Where to Find Custom Events in Google Analytics 4?

Finding your custom event data in Google Analytics 4 can feel like a scavenger hunt, but it's sitting right there once you know where to look. While GA4 does a great job of collecting this data, the interface doesn't always make it obvious how to analyze the specifics. This tutorial will show you exactly where to find your custom events in the standard reports and, more importantly, how to build your own detailed reports to get the insights you need.

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A Quick Refresher: What Is a Custom Event?

In GA4, an "event" is any user interaction with your website or app. GA4 tracks many of these out of the box, which fall into a few categories:

• Automatically collected events: These are captured by default when you install GA4, such as session_start, first_visit, and user_engagement.
• Enhanced measurement events: These are events you can turn on with a simple toggle in the admin settings, like scroll, click, view_search_results, and file_download.
• Recommended events: Google provides a list of suggested event names with predefined parameters for common scenarios (e.g., login, sign_up, purchase for e-commerce).
• Custom events: These are the events you create and name yourself to track interactions that are specific to your business goals.

A custom event is any interaction you choose to define. For example, if you want to track when a user signs up for your newsletter, submits a contact form, or plays a specific promotional video, you'd create custom events for them, perhaps named newsletter_signup, contact_form_submission, and promo_video_play.

Each custom event can also carry additional pieces of information called parameters. For your newsletter_signup event, you might include a parameter like form_location with a value of "footer" or "popup" to see which signup form is performing better. Finding and analyzing this parameter data is where the real value lies.

Method 1: Locating Events in Standard GA4 Reports

Your custom events start appearing in a couple of pre-built reports as soon as GA4 starts receiving them. These are great for quickly confirming that your tracking is working and for getting a high-level overview.

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The 'Events' Report

The most straightforward place to see all your event counts in one list is the Events report. This report gives you a simple summary table showing the names of every event tracked on your site, along with key metrics.

How to get there:

1. On the left navigation menu, click on Reports.
2. Go to the Engagement section and click on Events.

Here you'll see a list of every event name firing on your site, including all your custom ones. The table shows columns for:

• Event count: The total number of times the event was triggered.
• Total users: The number of unique users who triggered the event.
• Event count per user: The average number of times each user triggered the event.

The limitation: This report is useful for seeing total counts, but it doesn't show you the custom parameters you sent with the event. To see the form_location for your newsletter_signup, you'll need to go deeper.

The 'Realtime' Report

The Realtime report is your best friend when you've just set up a new custom event and want to verify that it's working correctly.

How to get there:

1. On the left navigation menu, click on Reports.
2. Click on Realtime.

Look for the card titled "Event count by Event name." You should see your custom event pop up in this list within seconds of triggering it on your website. This is the fastest way to confirm that Google is receiving your event.

Even better, you can click on your custom event name directly within this card to see the parameters being collected in that moment. It's the perfect instant-feedback tool for debugging your setup.

The Key to Deeper Analysis: Registering Custom Dimensions

So, you've confirmed your event is firing, but how do you analyze its parameters in detail across long periods? You can't just find the parameter data in any standard report. First, you must tell GA4 that you want to use this custom parameter for analysis by registering it as a custom dimension.

Think of it like this: by default, GA4 collects your custom parameters but keeps them archived. By registering a parameter as a custom dimension, you're telling GA4, "Hey, this piece of data is important. Please make it available for me to use in my reports."

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How to Create a Custom Dimension

Let's continue with our newsletter_signup example. Say you're sending an event parameter named form_location. Here's how you register it as an event-scoped custom dimension so it's usable for analysis within your custom reports in Exploration.

1. Go to the Admin section of GA4 (the gear icon in the bottom-left corner).
2. In the Data display column, click on Custom definitions.
3. Click the blue Create custom dimensions button.
4. Now, fill out the form:
5. Click Save.

Now you just have to wait. It can take up to 24-48 hours for a newly created custom dimension to start showing up within any new historical custom reports in the Exploration sections you plan to build. Your new custom dimension will not be applied to historical data (anything that was collected prior to creating the custom event). For this reason, we strongly suggest that these be set up right after sending your new custom event over from Tag Manager so that reporting on that new data is possible from day one going forward.

