How to Add Google Analytics to Bubble

Adding Google Analytics to your Bubble app is one of the best first steps you can take to understand your users. Instead of flying blind, you can see how people find your app, what they do when they get there, and which features they actually use. This guide will walk you through exactly how to set up Google Analytics 4 in Bubble, track custom events, and verify that everything is working correctly.

Why Connect Google Analytics to Your Bubble App?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." You're building a unique web application on Bubble, not just a simple website. Your user's journey is more than just page views. They sign up, complete profiles, use your tools, and upgrade their accounts. Tracking these actions is essential for growth.

Google Analytics helps you answer critical questions like:

• Where are my users coming from? You can see which channels (like Google search, social media, or paid ads) are driving the most sign-ups.
• What actions are users taking? Move beyond page views and track meaningful events like 'button_clicked,' 'demo_requested,' or 'subscription_started.'
• Which features are most popular? By tracking events within your application, you can see what users actually engage with, helping you prioritize your development roadmap.
• How effective are my landing pages? Identify which pages do the best job of turning visitors into signed-up users.

Getting this data helps you stop guessing and start making informed decisions to improve your app and grow your user base.

Step 1: Set Up Your Google Analytics 4 Property

If you don't already have one, your first task is creating a Google Analytics 4 property for your Bubble app. If you already have one, you can skip to grabbing your Measurement ID in the next section.

1. Go to the Google Analytics website and sign in.
2. Click on the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
3. In the Property column, click Create Property.
4. Give your property a name (e.g., "My Bubble App") and set your time zone and currency. Click Next.
5. Provide your business information. For Property purpose, you'll likely want to select options like "Generate leads" or "Drive online sales."
6. Now, you'll be prompted to set up a "data stream." This is how data flows from your app into your Analytics property. Choose Web.
7. Enter your Bubble app's URL (e.g., yourapp.bubbleapps.io or your custom domain) and give the stream a name. Make sure "Enhanced measurement" is turned on - it automatically tracks helpful events like scrolls and outbound clicks.
8. Click Create stream.

After you create the stream, you'll see a page with your stream details. The most important piece of information here is your Measurement ID, which looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX. Keep this page open, you'll need it in a moment.

Step 2: Add Google Analytics to Bubble (Two Methods)

You have two primary ways to install GA4 on Bubble. The plugin method is the easiest and covers most needs, while the HTML header method offers more flexibility for advanced setups.

Method 1: The Easy Way with Bubble's Native Plugin

Bubble has an official plugin that makes this process incredibly simple. For 99% of use cases, this is the way to go.

1. In your Bubble App Editor, navigate to the Plugins tab on the left-hand menu.
2. Click + Add Plugins.
3. In the search bar, type "Google Analytics 4" and look for the official plugin made by Bubble. It's free. Click Install.
4. Once installed, you'll see a new field asking for your "property ID." This is where you paste your Measurement ID (the value starting with G-) that you just found in your GA4 account.

And you're done! That's it. The plugin will now automatically add the necessary tracking code to all of your app's pages. It will handle page views and the "Enhanced Measurement" events you enabled in GA4. Now, the next logical step is to track actions specific to your app.

Method 2: Using the HTML Header (For Advanced Cases)

This method involves manually placing the GA4 script into your Bubble app's header. You might do this if you need to load other scripts or make custom modifications to the GA tag itself, which is rare for most users.

This involves:

• Going to your GA4 account, accessing your Web stream details, and choosing "Install manually" to copy the gtag.js code snippet.
• Pasting that code into the Settings > SEO / metatags > Script/meta tags in header box in Bubble.

Important Note: Use only ONE of these methods. Using both the plugin and the HTML header method will result in your tracking code being loaded twice, which will inflate your traffic numbers and cause reporting headaches.

Your tracking code is now active on every page of your app. But just like with the plugin method, the real power comes from tracking custom user events.

Step 3: Tracking Custom Events with Bubble Workflows

Let's say you have a "Schedule a Demo" button. A simple page view doesn't tell you if people are actually clicking it. To track that specific action, you need to create a custom event.

This is where Bubble's workflow system shines. Here’s how to set up an event to track every time a user clicks that demo button.

1. Select the "Schedule a Demo" button in your Bubble editor's Design view.
2. Click Start/Edit workflow.
3. Inside the workflow editor, click on "Click here to add an action..."
4. Go to Plugins > Track event - Google Analytics 4. (This is the action added by the GA4 plugin).
5. A new window will pop up with configuration options:

Now, every time a user performs that action, an event named schedule_demo_click with all the context you added will be sent to your Google Analytics account. You can (and should) repeat this process for all important user actions: user sign-ups, file uploads, project creations, profile completions, and more.

Step 4: Verify Your Google Analytics Setup is Working

After setting everything up, you don't want to just hope it's working. You need to verify it. The best tool for this is Google Analytics' own Realtime report and DebugView.

Using the Realtime Report

The simplest check is to open your Bubble app in a new browser tab and navigate to a few different pages. Then:

1. Go to your Google Analytics account.
2. In the left-hand navigation, go to Reports > Realtime.

You should see at least one user (that's you!) on the map and a stream of events like page_view and user_engagement appearing in the event cards. Now, go back to your app and click the "Schedule a Demo" button you just set up a workflow for. Within 30 seconds, you should see your custom event, schedule_demo_click, appear in the "Event count by Event name" card.

Using DebugView for Deeper Insight

For more detailed testing, DebugView is your best friend. It shows you a raw, unfiltered stream of events coming from your device.

1. First, install the Google Analytics Debugger extension for Chrome.
2. Once installed, go to your Bubble App and click the extension's icon to turn it ON. The icon will show an "ON" badge.
3. Reload a page in your app. This activates an internal "debug mode" for GA4.
4. In Google Analytics, go to Admin > DebugView (it's under Data display).

You'll now see a timeline of every single event firing from your browser in real-time. Click around your app and perform the actions you set up custom events for. You can click on any event in the DebugView timeline to see the exact properties (parameters) that were sent along with it. This is incredibly helpful for making sure your dynamic values in Bubble are pulling through correctly.

Final Thoughts

Setting up Google Analytics in Bubble is a simple but powerful process that shifts you from building in the dark to making data-driven decisions. By using the official plugin to connect your GA4 property and leveraging Bubble workflows to track custom events, you can build a complete picture of your user's journey through your application.

Once you have all of this valuable data flowing into Google Analytics, the next challenge is making sense of it. The GA4 interface can be complex, and manually building reports takes time away from acting on the insights. That's exactly where we built Graphed to help. Instead of wrestling with reports, you can connect your Google Analytics account and use plain English to create dashboards and get insights instantly - letting you focus on growing your app, not just analyzing it.