Create and Manage Your Google Analytics Events

Objective

To set up, manage, and understand custom and recommended events in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), including how to register parameters as custom dimensions and metrics for more meaningful reporting.

Overview

In this SOP, you’ll learn how to:

1. Understand events and their role in GA4
2. Identify and implement recommended vs. custom events
3. Create custom dimensions and metrics for reporting
4. View and manage events in the GA4 Admin panel

Step 1: Understand What Events Are in GA4

Google Analytics 4 tracks all interactions — such as clicks, page views, and purchases — as events.

GA4 collects events in three main ways:

1. Automatically Collected Events

These include:

• first_visit (web)
• first_open (app)
• page_view
• session_start

No coding is required for these once your data stream is connected.

2. Enhanced Measurement Events

If enabled in your data stream settings, GA4 automatically collects events such as:

• Scrolls
• Outbound link clicks
• File downloads
• Video engagement

3. Custom and Recommended Events

• Recommended Events:
  Recognised by GA4 with predefined names and parameters (e.g., purchase, add_to_cart).
• Custom Events:
  Fully defined by you — useful for tracking business-specific user interactions (e.g., newsletter_signup, level_complete).

Event parameters add context to each event. For example, the page_view event may include the page_location parameter (the page URL).

Step 2: Implement Recommended or Custom Events

1. Visit the GA4 Recommended Events documentation, here:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events?client_type=gtag

2. Follow implementation instructions for your platform (web or app)
3. Use consistent event and parameter naming to maintain clean reporting

Tip: Reuse parameter names wherever possible to streamline data collection and avoid redundancy.

Step 3: Register Parameters as Custom Dimensions & Metrics

To make custom event data visible in reports, you need to register their parameters as:

• Custom Dimensions (e.g., product color, membership level)
• Custom Metrics (e.g., number of items added to cart)

How to Create a Custom Dimension:

1. Go to Admin → Custom Definitions → Create Custom Dimensions

2. Enter:

• Name (e.g., “product_color”)
• Scope: Choose from:

• Event – Info about a specific action (e.g., article title clicked)
• User – Info about the user (e.g., user region)
• Item – Info about products (e.g., item brand)

3. Select the parameter from the dropdown
4. Optionally add a description
5. Click Save

The parameter must first be sent to GA4 before it appears in the dropdown.

How to Create a Custom Metric:

1. Go to Admin → Custom Definitions → Custom Metrics → Create Custom Metric
2. Enter:

• Name (e.g., “number_of_cart_items”)
• Scope
• Event parameter
• Unit of measurement (e.g., count, currency)

3. Custom metrics always use Event scope
4. Click Save

These are especially useful for tracking numerical values like scores, ratings, or quantities.

Step 4: View and Manage Events in the Admin Menu

1. Navigate to Admin → Events
2. Here, you can:

• See a list of collected events
• Mark events as Conversions
• Check event names and frequency

Recommended and custom events will appear once they are triggered at least once on your site or app.

Note

• Custom events require both event name and parameter setup
• If you’re using recommended events, follow Google’s naming and parameter guidelines
• Dimensions = describe data (e.g., what product, which user)
• Metrics = measure data (e.g., how many, how much)