Method 2: Building Reports with Events Data in Explore

With your custom parameter registered as a dimension, you can now build reports that slice and dice your event data however you want. The Explore section is GA4's flexible report-building playground, perfect for creating our newsletter_signup, using the event-scoped custom dimension we've created.

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Example: Building a Report to See Conversions by Form Location in Real-time

Now let's visualize what we've been walking through on how to properly set up a GA4 custom event using our newsletter_signup as the GA4 custom event, the contact_form_submission as the name for the event from Tag Manager, and finally the parameter from that event with the name, form_location. Our goal is simple: We want to create reporting that makes it so any member on our team at any level of experience can find, filter, and report on any submissions in our example.

Here's how to create a custom report in Explore, step by step:

1. Navigate to the left-hand rail and click the Explore tab from the main menu. From here you'll be directed to where all new and ongoing reports in Explore reside. First-timers here will see a page populated with all pre-templates available for use, while returning visitors will also see those, in addition to any ongoing reporting sections they've made in the past. Now click the first box under 'Start a new exploration' > Blank to open the custom report builder canvas.
2. Click the pencil to update the exploration name. We've all seen explorations like "Untitled exploration (10)" shared one too many times to not start developing your own habit for proper naming conventions. Something descriptive goes a long way as you become more advanced, and having far too many tabs is just a reality within this space. For our use case, let's apply our own advice by setting a fitting name: "Newsletter Submissions - by Location". Looks better. Now let's carry on.
3. Importing dimensions: Click the "Dimensions" category in the variables section to open all Dimensions you can now report on. There is a search bar to find events from the list. Start inputting "Form location" to select your newly created custom dimension and do the same for finding the "Event name" variable which will filter out any submissions we don't want for this example.
4. Importing metrics: Next up, let's import all values we'd like to track along with submissions over time. Start typing each new metric name listed below individually. Select them one by one as they pop up on the filter search:
5. Setting up the Tab for Custom Filters (Final step for most):
6. Lastly, let’s set the metrics in the 'Value' section. Once again, that's: Event Count -> Value, Conversion -> Value, Active Users Total -> Value. Next, let's apply filters.
7. Drag the "dimensions 'Event Name'" from the variables section to start our first and final filter needed for our goal. I strongly recommend using "exactly matches" to ensure perfect fit for the final visual, custom event report.
8. Find 'Filters' and add our imported custom variable to filter events for event name exactly matching newsletter_signup. Select this custom GTM tag as our filter. If you like, the filter will apply to our new 'Form Location' variable.

With this explore mode, you'll confidently report on event conversions, and more advanced team members can bring that data live anywhere on site by exporting the charts wherever they go. As you become more advanced, so will your exploration reports. From more advanced filters to more columns added with new variables too. That's what exploring new variables with events should feel like.

Best Practices for Managing Your Events

• Keep your event naming conventions consistent and readable. Having a readable format is more important than we think. As your tag library grows, your naming convention should, too. Having a bad one can confuse team members instead of aligning them on the same metric.
• Keep your events up to date. Maintaining a spreadsheet can improve the rate at which team members stay informed across new GTM containers and each new property. Event logging becomes one of your biggest assets.
• GA4 has a strict limit of one custom dimension at a time. Keep this in mind when planning future report needs. Register each dimension right after creating the event to ensure timely custom data.

Final Thoughts

Pinpointing your custom event data in GA4 is a two-step process: you start by checking high-level totals in the Events and Realtime reports, then you dive into the details by building your reports in Explore. The secret sauce is registering your event parameters as custom dimensions, which transforms them from behind-the-scenes data points into powerful, report-ready filters and breakdowns.

Running these analyses can be powerful, but manually recreating these explorations every week to answer new questions can get repetitive. We built Graphed to streamline this exact workflow. We connect Graphed directly to our Google Analytics account, which lets anyone on our team ask questions in simple, conversational language - like "how many newsletter signups did we get from popups vs. the footer last week?" - and get an instant visualization without rebuilding anything in the Explore section.