What Conversions Should I Track in Google Analytics?

Setting up Google Analytics is a great first step, but just tracking traffic and pageviews only tells you about activity, not results. To understand what's actually driving your business forward, you need to track conversions. This guide will walk you through what conversions are in GA4, how to think about them, and most importantly, which specific conversions you should be tracking based on your business model.

So, What Exactly Is a Conversion?

If you're used to the old Universal Analytics, you might remember setting up "Goals." In Google Analytics 4, the concept is simpler yet more powerful: any user action that's valuable to your business can be a conversion.

This is a big shift. In GA4, everything is an "event" - from a page view to a button click to a video play. A "conversion" is just an event that you’ve told Google is especially important. This means a conversion isn't limited to a final sale or a completed form. It can be any meaningful step a visitor takes on their journey to becoming a customer.

Think of it this way: if a user action helps you achieve a business objective, it's a candidate for a conversion. Downloading a brochure shows interest. Adding an item to a cart shows intent. Signing up for a newsletter builds your audience. All of these are valuable user actions that you can - and should - track as conversions.

How to Set Up Conversions in GA4

The good news is that setting up conversions in GA4 is incredibly straightforward. You don't need complex destination URLs or event category/action/label setups anymore.

Here’s the basic process:

1. Navigate to your GA4 property and click on Admin (the gear icon in the bottom left).
2. In the Property column, go to Events.
3. You'll see a list of all events your website is currently collecting. These include automatically collected events like page_view and session_start, as well as any custom events you’ve set up.
4. Find the event you want to treat as a conversion (for example, generate_lead or purchase).
5. Simply flip the toggle switch in the "Mark as conversion" column to the right of the event name.

That's it. Once you flip that switch, GA4 will start reporting on that event as a conversion. New conversions can take up to 24 hours to be processed, so don't panic if you don't see data immediately in your reports.

Essential Conversions for Almost Every Website

No matter what your business does, there are a few foundational conversions that provide valuable insight into user engagement and interest. Consider setting these up as a baseline.

Lead Generation and Contact

These conversions capture direct expressions of interest from potential customers. They are signals that a visitor is moving from passively browsing to actively engaging.

• Form Submissions: This is the classic conversion. It applies to "Contact Us" forms, "Request a Demo" forms, "Get a Quote" forms, and more. A common event name is generate_lead.
• Newsletter or Email Signups: Building an email list is a critical goal for most businesses. Track this with an event like sign_up fired when someone successfully subscribes.
• Phone Number Clicks: For businesses that rely on phone calls, especially for mobile users, tracking clicks on a "tel:" link is essential. You can track this as a call_button_click event.

Key Engagement Milestones

Not every valuable action is a direct lead. Tracking key engagement events can help you understand how users interact with your content and which content pieces are most effective at moving people down the funnel.

• File Downloads: If you offer valuable resources like case studies, whitepapers, or spec sheets, track their downloads using a file_download event. It signals a high level of interest in your solution.
• Significant Video Views: If video is a core part of your marketing, a user watching to 75% or 90% is a much stronger signal than a simple "play." You can set up events like video_progress_75.
• Deep Scroll Depth: Someone scrolling 90% of the way down a long-form blog post or a critical services page is highly engaged. Setting up a scroll_90_percent event helps you identify your most compelling content.

Conversions Tailored to Your Business Model

Beyond the basics, the most critical conversions are those directly tied to your specific business goals. Here’s a breakdown of what you should track based on your industry.

For E-commerce & Retail Websites

For an online store, the ultimate goal is a sale. But tracking only the final purchase means you miss out on understanding the entire shopping journey. Tracking each step helps you identify where users are dropping off and where you can optimize their experience.

• purchase: The final transaction. This is your most important macro-conversion. It's a standard GA4 event you should absolutely have marked as a conversion.
• add_to_cart: Shows purchase intent. A high number of cart additions without many purchases might signal issues with shipping costs or a complicated checkout flow.
• begin_checkout: The moment a user starts the checkout process. This is a critical transition. High drop-off here can point to problems like requiring an account to check out or unexpected fees.
• view_item: Users viewing a specific product page. Tracking this helps you understand which products are getting the most attention.
• add_to_wishlist: A great indicator of future purchase intent.

