Google Analytics 4: A Google Analytics starter guide

Connect your first data stream in Google Analytics 4 by selecting web, Android, or iOS. Enable enhanced measurements and use measurement ID with Google Tag Manager to connect your website.

Get a first overview of Google Analytics 4, exploring reports, dashboards, real-time data, and core categories like acquisition, engagement, and monetization, plus how to connect your website and customize reports.

Access the Google Analytics 4 demo account and import Google Merchandise Store data to test and explain dashboards, exploring shopping events, sales data, and reports.

Explore how Google Analytics 4 shifts from sessions and hits to events and user properties, with up to 25 parameters per event and no separate sessions.

Explore how to set up a Google Analytics 4 account and manage users, roles, and data streams for web and apps, including account vs property and cross-domain tracking basics.

Explore the differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4, including how sessions, events, data streams, and real-time analysis differ, with built-in machine learning and audiences replacing segments.

Create a WordPress data privacy page to kick off Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics integration, then generate a compliant privacy policy and configure tracking for a GDPR-confirmed website.

Set up Google Tag Manager and connect it to your website to enable Google Analytics 4, using a WordPress cookie banner plugin and a content blocker for GDPR-compliant opt-in.

Connect Google Analytics 4 to Google Tag Manager by creating opt in and opt out custom event triggers, configuring a GA4 tag with your measurement ID, and publishing the setup.

Configure content blocker and shortcodes to enforce GDPR, add YouTube as a blocked service, generate privacy shortcodes, and verify the cookie banner.

Test and validate the cookie banner by adjusting language, customizing layout, and simulating accept or don’t track choices; verify data flow with Google Tag Manager, GA4, and real-time reports.

Accept data processing terms, disable automatic data sharing, set event data retention to 14 months, and save changes.

Configure Google Analytics 4 to collect only EU data by enabling location and device data collection and selecting the 27 EU countries in admin data settings.

Discover enhanced measurements in GA4, featuring six automatic events such as page view, scrolls, outbound link clicks, web search, video engagement, and downloads, with or without Google Tag Manager.

Learn how to enable and configure enhanced measurement events in Google Analytics 4, including page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement, and downloads, with real-time testing.

Explore cross domain tracking to collect data from multiple domains, configure domains in the admin panel under data streams, and choose match types such as begins with, contains, or exact.

Define internal IPs in GA4 to exclude internal traffic, and configure internal traffic rules in the data stream using IP address match types, including ranges for dynamic addresses.

Learn to blacklist unwanted referrals in GA4 by configuring the data stream's tag settings and creating a domains list that excludes spam traffic using starts with and exact match rules.

Configure session timeout in Google Analytics 4 to control how many sessions count, with adjustments from 30 seconds to 8 hours, and engage session starts after 10 seconds.

Compare GA4 data using life cycle acquisition and user acquisition reports. Analyze audiences and time periods, such as last 28 days, last 12 months, and the same period last year.

Explore how to use secondary dimensions in Google Analytics 4 to split data by country, region, device, browser, and traffic source, enhancing reports on pages and screens.

Explore building Google Analytics 4 audiences by creating new groups, using include and exclude logic, with custom or suggested options like recently active users and non buyers.

Customize your Google Analytics 4 snapshot by rearranging widgets, adding real-time, user, cohort, engagement, and lifetime value cards, then save and set a tailored report for your website.

Explore the real-time report in GA4 with the Google Merchandise Store, analyzing active users, regions, first-user sources and campaigns, events, and the acquisition, engagement, monetization, and retention journey.

Explore the customer journey through GA4, outlining acquisition, engagement, and monetization reports and mapping a visitor life cycle from awareness to loyalty with multiple touchpoints.

Learn how the acquisition report shows where visitors come from, including source, media, campaigns (e.g., Google Ads), and how new versus returning users are affected.

Explore the engagement report to see how events, pages, and screens reveal user actions, sessions, duration, and conversions.

Explore the monetization report to analyze ecommerce revenue, buyer counts, revenue per article, promotions, and costs, and compare with acquisition and user reports to optimize new vs returning customers.

Explore the retention report as a cohort analysis to measure returning users and lifetime value, using cohort insights and the explore function to gauge engagement and monetization.

Explore the user report in Google Analytics 4, focusing on demographics, geographic data, cohort analysis, lifetime value, and device and language breakdowns, with GDPR considerations.

Understand the technical data behind Google Analytics 4 user reports, including platform, device category, OS, browser, app vs web, and daily snapshot customization.

Take a short break to leave a review, helping improve the course and make it more enjoyable to watch as you continue.

Explore exploratory analysis in the Explore tab of Google Analytics 4 using templates; build segments with city, country, device category, and active users, and visualize with bar charts or heatmaps.

Explore segment overlap to visualize how mobile traffic, direct traffic, and recently active users intersect, revealing 14,000 active users in the triple overlap as a defined target group.

Explore cohort analysis in the exploration tab of GA4 to view user cohorts, their behavior over time, and weekly retention insights from the cohort exploration.

Explore conversion paths in Google Analytics 4, analyzing attribution and multiple touchpoints—from organic search and email to referrals and paid media—that lead to purchases over days.

Learn to create and modify events in Google Analytics 4, mark conversions, and understand how event parameters like page location and page ID shape tracking.

Connect your Google Ads account to Google Analytics 4 in admin settings by linking the accounts with the same email, then expect data to import within 24 hours.

Explore how Google Tag Manager, a free tag management system, streamlines deploying web analytics and marketing pixels and tracking codes across websites and apps with no programming knowledge required.

Compare Google Tag Manager and GA4: GA4 collects and analyzes website data, while Tag Manager links and deploys events and pixels across platforms.

Create a Google Tag Manager account, sign in with a Google account, and set up a container for your domain across web, iOS, Android, or server, and explore admin options.