How to Track Conversions in Google Analytics 4
Counting visitors is not enough. You need to know who books, calls, or buys. Here is how to set up conversion tracking with GA4 key events.
Reviewed by Jacob Rhinehart for Strelva's co-founder; products and operations lead responsibilities.
Traffic numbers feel good but tell you little. The question that matters is how many of those visitors did something valuable: filled in the contact form, tapped the phone number, booked, or bought. That is conversion tracking, and without it you cannot tell which pages and channels actually produce customers. In GA4, conversions are set up as events you then mark as key events.
Why it changes how you work
Once you track conversions, you can see that one traffic source converts at triple the rate of another, or that a particular page quietly drives most of your leads. You stop optimising for visits and start optimising for outcomes.
Step by step
- List your key actions. Pick the three to five that matter most: contact-form submissions, phone-number clicks, bookings, purchases, newsletter signups.
- Set up an event for each. Some are captured automatically by Enhanced Measurement, such as outbound clicks. Others, like a form submission, you set up with Google Tag Manager or by firing an event on the thank-you page.
- Mark them as key events. In GA4's admin, flag each event as a key event so GA4 treats it as a conversion and can pass it to Google Ads.
- Test in DebugView. Use GA4's DebugView to perform the action yourself and confirm the event fires correctly before you rely on the data.
- Build simple reporting. Create a view or audience around your converters so you can compare channels and pages by outcome.
- Watch for drops. Set up alerts so a sudden fall in conversions reaches you quickly.
A terminology note
GA4 renamed "conversions" to "key events" in 2024. An event records that something happened; marking it a key event tells GA4 it is one of your important outcomes. The event name must match exactly, and data can take up to 24 hours to settle.
Frequently asked
What business owners ask next.
What is the difference between an event and a key event in GA4?
An event records any tracked interaction, like a click or a form submission. A key event is an event you have flagged as important, GA4's term for a conversion since the 2024 rename. You create the event first, then mark it as a key event.
My event fires but shows zero key events. Why?
You likely created the event but did not mark it as a key event. Go to the Key Events area in GA4 admin and toggle it on. Confirm the event name matches exactly, since it is case-sensitive, and allow up to 24 hours for data.
How do I track a contact-form submission?
The most reliable methods are to fire an event when the form submits (via Google Tag Manager) or to trigger one on the thank-you page the form redirects to. Test it in DebugView to confirm it fires before trusting the numbers.