What Are Goals in Google Analytics 4?

If you're used to Universal Analytics, you've probably asked yourself: where did my "Goals" go? Google Analytics 4 changed things up, replacing Goals with something called "Conversions." While the name is different, the core idea is the same - tracking the most important actions visitors take on your site. This article will show you exactly what GA4 Conversions are, how to set them up step-by-step, and how to use them to measure what truly matters for your business.

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The Big Change: From "Goals" (UA) to "Conversions"

First, let's clear up the confusion. In the old Universal Analytics (UA), "Goals" were how you measured valuable actions. You had specific goal types that you had to configure, like:

• Destination: Fired when a user reached a specific page, like a "thank-you" page after a submission.
• Duration: Fired when a session lasted a certain amount of time.
• Pages/Screens per session: Fired when a user viewed a specific number of pages.
• Event: Fired when a user completed an action you had specifically set up to track (like clicking a video play button).

GA4 completely changed this model. It’s built around an "event-based" system, which means almost every interaction a user has with your site - from a page view to a button click to a scroll - is tracked as an event. Because of this, GA4 did away with the rigid Goal types and simplified the entire concept. In GA4, any event you track can be marked as a Conversion.

This is an incredibly powerful update. Instead of being limited to a few specific Goal types, you now have the ultimate flexibility to define any meaningful interaction as a conversion. Did someone download a PDF? That can be a conversion. Did they scroll 75% of the way down a key blog post? That can be a conversion, too.

What Exactly Is a Conversion in Google Analytics 4?

A GA4 Conversion is simply a user action that is valuable to your business. It's a key performance indicator (KPI) that tells you if your website or app is successfully achieving its objectives. You define what's valuable, you track it as an event, and then you tell Google to count it as a conversion.

The best conversions to set up depend entirely on your business model. Here are a few common examples to get you thinking:

• For an e-commerce store: purchase, add_to_cart, begin_checkout
• For a lead generation site: generate_lead (form submission), newsletter_signup, phone_call_click
• For a content creator or blogger: file_download, video_start, completing a 90% scroll on a landing page
• For a SaaS company: trial_signup, demo_request, creating a free account

Google automatically marks a few events as conversions by default, primarily for apps (like first_open and in_app_purchase). For most websites, especially e-commerce sites, the purchase event is the most important one that Google will count as a conversion automatically once you've set it up.

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How to Set Up Your First Conversion in GA4

Setting up your own conversions is a must for any serious website owner or marketer. There are two main ways to do it in GA4: the easy way and the slightly more advanced, custom way.

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

GA4 automatically collects many standard events right out of the box, thanks to its Enhanced measurement feature. This includes events like page_view, scroll (for 90% scroll depth), click (for outbound links), and file_download. You may also have set up recommended events that perfectly match what you need, like sign_up or generate_lead.

If the action you want to track is already being collected as an event, turning it into a conversion takes about ten seconds.

Here's how:

1. Navigate to the Admin section of your GA4 property (the gear icon in the bottom-left corner).
2. Under the Property column, click on Events.
3. You'll see a table of all the event names GA4 has collected from your site. Scan this list to find the event you want to count as your conversion.
4. Once you’ve found it, simply click the toggle switch in the "Mark as conversion" column.

That's it! From this point forward, GA4 will now count - and report on - that event as an official conversion.

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Method 2: Create a Custom Event and Mark it as a Conversion

What if the action you want to track isn't in your existing events list? This is common for actions like tracking visits to a specific thank-you page after a contact form submission (the classic "Destination Goal" from Universal Analytics).

In this case, you can create a brand new event directly within the GA4 interface without touching any code. You'll create this new event based on an existing one (usually a page_view), but add a condition so it only fires when your specific criteria are met.

Let’s walk through setting up a conversion for anyone who lands on your "contact-us-thanks" page.

Step 1: Go to the "Create event" settings

In the same Admin > Events screen, click the blue "Create event" button.