For SaaS & Tech Companies

The SaaS funnel is all about getting users to sign up and experience the value of the product firsthand. Your conversions should reflect the user's journey from a curious visitor to an active, paying customer.

• sign_up: A user registering for a free trial or a freemium account. This is a primary lead-generation conversion for most SaaS businesses.
• generate_lead: Usually used for demo requests or enterprise contact forms. This is key for sales-led SaaS companies.
• login: Tracking user logins helps measure user retention and engagement. It tells you who is actively coming back to use your product.
• upgrade_plan or similar: The moment a trial or free user becomes a paying customer. This is the SaaS equivalent of an e-commerce purchase and is a critical macro-conversion.
• Core Feature Usage: Create custom events to track when a user engages with a key, "sticky" feature for the first time - for example, project_created or report_exported. This helps you measure product activation and adoption.

For B2B & Lead Generation Companies

For a B2B business, the website's primary function is often to generate qualified leads for the sales team. Your conversions should measure every action that indicates a user is a potential prospect.

• generate_lead: Your bread and butter. This should trigger on any form submission where a user asks to be contacted (e.g., consultation request, quote forms).
• file_download: Gated content like ebooks, whitepapers, and in-depth case studies are staples of B2B marketing. Tracking downloads tells you which topics are resonating with your audience.
• meeting_scheduled: If you use a tool like Calendly or HubSpot Meetings embedded on your site, you should fire a conversion event when a meeting is successfully booked. This is one of the highest-intent actions a B2B prospect can take.
• Viewed Key Pages: While not a discrete event, you can create a conversion for users who visit a critical combination of pages, like viewing your Services page and then your Pricing page in the same session. This signals serious evaluation.

For Publishers & Content Creators

If your business model is based on audience engagement and loyalty, your conversions should reflect that. Monetization might come from ads, affiliates, or subscriptions, but it all starts with building a dedicated audience.

• sign_up: The most crucial conversion for most content creators. This is your newsletter or membership signup event. Your list is the asset you own.
• affiliate_link_click: If you rely on affiliate marketing, you need to track clicks on your affiliate links to understand which content and products are driving revenue.
• share: When a user clicks a button to share your content on social media. This is a great indicator of valuable, engaging content.
• Comment Submissions: Firing a post_comment event can help you measure community engagement on your site.
• Ad Interaction: If your monetization strategy includes display ads, tracking ad_click events can correlate ad revenue with specific types of content or traffic sources.

Macro vs. Micro Conversions: Why You Need Both

As you plan your conversion tracking strategy, it's helpful to categorize your goals into two types: macro and micro.

• Macro Conversions are the primary objectives of your website. They are the ultimate actions you want users to take, like making a purchase (e-commerce), requesting a demo (B2B/SaaS), or submitting a lead form. These are the main events that directly translate to revenue.
• Micro Conversions are the smaller, valuable steps a user takes on the path toward a macro conversion. Examples include signing up for a newsletter, adding an item to the cart, watching a product video, or downloading a case study. They indicate engagement and progress through the funnel.

Tracking only macro conversions is like only looking at the final score of a basketball game. You know who won, but you don't know why. Was it because of three-pointers, free throws, or second-chance points? Micro conversions are the "assists," the "rebounds," and the "steals" - they show you how the game was won. They help you identify strengths and diagnose weaknesses in your user experience long before a visitor reaches the final checkout page or contact form.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right conversions starts with a clear understanding of your business goals. By marking valuable user events as conversions in Google Analytics, you can transform your analytics from a simple traffic report into a powerful tool that tells you exactly which marketing efforts are turning visitors into customers.

Of course, Google Analytics is often just one piece of the puzzle. Answering the big questions - like which marketing channel truly yields the highest customer lifetime value - requires connecting your web data with information from your ad platforms, your CRM, and your sales tools. We built Graphed because we lived this frustration ourselves, we were spending hours manually exporting data and stitching it together in spreadsheets. With Graphed, you connect all your data sources in one place and can ask questions in plain English - like "create a dashboard comparing Facebook Ads spend vs Shopify revenue by campaign" - and get real-time, interactive dashboards instantly, freeing you up to actually act on insights instead of just hunting for them.