How to Find Total Leads in Google Analytics

Trying to figure out how many leads you're generating from your website can feel tricky, but Google Analytics 4 holds the answer once you know where to look. Since leads don't come in one standard shape or size, you first have to tell Google Analytics what counts as a lead for your business - whether it's a contact form submission, a demo request, or a newsletter signup. This guide will walk you through setting up and tracking lead conversions in GA4, so you can accurately measure what’s working.

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Understanding Why "Leads" Isn't a Default Metric in GA4

Before jumping into the setup, it's crucial to understand a core concept of Google Analytics 4: it's an event-based model. Unlike its predecessor (Universal Analytics), nearly every interaction is measured as an "event" - a page view is an event, a button click is an event, and a scroll is an event.

Out of the box, GA4 doesn't have a pre-built metric called "Total Leads." Why? Because a "lead" is specific to your business goals. What one company considers a high-value lead (a "Request a Quote" form submission) might be different from another's (a "Download Whitepaper" action).

Therefore, the process of finding your total leads involves two main steps:

1. Defining and tracking the user action that signifies a lead. This user action will be set up as a custom event.
2. Marking that custom event as a Conversion to tell GA4 it's an important goal for your business.

Once you’ve done this, GA4 will diligently start counting every time that action occurs, giving you your "Total Leads" count. Let's look at a few practical ways to set this up.

Method 1: The Easiest Way to Track Leads (Using a "Thank You" Page)

The simplest and most classic way to track-form submissions is tracking how many users land on a dedicated "thank you" or confirmation page. This method is incredibly reliable and doesn't require any coding or specialized tools like Google Tag Manager.

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Prerequisite: Set Up a Confirmation Page Redirect

This method only works if your form, upon successful submission, redirects the user to a unique page. For example, after someone fills out your contact form, they should be taken from yourwebsite.com/contact to a page like yourwebsite.com/thank-you or yourwebsite.com/form-submitted.

Most form plugins and website platforms (like WordPress, Squarespace, or Webflow) have a simple setting to enable a redirect after submission. Ensure this is in place before continuing.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to 'Events' in GA4 Admin

First, log in to your Google Analytics 4 property. In the bottom-left corner, click on the Admin gear icon. Then, in the Data display column, click on Events.

2. Create a New Custom Event

On the Events page, click the blue Create event button. This will take you to the custom event builder. Click Create again on the next screen.

3. Configure the Custom Event

Now you'll define the rules for your new event. This is where you tell GA4 to fire a custom event every time someone visits your "thank you" page.

• Custom event name: Give it a clear, descriptive name. Use snake_case (lowercase letters with underscores) as is standard practice. Good examples include generate_lead, contact_form_submission, or demo_request_form. Let's use generate_lead for this example.
• Matching Conditions: This section defines the specific criteria for your event to trigger. You need to set two conditions:

These conditions tell GA4: "When a standard page_view event happens, AND the URL of the page being viewed contains /thank-you, create a new event and call it generate_lead." Click Create in the top-right corner to save.

4. Mark Your New Event as a Conversion

Your custom event will start collecting data within 24-48 hours. But to treat it as a primary business goal, you need to mark it as a conversion.

• Go back to Admin > Conversions (right below 'Events' in the menu).
• Click the New conversion event button.
• In the text box, enter the exact name of the event you created: generate_lead.
• Click Save.

That's it! From this point forward, every time a user triggers the generate_lead event, it will also be counted in your primary Conversions reports.

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Method 2: A More Flexible Way (Using Google Tag Manager)

What if your form doesn't redirect? Many modern websites use forms that simply display a success message on the same page (using AJAX) without a page load. For these situations, and for more granular control, Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the right tool.

GTM acts as a middleman between your website and GA4, allowing you to create detailed rules for when tracking tags should fire.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Enable Form Variables in GTM

Log into your GTM container. In the left-hand menu, go to Variables. Under Built-In Variables, click Configure and make sure you’ve enabled all the variables under the "Forms" section (like Form Classes, Form ID, Form Text, etc.). This gives you more options for your trigger conditions.

2. Create a 'Form Submission' Trigger

Next, you’ll create the rule that says "when a specific form is submitted."

• Go to Triggers and click New.
• Give your trigger a name like "Contact Form Submission."
• Click Trigger Configuration and choose Form Submission as the trigger type.
• Enable the checkboxes for Wait for Tags and Check Validation.
• Under "This trigger fires on," select Some Forms.
• Now, define your condition. This is the hardest part as it depends on your website's code. You need to find a unique identifier for your form. Right-click on your form and "Inspect" it to find an ID or class. Common conditions include:
• Save your trigger.

3. Create the GA4 Event Tag

Now you connect the trigger to a GA4 tag.

• Go to Tags and click New.
• Name your tag, e.g., "GA4 Event - Generate Lead."
• Click Tag Configuration and select Google Analytics: GA4 Event.
• Under Configuration Tag, choose your main GA4 configuration.
• In the Event Name field, enter generate_lead.
• Under Firing Triggers, select the "Contact Form Submission" trigger you just created.
• Save the tag.

4. Test and Publish

Use GTM's Preview mode. Click Preview, enter your website URL, submit your form, and observe the debug window. You should see your new tag move from "Not Fired" to "Fired." Once confirmed, click Submit and Publish your changes.

5. Mark as a Conversion in GA4

Just like with the previous method, you still need to log in to GA4 and go to Admin > Conversions to register your generate_lead event as a new conversion.

Reporting: Where to Find Your Completed Lead Data

Congratulations, your conversion tracking is live! Now, where do you find the data? (Note: It can take up to 48 hours for data to fully populate in these reports).

1. The Conversions Report

The most straightforward place to see your total lead count is in the main conversions report.

• Navigate to Reports > Engagement > Conversions.

This report will show you a list of all your enabled conversion events and a total count for each within a selected date range. If you named your event generate_lead, you’ll see it right there with the total number of times it occurred.

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2. The Traffic Acquisition Report

Knowing how many leads you have is good. Knowing where they came from is even better. The traffic acquisition report breaks down your leads by marketing channel (Organic Search, Paid Search, Email, etc.).

• Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
• The default view will show you Users and Sessions by channel. Scroll the table to the right, and you'll find a Conversions column.
• You can click the dropdown arrow on the "Conversions" column header to filter specifically for your generate_lead event for a cleaner view.

3. The Explore Section

For more advanced analysis, GA4's "Explore" section is a powerful tool where you can build custom reports from scratch. For example, you could build a Funnel Exploration report to see how many people visited your contact page, started filling out the form, and finally completed a submission. This helps you identify drop-off points in your lead generation process.

Final Thoughts

To recap, counting leads in Google Analytics 4 isn't about finding a built-in metric, but about proactively teaching GA4 what matters to you. By creating custom events for your key lead generation actions - like form submissions - and flagging them as conversions, you unlock clear and actionable data in your reports.

Once you’ve set up your lead tracking, the next challenge is connecting it to the rest of your marketing and sales data. Analyzing which ads, campaigns, and traffic sources generate leads in GA4 is great, but combining this with data from platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, HubSpot, or your advertising channels gives you a full-funnel view. This process often involves hours of manual data wrangling. At Graphed, we solve this by directly integrating with your marketing and sales platforms, allowing you to ask for a report in plain English and get an instant dashboard. Instead of manually downloading CSVs, we make it possible to ask questions like, "What was our lead-to-customer conversion rate from Google Ads last month?" and get an answer in seconds. If you're tired of piecing reports together, give Graphed a try and let us automate the busywork for you.