How to Track Conversions in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current standard for web analytics, having replaced Universal Analytics in July 2023. One of the most significant changes in GA4 is how it handles conversions: rather than goal URLs, GA4 uses an event-based model where any event you collect can be marked as a conversion.

Understanding how to configure and track conversions in GA4 is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing. Whether you want to track form submissions, phone calls, purchases, or content downloads, this guide explains the mechanics and gives you a practical process for setting up reliable conversion tracking.

How GA4 Defines Conversions

In GA4, a conversion is simply an event that you have designated as important. GA4 automatically collects a range of events out of the box — page views, sessions, scroll depth, outbound clicks, and video engagement. For e-commerce sites using the GA4 e-commerce schema, purchase events are collected automatically. All you need to do for these is toggle the conversion flag on.

For custom conversions — form submissions, specific button clicks, lead enquiries — you first need to ensure the underlying event is being collected, then mark it as a conversion in GA4. Events can be collected directly through your website code, via Google Tag Manager, or by creating new events within the GA4 interface itself using the "Create event" feature.

Setting Up Conversion Events in GA4

Navigate to Admin > Events in your GA4 property. You will see a list of all events GA4 is currently collecting. To mark any event as a conversion, toggle the "Mark as conversion" switch next to it. The event will then appear in your Conversions report and contribute to conversion data in Acquisition and campaign reports.

For events that are not yet collected, the most flexible approach is to use Google Tag Manager. Create a trigger for the action you want to track (e.g. a form submission confirmation page view, or a button click on a specific element), attach a GA4 Event tag to it, and publish the container. The event will begin appearing in GA4 within 24 to 48 hours, at which point you can mark it as a conversion.

Testing and Using Conversion Data

Before relying on conversion data for decision-making, verify that your setup is working correctly. GA4’s DebugView (found under Admin > DebugView) lets you see events firing in real time as you navigate your own site with a debug tag or Google Tag Assistant active. Confirm that your conversion event fires at exactly the right moment — on the confirmation page after a form is submitted, for example, rather than on the form page itself.

Once conversion tracking is running reliably, use it across your reporting. The Acquisition report shows which channels, campaigns, and sources are driving conversions, giving you clear evidence for where to invest your marketing budget. At Xpose, we help clients in Norwich and across the UK set up GA4 conversion tracking correctly from the outset, ensuring their data is clean and their reporting is actionable from day one.