → Realtime
2. Perform the action on your site (fill the form, click the button)
3. In Realtime, look at the "Key events" section: your event should appear within 30 seconds

DebugView

For a more precise test:

1. Install the Chrome extension "Google Analytics Debugger"
2. Enable it on your site
3. In GA4 → Admin → DebugView: you see every event sent in real time with its parameters

DebugView is the reference tool to diagnose tracking issues.

Classic configuration mistakes

Counting page reloads as conversions

If your confirmation page reloads (back button, F5), GA4 may count multiple conversions for a single action. The solution: ensure the confirmation page is only accessible after a real submission (server-side post-POST redirect).

Wrong event-name match

Form_Submit ≠ form_submit: GA4 is case-sensitive. Always use lowercase and underscores. If you create a conversion with the wrong name, it will never count.

Historical events not counted

When you mark an event as a conversion, GA4 only counts conversions from that moment on. Past data isn't retroactively reclassified. That's normal: start early.

Too many conversions

If you mark 15 different events as conversions, your conversion reports become unreadable. Keep 2 to 5 main conversions maximum. Micro-events (scrolls, clicks) can be tracked without being marked as conversions.

What you see in the reports after configuration

Once your conversions are configured and validated, several GA4 reports become much more useful.

Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition: you now see which channel generates the most conversions, not just the most traffic. A channel representing 10% of traffic but 40% of conversions is far more valuable than raw traffic numbers suggest.

Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Conversions: evolution of conversion count over time, with variation vs the previous period.

Exploration (Funnel exploration): build a funnel to see at which step visitors abandon before converting.

Summary: the minimum conversions to configure for a professional site

If you had to configure only 3:

1. Contact form submission: the primary conversion for a showcase site
2. Phone-number click: often ignored, often the #1 source of leads
3. Newsletter sign-up: strong interest signal, builds an owned audience

For an e-commerce client, replace with: purchase (purchase), add to cart, checkout.

If you produce monthly GA4 reports for clients, conversions are the section that best justifies marketing investment. NarratIQ integrates them automatically into the PDF report: with variation vs the previous period and interpretation context.