Changes in GA4: Distinguishing Between Key Events and Conversions
Google Analytics 4 has made significant changes to how conversions are defined. These changes haven't yet been applied to all resources, but their gradual implementation is already underway.?
If you see this alert in your analytics, it means that the changes have already affected your resources.
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Conversion?
Conversion refers to the process of transforming a site visitor into a buyer.
he term Goals was used with the same meaning in Universal Analytics.
Google Ads has used the term Conversions since the beginning of the service, and its meaning has not changed.
With the transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), conversions appeared in the service interface, but the figures differed from the metric of the same name in Google Ads, causing confusion among users.
Google Ads conversions versus Google Analytics 4 conversions
While both metrics are called conversions, there are some differences, mainly in the attribution model.
An attribution model is a rule, set of rules, or data-driven algorithm that determines how much value to assign to interaction points along the conversion path.
In Google Analytics 4, the main attribution identifier is the user_pseudo_id (user ID). In Google Ads, the identifier is the click ID (GCLID), and attribution is built around it. This leads to differences in the number of conversions, despite the identical attribution models.
Google Ads also uses conversion modeling, which further contributes to the discrepancies in data with GA4. Modeling is used when a user follows a path to a target action across multiple devices. For example, a user may click on an ad on a phone but complete the purchase on a laptop. This can cause Google Ads to show more conversions than GA4.
Conversion modeling is powered by Google's artificial intelligence technologies. The simulated data is added to reports and used for optimization, allowing for more accurate measurements without compromising user privacy.
To avoid confusion, Google has chosen to separate the concepts of conversions and key events.
Key Events and Conversions
A Key Event is an event that measures an action that is important to the success of your business.
Marketers set up events and record users' actions to better understand their behavior on the site.
Events can be used to measure how easy it is to use the site, which helps with CRO and allows you to understand user intent. For example, the addition of products to a wishlist or page views about partnerships can be tracked using events. When a user takes an action configured as an event, it is logged in Google Analytics and displayed in reports.
Key events are those related to the purpose of the site: orders, form fills, and so on. In fact, earlier in GA4, they were all called Conversions.
Important note! The purchase event is automatically set as a key event.
Initially, with the introduction of Google Analytics, we tracked Goals. Then, as we transitioned from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), these evolved into Conversions. Now, in GA4, the focus has shifted to Key Events, though Conversions still hold their own significance under this new framework.
A Conversion is an important action used to measure the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and optimize your bidding strategy. Once you define it, you can import the measurement result from Google Ads to further analyze and improve your advertising strategies.?
The new value aligns with the performance metrics in Google Ads and GA4 reports, as both platforms define Conversion in the same way.
As a result, GA4 will have both metrics, Key Events and Conversions.
Creating Key Events and Conversions
Creating a Key Event
Any event you record in GA4 can become a key event. To set this up, you need to create or define an event that measures an important action and tag it. You can then see how many users take that action and measure the effectiveness of your marketing.
To mark an event as a key event:
Important: You must have the role of Editor or Admin.
Note that only the name of the metric has changed. Data collection and processing for key events is the same as for conversions.?
Creating a Conversion?
Conversions in Google Ads occur based on a Google Analytics key event. Unlike key events, conversions can be used to assign bids and generate reports in Google Ads.
Any event that is important to the success of your business can be marked as a key event in GA4. Then, if the key event is important for measuring the effectiveness of ad campaigns and optimizing them, create a conversion based on that key event in Google Ads. It will automatically be created in GA4.
Reports
Key Events
The basic Key Events report is located in the Engagement reports section and tracks the number of actions, the users who took those actions, and the revenue from those actions. The options for creating Key Event reports are the same as for legacy conversions.
Note that in Looker Studio, key events are still called conversions.
Conversions
Important: Events will only be defined as conversions and displayed in GA4 if they are published to Google Ads.
The Advertising workspace now has new conversion-focused performance reports, which are only used in the Advertising workspace.
All other reports in the Advertising workspace are generated with a focus on key events.?
The Explore module allows you to combine key event and conversion data from behavioral and advertising reports.
When the change will take effect and what needs to be done?
The renaming of the Conversions metric in GA4 is already underway and should be completed by the end of 2024.
You don't need to rename or reconfigure anything yourself. Any events you previously marked as Conversions in GA4 will automatically become Key Events in your resource.
To view the list of key events, go to Admin –?Key Events.
You can also disable events that you no longer consider important to your business. Note that they won't disappear from reports if you disable them, but they will no longer be included in the Key Event metric and Key Event Rate calculation.
Legacy conversions that were identified and exported to ads before the update will be automatically re-identified. They will become Key Events in GA4.