Most visits to a website never end in a conversion, so the ones that do are worth understanding in detail. If you are not tracking conversions properly, you are missing the clearest signal of what is working on your site and what is not.
This guide shows you how to set up and track conversions in Google Analytics 4, step by step.
Getting this right is what makes the rest trustworthy: your reported ROAS is only as honest as the conversions under it. If you would rather have it built and verified for you, that is our conversion tracking service.
It also covers the different kinds of conversion in GA4 and the funnel best practices around them: planning, naming conventions, and reporting.
The short version
- A conversion in GA4 is an event you mark as important. Google renamed conversions to key events inside GA4 in 2024; in Google Ads they are still conversions.
- You set them up in two places: toggle an existing event under Configure, Events, or add one by name under Conversions. Only new data is counted, not past events.
- For anything you want to count cleanly, send a dedicated, well-named event rather than turning a broad event like page_view into a conversion.
- Verify every conversion in DebugView (green icons) before you trust it, then read it in the Traffic Acquisition, Monetization and Exploration reports.
What Are Conversions in GA4?
Conversions are the actions you want visitors to complete on your site. They group into micro and macro conversions. (One note: in 2024 Google renamed conversions to "key events" inside the GA4 interface. The concept is the same, and most people still call them conversions, which is the term we use here.)
A micro conversion is usually a smaller step that can lead users closer to the macro conversion. That can be a whitepaper download, newsletter subscription, comments on the blog, any of the smaller steps towards checkout, etc.
The macro conversion is the primary and most important action that the user can take, such as completing a purchase, filling out the registration form, etc.
Tracking conversions allows you to learn more about your company's performance and customers. For example, you can create a segment of your users who have purchased and study what they're doing on the website, their behavior, actions, etc. That can help you understand what works and what doesn't work.
Finally, conversions are used to assess the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and then re-allocate your budget accordingly.
Let's get started by learning how to track conversions using Google Analytics 4 properly.
How do I configure conversions in GA4?
If you worked with Google Analytics, the term Google Analytics Goal is not new to you since that's how the conversions were called in the past.
In UA, you created a destination goal whenever you wanted a page view treated as a conversion. There were a few other Universal Analytics goal types too:
• Goals based on events and their parameters
• Goals that were based on the duration of the session
• Goals that were based on the number of page/screen views per session
With Google Universal Analytics, the number of goals was 20 goals per view, and GA4 offers up to 30 conversions per property.
In other words, Google Analytics goals were replaced by conversions as the key interaction. That is no surprise, since the industry and other marketing platforms had used the term conversions for years.
Besides the name change, there are a few other differences that come with conversions:
- Conversions have a different configuration.
- Conversions have different types (no more destination, session-duration, or number-of-pageviews goals that we've mentioned above).
- Reporting is different. Read more about the metrics comparison between UA and GA4.
All of it points one way: everything in GA4 runs on events, and it is up to you to mark the important ones as conversions.
Let's see the ways of Google Analytics 4 conversion configuration in the following sections.
Which conversions does GA4 track automatically?
Google Analytics 4 has a lot of predefined conversions that you cannot disable:
- purchase (web and app)
- first_open (app only)
- in_app_purchase (app only)
- app_store_subscription_convert (app only)
- app_store_subscription_renew (app only)
Go to your Google Analytics 4 property and look at the Conversions menu on the left. You'll see a list of predefined conversions displayed if you have received at least one event of that particular name. Your only default conversion will be a purchase if you only have the Web data stream connected to the property.
If you connected any app data streams, you would probably see the other default conversions.
Let's get on to the next category of conversions.
How do I mark an event as a conversion?
You can mark an event as a conversion in the Configure > Events on the left sidebar. You have to switch the toggle next to the event you want to treat as a conversion.
Remember that once you turn an event into conversion, only the new data will be affected, and past events won't treat them as conversions.
The second option is to go to Configure > Conversions on the left sidebar. Click the New conversion event and enter the name of the event.
There is no difference between flipping the switch in the Configure > Events and manually adding the new conversion. But, if you choose to flip the switch in the Events, you will first need to wait until that event appears in the list.
You will start to see conversion data in the list of all Conversions after up to 24 hours.
Check out the section How To Track Conversion Data In GA4 Reports for more information about conversion reports.
How do I turn one specific action into a conversion?
There's one particular scenario that you might be considering. Let's imagine you don't want to mark all events of a specific event name as conversions.
For example, you send users to the Thank you page once they subscribe to a newsletter. The URL is https://www.mywebsite.com/thank-you/. If you set the page_view event to a conversion, any pageview will be a conversion.
How do you filter out the page views that occurred only on the /thank-you/ page?
