What Goals to Set Up in Google Analytics?

Setting up Google Analytics is simple, but tracking generic metrics like pageviews or sessions won't tell you if your website is actually working. The single most important step is to define and track the specific user actions that lead to business success. In this guide, we’ll walk through the most valuable goals (now called "conversions" in GA4) you should track for your business type and show you how to set them up.

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First, What Are Goals in Google Analytics 4? (Hint: They're Now "Conversions")

If you've used older versions of Google Analytics (like Universal Analytics, or UA), you're probably familiar with the idea of setting up "Goals." In Google Analytics 4, the concept has been streamlined. Instead of "Goals," we now have "Conversions."

Here’s the breakdown:

• Events: Pretty much every user interaction on your website is now tracked as an event. This includes things like page_view, session_start, and click.
• Conversions: A conversion is simply any event that you decide is valuable to your business. You tell GA4 which events matter by marking them as conversions.

So, a page_view is just an event. But a pageview of your "thank-you-for-subscribing" page is an event you should mark as a conversion because it signals a completed newsletter signup. Tracking conversions helps you understand which marketing channels, campaigns, and content are actually driving results, letting you double down on what works and cut what doesn't.

Top Conversion Goals for Any Website

Regardless of your business model, there are a few key actions that nearly every website benefits from tracking. These conversions act as your foundational performance indicators.

1. Newsletter or Email List Signups

Building an email list is one of the most reliable ways to nurture leads and drive repeat business. Tracking every new subscriber lets you measure the effectiveness of your lead magnets, popup forms, and content upgrades.

• How to track it: When a user signs up, redirect them to a unique "thank-you" page (e.g., yoursite.com/thank-you-for-subscribing). You can then create a conversion event that triggers whenever a user views this specific page. The standard GA4 event to use is generate_lead.

2. Contact Form Submissions

For many businesses, a contact form is the primary tool for generating inbound leads. Just like with newsletter signups, knowing how many users complete that form - and where they came from - is critical for measuring marketing ROI.

• How to track it: The "thank-you page" redirect method works best here, too. After a successful form submission, send the user to a page like yoursite.com/message-sent. Tag this generate_lead event as a conversion.

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3. Key Page Views

Not all page views are created equal. A visit to your homepage is nice, but a visit to your pricing or services page shows a much higher level of intent. Tracking these as high-value interactions can give you a leading indicator of future leads or sales.

• How to track it: While not a "final" conversion, you can create a custom event in GA4 for views of specific, high-intent pages. For example, create an event called viewed_pricing_page that fires when the page URL contains /pricing.

Essential Conversion Goals for E-commerce Websites

For e-commerce stores, tracking the entire path to purchase is non-negotiable. Merely looking at the final purchase conversion isn't enough, you need to understand where customers drop off in the funnel.

1. Purchase

This is the ultimate conversion for any e-commerce site. The standard purchase event in GA4 tracks the transaction value, items purchased, tax, shipping, and more, giving you a complete picture of your revenue.

• How to track it: The purchase event is part of GA4's standard e-commerce tracking. With platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, specialized apps or plugins can set this up for you by populating a "data layer" with transaction details that GA4 can read.

2. Add to Cart

Tracking add_to_cart events helps you measure product interest. If many users are adding an item to their cart but not purchasing, it could signal issues with your shipping costs, a confusing checkout process, or a need for trust signals like reviews or security badges.

• How to track it: This is another standard GA4 event. It should fire every time a user clicks the "Add to Cart" button.

3. Begin Checkout

When a user begins the checkout process, they are signaling strong purchase intent. Tracking begin_checkout helps you measure and analyze cart abandonment. Seeing a big drop-off between this step and the final purchase is a clear red flag that your checkout flow needs optimization.

• How to track it: The begin_checkout event should trigger when a user lands on the first page of your checkout process.

Must-Track Conversion Goals for B2B & SaaS Companies

For B2B and SaaS businesses, the sales cycle is often longer. Conversions are less about immediate purchases and more about capturing qualified leads and moving them through the sales funnel.

1. Demo or Consultation Requests

This is the SaaS and B2B equivalent of an e-commerce purchase. A demo request is a high-intent action from a qualified lead who is actively evaluating solutions. This should be one of your most important conversions.

