How to See Goals in Google Analytics 4

If you’ve recently moved from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, you’ve probably had a moment of confusion searching for a familiar dashboard: Goals. Don't worry, you’re not alone. The way GA4 measures important user actions has changed, but it's a change for the better. This guide explains exactly where to find your goal data in GA4, how to set it up, and how this new system gives you a more accurate picture of your performance.

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The Big Shift: Why GA4 Uses "Conversions" Instead of "Goals"

The most important thing to understand is that in Google Analytics 4, Goals are now called Conversions. This isn’t just a simple name change, it represents a fundamental shift in how user actions are measured.

In the old Universal Analytics, goals were session-based. This meant if a user completed a goal action - like filling out a contact form - more than once in a single visit, it would only be counted once. The system was designed around the concept of a "successful session."

GA4 is built on an event-based model. This means that every single instance of a tracked action is counted. If a user fills out your contact form three times in one session (perhaps for different inquiries), GA4 will record three separate conversion events. This provides a far more flexible and accurate measure of user behavior.

Think of it this way:

• Universal Analytics Goals: Did the user have a successful session? (Yes/No)
• GA4 Conversions: How many times did the user perform a valuable action? (A raw count)

This event-based approach allows you to see the full picture and analyze the nuances of the user journey, rather than just getting a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down on a session.

How to Set Up Conversions in GA4 (The New "Goals")

To see your "goal" data, you first need to tell GA4 what a conversion looks like for your business. The process involves identifying an event and simply telling GA4 to treat it as a conversion.

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Step 1: Decide Which User Actions Matter

First, pinpoint the key actions on your site or app that signify a win for your business. These are often the same actions you would have tracked as goals in Universal Analytics. Common examples include:

• A user submitting a contact or lead-gen form
• A customer completing a purchase
• Someone signing up for your newsletter
• A user downloading a PDF or case study
• Someone clicking a specific call-to-action button

The most reliable action to track is often a "thank you" page view, as it definitively confirms a form was submitted or a purchase was made.

Step 2: Check if the Event Already Exists in GA4

GA4 automatically tracks many events out of the box. Before creating something new, check to see if what you need is already being collected. For example, the purchase event is a standard for e-commerce sites and is automatically marked as a conversion.

You can see all the events GA4 is collecting for your property by navigating to your admin panel:

1. In the left-hand navigation, click Admin (the gear icon).
2. Under the Property column, click on Events.

Here you'll see a list of all event names GA4 is currently tracking, like page_view, session_start, first_visit, and scroll. If the action you want to track is already in this list, you can skip to Step 4.

Step 3: Create a New Custom Event (If Needed)

If the action you want to track isn't on the list, you'll need to create a custom event. This sounds technical, but GA4 provides a user-friendly interface for it - no code required for simple events based on other events.

Let's use a classic example: tracking a "thank you" page view after a form submission. When users submit your form, they are redirected to a URL like tld-here.com/thank-you.

Here’s how to create a custom event that fires only when that page is viewed:

1. Go to Admin > Events.
2. Click the Create event button.
3. On the new screen, click Create.
4. Name your custom event. Use something descriptive with underscores instead of spaces, like generate_lead or thank_you_submission.
5. Set the matching conditions. You're telling GA4, "Create this new event when these other things are true." For our example:
6. Click Create in the top-right corner.

Wait for a bit (sometimes up to 24 hours). This new event, generate_lead, will now appear in your Events list whenever someone visits the "thank you" page.

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Step 4: Mark Your New Event as a Conversion

Creating the custom event is only half the battle. You now need to tell GA4 that this specific event is important enough to be considered a conversion.

1. Go back to Admin and click on Conversions under the Property column.
2. Click the New conversion event button.
3. Enter the exact name of the event you created. In our example, that would be generate_lead.
4. Click Save.

That's it! Your generate_lead event is now officially a conversion. It will start populating in your conversion reports moving forward.

Finding Your Goal Data: Where to Look for Conversion Reports

Now that your conversions a.k.a. "goals" are set up, you can find the data in several standard reports within GA4. Here are the three most useful places to look.

1. The Main "Conversions" Report

This is the most direct report for a high-level overview of all your conversion actions in one place.

• How to get there: Click on Reports (the chart icon) > Engagement > Conversions.

The resulting table shows a simple list of all events you have marked as a conversion. You'll see the total number of conversions for each and the total value if you have assigned one (common for e-commerce purchases).

2. The "Traffic Acquisition" Report

This is arguably the most valuable report for marketers. It shows you which marketing channels are actually driving your conversions.

• How to get there: Click on Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

This report breaks down your traffic by default channel groupings (Organic Search, Direct, Paid Search, etc.). Scroll the table to the right, and you'll find a column titled Conversions. By default, it shows the count for all conversion types combined.

• Pro Tip: To see data for just one specific goal, use the dropdown menu at the top of the Conversions column. You can change it from All events to just your generate_lead conversion to see exactly which channels are driving leads.

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3. The "Landing Page" Report

This report helps you understand which of your pages are most effective at converting visitors into leads or customers.

• How to get there: Click on Reports > Engagement > Landing page.

Just like the Traffic Acquisition report, this report's table includes a Conversions column. Simply add a filter or scroll through the data to see which pages are getting people to take that all-important next step. This helps you identify which content, offers, or page layouts are working best so you can do more of what works.

Going Deeper with "Explore" Reports

If the standard reports don't cut it, GA4's Explore section lets you build custom reports from scratch. Here, you can create things like funnel exploration reports to see where users drop off before converting or build in-depth segmentation reports. While Explore reports have a steeper learning curve, they offer immense flexibility for anyone needing to slice and dice their data in very specific ways.

Final Thoughts

The move from familiar "goals" to an event-based "conversions" model in GA4 can feel jarring at first, but it provides a much more robust and realistic way to measure performance. Once you know how to create an event and simply toggle it on as a conversion, you unlock powerful insights in the standard Acquisition and Engagement reports.

Of course, managing GA4 reporting is just one piece of the puzzle. The real challenge comes when your marketing data is scattered across a dozen other platforms - from Google Ads and Shopify to your CRM. Instead of spending hours manually piecing together spreadsheets to see the full story, we built Graphed to do the heavy lifting for you. We connect to all your data sources so you can ask plain-English questions like, "Which Facebook campaigns drove the most generate_lead conversions last month?" and get a real-time answer instantly, without ever needing to build a manual report again.