You have two options. Send a dedicated event (with a specific name for that event) from Google Tag Manager/Gtag.js, or you can use the Create Event feature in the GA4 interface.
Create Event feature allows you to create a new event based on other incoming events. To find it, go to the Configure > Events page, click Create Event, and then click Create.
The next step is to type the name of your custom event. Choose a name that is clear in what it represents. thankyou_page_visit might be a sensible choice.
After that, go to the Matching Conditions section, where you need to tell GA4 what type of event you need. When this event happens, the thankyou_page_visit will be created as well.
These are the conditions that you need to set:
• event_name equals page_view
• page_location contains /thank-you/
Keep the checkbox Copy parameters from the source event selected if you want to copy all variables from the page_view event to the new event. You can also Add Modification in the Parameter Configuration section if one of the parameter's names is incorrect and you wish to correct it.
For example, if an event includes the parameter pricingPlan, but you want it to be pricing_plan, you may add a new field (and reuse its value) while removing the incorrect one by leaving the New Value empty.
Adding double square brackets tells GA4 to reuse the value of the parameter pricingPlan in that event. You may check the updated information in GA4's Real-time reports and DebugView once you save the changes.
If you're adding a new event that should be seen as a conversion, remember to go to Configure > Events page and mark it as a conversion.
If you can't wait for the thankyou_page_visit to appear in the list, you can go to the Configure > Conversions and instantly make the conversion. Click New conversion event and add the event name there.
This option lets you create the thankyou_page_visit conversion right away, without waiting the 24 hours for it to show on the Events page.
How should I name GA4 events for conversions?
In situations when the event is being sent to GA4 from the website's code or Google Tag Manager, organize your event naming convention better and generate more specific events.
Let's imagine a scenario where you're tracking events such as form_submission in your analytics, but you only want to count certain types of forms as conversions.
You track contact form submissions, footer form submissions, and registration form submission events, but in this case, only the registration form submission is treated as a conversion.
In that case, you could track 3 separate events:
- contact_form_submission
- footer_form submission
- registration_sign_up
Then, just for the registration_sign_up event, mark it as a conversion. This does, however, call for more extensive planning in the beginning.
How do I check conversions are firing in DebugView?
Once you've configured all of your conversions, it's time to test them and make sure everything is working correctly. We covered the DebugView in Google Analytics 4 in the GA4 setup guide. Check it out for in-depth details.
The DebugView is the essential feature developed for debugging GA4 data. To access it, go to the Configure section and click on the DebugView on the left side of the GA4 interface.
Once it opens, you'll notice blue and green icons. Blue icons are events, and green icons are conversions.
Click on these icons to see the parameters that were sent together with a specific event. To see the values click on the parameters.
Now that you are sure that the data is displayed accurately submit your GA4 changes in the GTM container and publish it.
One caveat worth flagging: if ad blockers or privacy settings stop the browser tag from firing, conversions can be undercounted no matter how cleanly you configured them. That is where server-side conversion tracking earns its place, sending the conversion from your server so it does not depend on the browser.
Where do I see conversions in GA4 reports?
There are four ways to see conversions in Google Analytics 4.
#1 Go to the Configure section in the left sidebar and click Conversions to see an overview of all events you have marked as conversions.
#2 Go to Acquisition, Traffic Acquisition, and you'll see a column Conversions in the table.
#3 Monetization reports show data if you have an eCommerce tracking set.
#4 You can include the metric Conversions in the Exploration reports.
Frequently asked questions
What is a conversion in GA4? A conversion is an action you want a visitor to complete, such as a purchase or a sign-up. Google renamed conversions to key events inside GA4 in 2024; the concept is the same, and in Google Ads they are still called conversions.
How do I mark an event as a conversion in GA4? Open Events under the Configure menu and toggle the event you want to count, or add it under Conversions by name. Only new data is affected; events recorded before you flip the toggle are not counted retroactively.
How long does it take for a GA4 conversion to show up? Up to about 24 hours for a newly toggled event to appear in the conversions list. If you do not want to wait, create the conversion directly under Conversions using the exact event name.
How do I confirm my GA4 conversions are tracking correctly? Use DebugView under the Configure section: events appear as blue icons and conversions as green. Click into an event to check its parameters and values before you rely on the numbers in your reports.
Final Thoughts
There are several ways to track conversions in Google Analytics 4, and the right one depends on your site. It is worth trying a couple and seeing which gives you the cleanest data.
Whatever you choose, keep the tracking running. The insight you get from conversion tracking is what tells you where to improve the site and the marketing behind it.
If you are still getting the basics in place, our GA4 setup checklist and event tracking guide come first. And if you would rather have conversion tracking built and verified for you, that is what our conversion tracking service is for.