Step 2: Define your new event

Follow these steps carefully:

1. Click Create. You'll now be on the creation screen.
2. In the "Custom event name" field, give your event a clear name. It should follow snake_case format (all lowercase with underscores). For our example, we'll name it contact_form_success.
3. Next, you need to set the "Matching conditions." This tells GA4 when to fire this new event. You'll need two conditions:
4. Finally, click Create in the top-right. Your new event is now active.

Step 3: Mark your shiny new event as a conversion

This last step is critical and often missed. Just creating the event doesn't automatically make it a conversion. GA4 will start gathering your new contact_form_success event, but you still have to tell Google it's an important one.

Go back to Admin > Conversions. Click the "New conversion event" button, type in the exact name of your new event (contact_form_success), and click save. The next day, you'll start receiving up-to-date conversion data for this action.

Where to Find and Analyze Your Conversion Data

Once you've set up your conversions, you need to know where to find the data to see what’s working. Here are a couple of key reports:

• Reports > Engagement > Conversions: This is a simple overview report that shows a list of all your conversion events and the total count for each. It's a great starting point for a high-level view.
• Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition: This is where things get interesting. This report shows you which sources and channels (e.g., Organic Search, Paid Social, Direct) are driving traffic to your site. Better yet, it has columns showing the number of conversions driven by each one. This report answers the fundamental question: "Which of my marketing channels is actually bringing me valuable users?"
• Explore: For more advanced analysis, you can use the Explore tool to build custom reports. For example, you could build a Funnel exploration report to see how users move through your checkout process, or a Path exploration to see the exact steps users took before they completed your contact_form_success conversion.

Tips for Using GA4 Conversions Effectively

Setting up conversions is just the first step. To get the most out of them, follow these best practices.

Look Beyond the Final Conversion

Don’t just track the final sale or lead. Track the important steps along the way, often called "micro-conversions." For an e-commerce site, tracking add_to_cart as a conversion can reveal how many people start the purchasing process but never finish. For a SaaS site, tracking a pricing_page_view might indicate high purchase intent. These micro-conversions give you a much richer view of the entire customer journey.

Use Clear, Consistent Naming Conventions

Poorly named events create a huge mess down the line. Avoid vague names like submit1 or thanks_page. Use a clear, descriptive name like contact_form_submission or ebook_download_page_view. Having a clear and documented naming convention for your events will save you and your team countless headaches in the future.

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Assign Values to Your Completions

Not all conversions are created equal. Even if an action isn't a direct purchase, it likely has value. For lead generation, you might know that 1 in 10 leads becomes a customer worth $500, making each lead conversion worth an average of $50. Assigning these values in GA4 helps you better understand the ROI of your different traffic channels beyond just conversion volume.

Create Audiences from Converters

Once you have a steady stream of users completing a conversion, you can create an audience from them. For example, you could create a list of everyone who signed up for your newsletter but hasn't yet made a purchase. You can then use this audience in your Google Ads campaigns to run highly targeted remarketing ads encouraging them to become a customer.

Final Thoughts

Shifting from Universal Analytics "Goals" to GA4 "Conversions" may feel different at first, but it offers a far more powerful and flexible way to track what drives your business forward. By turning your key user interactions into events and marking them as conversions, you can transform your analytics from a simple traffic-counting tool into a true performance measurement platform.

Of course, understanding actions on your website is just one piece of the puzzle. The real insights happen when you connect your GA4 conversions data with your ad spend from Facebook and Google, your sales data from Shopify, and your pipeline data from Salesforce. Instead of gluing that data together manually every week in a spreadsheet, this is exactly what we built Graphed to solve. We make it easy to connect all your data sources and then use simple, natural language to ask questions like, "Show me my Facebook Ads campaigns that drove the most generate_lead conversions in GA4 last month" and instantly get an answer - or an entire, automatically updating dashboard.