How to Set Up Conversions in Google Analytics 4

Setting up conversion tracking can feel intimidating, but in Google Analytics 4, it’s built around a simple idea: any action you care about can be a conversion. This guide will walk you through, step-by-step, how to define and track the key user actions that matter most to your business, without needing a developer or any complicated code.

What is a Conversion in GA4? (Hint: It’s All About Events)

If you're used to Universal Analytics (UA), you probably remember "Goals." In GA4, that concept is replaced entirely. Now, everything is an event.

An event is any interaction a user has with your website or app - from scrolling down a page to clicking a button or making a purchase. GA4 simplifies conversions by letting you flip a switch and mark any event you’re tracking as a conversion. That’s it. If you can track an action as an event, you can track it as a conversion.

This event-based model is incredibly flexible. Common conversions you might want to track include:

• E-commerce Sales: The purchase event is the most critical conversion for online stores.
• Lead Generation: A generate_lead or form_submit event when a user fills out a contact form.
• User Sign-ups: A sign_up event when someone creates a new account.
• Key Page Views: A visit to a "thank you" or "order confirmation" page.
• Newsletter Subscriptions: A dedicated event for when a user joins your email list.

To do this, GA4 uses four types of events that can be turned into conversions:

1. Automatically Collected Events: These are tracked by default when you install GA4, such as session_start and first_visit.
2. Enhanced Measurement Events: You can enable these with a toggle in your settings to track actions like scrolls, view_search_results, and file_downloads without any extra setup.
3. Recommended Events: Google provides lists of suggested event names for different industries (e.g., add_to_cart for e-commerce, login for all industries) to encourage standardized reporting.
4. Custom Events: These are events you define and name yourself to track specific actions unique to your business, like demo_request_submitted or pricing_plan_viewed.

You have two primary ways to set up conversions in the GA4 interface: using an event that already exists or creating a new one from specific conditions. Let’s break down both.

Method 1: Mark an Existing Event as a Conversion (The Easy Way)

This is the most straightforward method. If your website is already sending an event to GA4 that you want to count as a conversion - like a purchase or sign_up - you can enable it with just a few clicks.

Use this method when the event name itself is a clear indicator of the conversion. For example, if you already have a form_submit event firing every time a contact form is completed, you don't need to do anything extra. Just tell GA4 that form_submit is a valuable action.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to the Events List

In your GA4 property, go to the left-hand navigation panel and click on Admin (the gear icon at the bottom).

Under the "Data display" column, click on Events.

2. Find Your Event and Mark It as a Conversion

You’ll see a table listing all the event names GA4 has collected from your website in the selected time range. Scroll through the list to find the event you want to track as a conversion. For example, you might be looking for generate_lead.

On the far right of that event’s row, you'll see a toggle switch under the "Mark as conversion" column. Click the toggle to turn it on. The switch will turn blue, and that's it! You’ve just told GA4 to start counting every generate_lead event as a conversion.

You might notice some events like purchase are grayed out and already toggled on. GA4 automatically marks purchase as a conversion by default, so you can’t turn it off.

3. Verify Your Conversion Event

To see your newly created conversion, navigate back to Admin and click on Conversions (right below Events). Your event name should now appear in this list.

Keep in mind: It can take 24-48 hours for new data to populate in the Conversions report, so don’t worry if you don’t see counts immediately. Over the next day, you’ll start seeing completed conversions appear in your reports, like the Traffic acquisition report, which helps you understand which marketing channels are driving valuable actions.

Method 2: Create a New Conversion Event from an Existing One

What if the action you want to track isn’t represented by a single, unique event? For instance, maybe you only want to count a page view as a conversion when a user lands on your specific "thank-you" page after submitting a form.

Every visit to that page fires a generic page_view event, just like any other page view. You don’t want to mark all page views as conversions. Instead, you can create a new, more specific event based on the URL of your "thank-you" page.

Use this method when a standard event is too broad, and you need to use additional details (called parameters) to isolate the specific action you care about.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Go to the “Create Event” Interface

From the Admin > Events page, click the blue Create event button in the top right corner. You'll be taken to the Custom events screen. Click Create again.

2. Configure Your New Event

Now you need to set the rules for your new event. Let’s stick with our goal: tracking visits to yourwebsite.com/thank-you as a new lead_generated conversion.

• Custom event Name: Give your new event a clear, descriptive name. Follow Google’s naming conventions (lowercase letters and underscores). Let’s call it thank_you_page_visit.

Next, you'll define the Matching Conditions. This tells GA4, "When an event happens that meets these specific criteria, create my new custom event."

For our example, you will set two conditions:

• Condition 1:
• Condition 2:

This tells GA4: "When a page_view event occurs AND the page URL contains /thank-you, I want you to create a new event called thank_you_page_visit."

Click Create in the top right to save your custom event.

3. Mark Your New Event as a Conversion

Creating the event is only the first part. Now you have to tell GA4 that this new event is a conversion. It may take a few hours (or even up to a day) for your new custom event to show up in your Events list. Once thank_you_page_visit appears in the table at Admin > Events, you can go back and follow the steps in Method 1 to simply toggle it on as a conversion.

Troubleshooting Common Conversion Setup Issues

Even with a streamlined process, you might run into bumps along the way. Here are some of the most common issues and how to fix them.

My new conversion isn't showing any data

Patience is key here. As mentioned, GA4 reports can have a data processing latency of 24-48 hours. If you've just set up a conversion, give it a day or two before expecting to see data in your standard reports. You can use the Realtime report to see if the event is firing correctly at the moment.

I can’t find the event I want to mark as a conversion

If an event isn't appearing in your Events list, it means GA4 hasn't received it from your website yet. Make sure the user action is actually happening and that your tracking code is properly installed. For custom events that require coding or Google Tag Manager, double-check that your tags are configured and published correctly.

I tracked the wrong event. How do I remove it?

Accidentally marked all page_view events as a conversion? No problem. Simply go to Admin > Conversions. Find the event in the list and click the blue toggle switch on the right to turn it off. This action won't delete historical data, but GA4 will stop counting it as a conversion moving forward.

Can I set monetary values for my conversions?

Yes, but it often requires a bit more involved setup. For e-commerce purchase events, the value and currency should be sent as event parameters directly from your website's data layer. For non-e-commerce conversions like a lead form submission, you can set a default value in the Conversions table by clicking the three dots next to the conversion and selecting "Change reporting identity." This helps you assign an estimated monetary value to leads.

Final Thoughts

Setting up conversion tracking in GA4 boils down to identifying the few key user interactions that drive your business forward and flagging them as events. Whether you’re simply toggling on an existing event or creating a new, more specific one, the GA4 interface makes defining what matters most more accessible than ever before.

Of course, tracking conversions is just the starting point. The real value comes from connecting that conversion data to your marketing activities to understand what's really working. That's why we built Graphed. After connecting your GA4 account, you can combine it with data from platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Shopify, or HubSpot, and then just ask simple questions like "show me my Facebook campaigns with the highest ROAS" or "what's my lead-to-customer conversion rate this month." We handle all the hard work automatically, delivering a live dashboard so you can focus on making data-driven decisions instead of pulling manual reports.