You will be able to describe how GA4 records everything as events with parameters, and what that means for your reports.
Priya's web designer set up Google Analytics when the maths centre's site launched. When she finally opened it, the left-hand menu was full of reports, and one of them was simply called Events. It listed names like page_view, session_start, scroll and user_engagement, with a count next to each. She had expected a list of pages and visitors. What she got looked more like a log file.
That list is the most honest view of how GA4 works. Once you understand it, the rest of the tool makes more sense, and setting up tracking in the next three lessons becomes a matter of choosing which events to add.
In GA4, every interaction a visitor has with your site is recorded as an event: a named thing that happened at a particular moment. Loading a page creates an event called page_view, scrolling down creates one called scroll, and clicking through to another website or buying something creates events of their own.
Older analytics tools treated page views and sessions as the basic unit, and clicks or purchases as something extra bolted on. GA4 does not. A page view is just one event among many, recorded the same way as a form being sent. Sessions and users are worked out afterwards from the stream of events, grouped by browser and time.
This matters for you in two ways. First, the things you care about, like a trial class booking, are recorded in the same way as the things GA4 tracks by default, so they show up in the same reports. Second, if something is not recorded as an event, GA4 knows nothing about it. There is no hidden layer that captures clicks you did not set up.
An event name on its own says little. "page_view" tells you a page loaded, but not which page. So each event carries parameters: extra pieces of information attached to it.
A page_view event carries the page location, which is the full address of the page, and the page title. A purchase event can carry a value and a currency, such as 120 and SGD, plus the items bought. A click on a file download carries the file name.
Reports use these parameters to break events down. When you look at page views by page, GA4 is counting page_view events grouped by their page location parameter. When you see revenue, GA4 is adding up the value parameter on purchase events. If a parameter is missing, that breakdown is missing too, which is why lesson 3.3 asks you to attach a value to your important events where you can.
You do not have to set up every event by hand. Some are collected automatically as soon as the tag is installed, such as page_view, first_visit for a new visitor and session_start.
On top of those, each web data stream has a setting called Enhanced measurement. Switch it on and GA4 also records a set of common interactions with no extra code: scrolls when a visitor reaches near the bottom of a page, outbound clicks to other websites, site searches, plays of embedded YouTube videos, and file downloads. It can record form interactions too, though in practice that part does not work reliably on every kind of form.
For Priya, that means a parent downloading the term timetable PDF is already recorded as a file download, and a click on a link to the Ministry of Education's website is recorded as an outbound click. She did not have to do anything except leave the setting on.
The things Enhanced measurement does not cover are usually the ones you care most about: a trial booking, a WhatsApp click, a form that was sent successfully. Those need events you add yourself, which lesson 3.3 and the exercise in lesson 3.4 cover.
You can name your own events almost anything, but Google publishes a list of recommended event names for common actions, with the parameters each one expects. On that list, a lead is generate_lead, a completed purchase is purchase, a new account is sign_up and putting something in a cart is add_to_cart.
When you use these names, GA4 knows what the event means. Some standard reports fill in on their own; for example, purchase events with a value populate the monetisation reports. A custom name like "trial_form_done" works for counting, but GA4 treats it as an unknown event and those reports stay empty.
So check Google's recommended events list first, and invent a name only when nothing on the list fits. For Priya that means her enquiry form becomes generate_lead, while her WhatsApp button, which has no recommended name, gets a plain custom one, whatsapp_click, written in lowercase in the same style as Google's own names.
The events report sits under the engagement section of GA4's reports. It lists every event name, how many times it happened and how many users triggered it, for the date range you choose. Click an event name to see its parameters.
On most small sites, page_view, user_engagement, session_start and scroll sit near the top, because they happen constantly. Further down you find the rarer events, and that is often where the interesting ones live.
If you do not have a site with GA4 yet, Google offers a demo account with data from its own online merchandise store, which anyone with a Google account can open. Either way, the next step is to look at a real events list and work out what each line records.
Open the GA4 events report for any site you can access, or the Google demo account, and list the ten most frequent events and what each one records.
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