How to Track Custom Events with Google Analytics 4 (and Google Tag Manager)

[@ArbitraryLifestyle]

This helped me solve a super frustrating issue, so thanks a ton!! By turning on all the variables and then clicking the button I wanted to track, I was able to see what info was being passed to GTM. Before that I was inspecting the button and try to guess what I should use to fire my trigger.

[@rubikruvi]

You Legend, exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks for this detailed tutorial!

Thanks! great stuff.

[@jozezinho]

Perfect, thank you!

[@cmdalbem]

There's something I'm deeply confused with this new Google Analytics 4 that is they let us collect all those events with custom parameters etc. but I can't see any of those in my Reports! I noticed you mentioned how lacking their reports are right now, and I can't understand how they launch a product like this. Isn't there any way I can create some custom dashboard where maybe I could see all that data? I have months of video playback events from my app but I can't find how to analyze all of that.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Hi, Have you read the blog post that comes together with this video? Because you should :)

[@nicktaylor1613]

I've come to the same conclusion as you - GA4 does have very nice event data tracking / collection but I'm at a huge loss on how to take this data and turn it into reports. I just want to see all my data and it's super hard to figure out how to view all my events in a nice report. Google Analytics custom reports available in the earlier version of GA is much better.

[@JulianHarris]

I’m not the only one: that’s somewhat validating!

[@bladesmanofionia7718]

Go to the explore section and choose in which style you want to collect your data.

[@vernontolentino7818]

Do you have a tutorila video when someone clicks a cta button or submitted a form?

[@jonzod3688]

Perhaps this is useful for those who work with sites. What about those who create games?

[@umuter6303]

Thanks for your pivotal insights about tag manager!

[@mariyavasylyk9589]

Thanks for the very useful content. Learning only here on your channel from the scratch :) And I have a question - when trying to set triggers for menu items I see there is no "click classes" defined. Is there any chance I can set this trigger properly and thus exclude other clicks on nthhe webpage (for. ex. some buttons on pages)? Thanks a lot in advance!

[@yuriykabanets7665]

Thank You!

[@SamJonesMediaHUD]

Could you do a video on how to see which events led to purchases? Like I have a custom event for used_filter, but when I put purchases as a metric for a column in a free form report it shows 0. but other default things like town/city show how many purchases were done.

[@martinianosienra9528]

Hey Julius, great video! Maybe you can help: We want to build a Report in Data Studio taking the data from Google Analytics 4. We have created custom events in Google Analytics 4 but we don't see them in DataStudio. What should we do to see them in Data Studio? Appreciate your help!

[@valentinacasto6448]

Great video! Unfortunately custom dimensions tab has changed and now an Event parameter is required.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Always check the descriptions of my videos. There might be links to updated content

[@ishanmahajan7264]

You have the best F##in content I've bought a f##in the tutorial from udemy teaching things from stone age

[@manjualadakatti6531]

Hello Julius, Thank you for your wonderful guide. I had created custom events in GTM, I am able to track them in the configure section of Google analytics platform after submitting the GTM container, but these events are not visible in the Engagement section of GA4 even though the time constraint has passed 24+ hours, please help me with this issue?

[@kaypkargo852]

thank you bro 👍🏻

[@gauridhore8657]

Why conversion and user number are different ?

[@24hrprtyppl8]

Thanks again. Great tutorial. I'm still not sure if it's possible to track virtual pageviews with them being populated in the screens and pages report? Have you managed to achieve this? I can get an event coming through with the URL but as I say, I just can seem to get it to fall in the screens and pages reports...

[@AnalyticsMania]

Just track events "page_view" every time you want to send a virtual pageview

[@alvar_p4l543]

Hi Julius, great tutorial. I just wonder what's the purpose of the lego icon on the parameter name. I get you kind of retrieve the value from the variables in gtm but the parameter so far is manually entered. Any use case?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Isn't the example in my video already a use case? :)

[@thepixelpantry2934]

Thank you for such an in-depth video! I have a question. What if my custom event never shows up in DebugView?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Then you have configured something incorrectly

[@thepixelpantry2934]

@@AnalyticsMania When I enter preview mode from GTM, I can see my event and all of the parameters I created for it. Everything works properly there. When I go to GA4 and enter DebugView, my event never shows. Do you think it's not configured correctly or there's a delay like you experienced?