• How to track it: Use the generate_lead event on a "thank-you-for-your-request" page. You can customize the event name to something like demo_request to be more specific.

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2. Free Trial Signups

For product-led SaaS companies, a free trial signup (sign_up) is a crucial first step. It shows that your marketing message resonated enough for a user to commit to trying your product. Tracking this helps you determine which channels bring in the most engaged new users.

• How to track it: This is best tracked by triggering the standard sign_up event when a user successfully creates their account and lands in the app for the first time.

3. Content Downloads (Whitepapers, Ebooks, Case Studies)

Gated content like whitepapers or case studies is a classic B2B lead generation tactic. By tracking downloads, you can measure the performance of your content marketing and identify which topics attract the most relevant audience.

• How to track it: A file_download event is automatically collected by GA4 when a user clicks a link to a common file type (like a .pdf). You can isolate downloads of a specific file and create a conversion from that.

Valuable Goals for Publishers & Content Websites

For blogs, news sites, and other publishers, success is measured by audience engagement and monetization, even if it’s not through direct sales.

1. Scroll Depth

Are people actually reading your content, or just bouncing after the first paragraph? Tracking scroll depth (e.g., when a user scrolls 25%, 50%, 75%, and 90% of the way down a page) is an excellent way to measure true content engagement.

• How to track it: GA4 automatically captures the scroll event when a user reaches 90% of the page. For more granular tracking (25%, 50%, etc.), you'll need to set up custom events using Google Tag Manager.

2. Video Views and Completion

If video is a core part of your content strategy, you need to know if people are watching. GA4's enhanced measurement automatically tracks key video interactions like video_start, video_progress, and video_complete for embedded YouTube videos.

• How to track it: Enable "Enhanced measurement" in your GA4 data stream settings, making sure "Video engagement" is checked. You can then mark events like video_complete as conversions.

3. Outbound Clicks

For blogs that rely on affiliate marketing, tracking clicks on outbound affiliate links is your main goal. This tells you which articles and promotions are driving revenue.

• How to track it: The GA4 click event is logged for outbound links. You can create a custom event that fires specifically when the link domain matches one of your affiliate partners.

How to Set Up Conversions in GA4: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to get started? Setting up your primary conversions takes just a few steps. Here’s a simple walkthrough.

Step 1: Go to Your Events List

In your GA4 property, navigate to Admin > Data display > Events.

Step 2: Review Existing Events

This page shows every event GA4 is automatically collecting. Take a look and see if the action you want to track is already there (e.g., generate_lead, sign_up, file_download).

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Step 3: Mark an Existing Event as a Conversion

If you see a relevant event name in the "Existing events" table, simply toggle the switch in the "Mark as conversion" column. That’s it! GA4 will now start reporting on this new conversion.

Step 4 (Optional): Create a New Event From an Existing One

Sometimes you need to get more specific. For example, you want to track views of your pricing page, not all page views. In the events screen, click 'Create event'. From there, you can define a new event based on the parameters of an existing one. For instance:

• Create a new event named: viewed_pricing_page_conversion
• Set the Matching Condition where event_name equals page_view
• And add a second condition where page_location contains /pricing

Click ‘Create’. Now, GA4 will log this new viewed_pricing_page_conversion event every time someone views a URL containing "/pricing".

Step 5: Register Your New Event as a Conversion

A newly created event won’t appear in your main events list immediately. To tell GA4 about it right away, go to Admin > Data display > Conversions. Click 'New conversion event' and type the exact name of the event you created in Step 4 (e.g., viewed_pricing_page_conversion). Click 'Save'.

Final Thoughts

Setting up conversion tracking is the difference between having a website full of unfocused data and having a powerful tool that tells you exactly how your business is performing online. By defining and measuring the key user actions for your business - whether it's an online sale, a demo request, or a newsletter signup - you can finally connect your marketing efforts to real-world results.

Once you have your conversion data flowing in Google Analytics, the next step is analysis. Instead of wrestling with GA4’s complex reporting interface, using an AI-powered tool can help you get answers instantly. With Graphed, we connect directly to your Google Analytics data, allowing you to simply ask questions in plain English, like, “What was my Shopify revenue by traffic source last quarter?” or “Show me my top 10 landing pages based on contact form submissions.” We build the reports for you on real-time dashboards, turning hours of analysis into a 30-second task.