[@fwdflashwebdesign]

Why do I need google tag manager as well is a mess...

[@MDMEHEDIHASAN-fo8oi]

Thank you sir for a nice tutorial please create a regular video for us. Your tutorial is so much in-depth and informative

[@AnalyticsMania]

A regular video?

[@MDMEHEDIHASAN-fo8oi]

@@AnalyticsMania Yes, sir we want to learn more from you.

[@MDMEHEDIHASAN-fo8oi]

@@AnalyticsMania yes

[@AnalyticsMania]

I don't follow your logic. I regularly create videos.

[@AnalyticsMania]

And if you want to learn even more from me, you can enroll in my premium courses.

[@TheWaqaspuri]

I have a problem. my links are not showing class??? "" this only

[@woutervonk6777]

Julius, thanks for your informative videos! Question. Could you maybe make a video on how to track woocommerce sales in the new google analytics. Preferably with and without google tag manager installed? (we do not use tag manager yet). I tried to search the internet for 30 minutes, but could not find a proper youtube video that explains how to do it properly.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Hi, no plans for that in the nearest future.

[@AnalyticsMania]

But the GTM+GA4 + woocommerce might be included in the next major update of my Intermediate/advanced GTM course (the update is scheduled for March 2021). Everyone who enrolls now, will get that update for free. All course updates for existing students are free.

[@JulianHarris]

So confusing. The video starts talking about Google Tag Manager then goes to “preview mode” whatever that is but after a few replays realised that it is on a site called Tag Assistant. No idea what that is. I’m 30% into a video on GA and we’re not even using GA yet. So confusing. And I’ve been using GA for Page tracking for more than 10 years.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Hi, if you are looking just for pageview tracking, then you don't need a tutorial about custom event tracking. With custom tracking, things are about to get much more difficult. Preview mode = tag asistant = a feature of google tag manager that lets you test tracking codes. To get fundamentals of Google Tag Manager please watch this tutorial first kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5DbZp-Mf7J-kJI

[@DarioVolaric]

What happened to just a simple gtag('event', , {.... event? I can set them, but Data Studio no longer allows visualisation of custom events :(

[@mohamedaminebenslama9483]

hey did you manage to find an alternative to this? I'm recently moving to GA4 and for sure miss this capability to submit an event with JS

[@DarioVolaric]

@@mohamedaminebenslama9483 I did. But it's a lot more work than before. You need to spend time setting up all the custom events in Tag Manager and Analytics to make it work. What you could to instead is go to advanced settings when creating a domain and choose to make a UA tracking code instead. That should have the classic feature still I believe.

[@mohamedaminebenslama9483]

@@DarioVolaric thanks for the reply, I guess I'll have to put in those hours to get GTM and GA4 working.. have a good day :)

[@AlexOrozco-Social-Pariah]

I have a customer with ga4 but a Godaddy very basic website that has no way to inject Tag Manager, do I really need tag manager to create custom events in GA?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Can you add GA4 (not GA3) to godaddy without GTM? As for custom events, most likely, you will not be able to work without GTM.

[@AlexOrozco-Social-Pariah]

@@AnalyticsMania thank you so much for your answer Julius, I was kind of aware that might be the way but just needed to be sure of it.

[@katarzynasoja4565]

Hi Julius! Any ideas why my data layer events are not visible in tag assistant? (I'm using push method)

[@AnalyticsMania]

Hi, not enough info. There are hundreds (if not 1000s) of things that could go wrong.

[@katarzynasoja4565]

@@AnalyticsMania From my post on your FB group: "I have a problem with data layer events - I can't see any of them in tag assistant (except for those firing on a page view). However, in the Datalayer Checker extension, I see that they are being pushed to the data layer. And yes, I'm using a push method." There are some cases with content security policy (with GA sript, but gonna report it), however, the problem for GTM is solved (I can't see in a console GTM script error anymore). Almost every click should fire a data layer event (e.g. on menu click, on filter click). I have no idea where should I look for bugs.

[@AnalyticsMania]

@@katarzynasoja4565 without a link to the preview mode, I cannot help. And looking at that post in the community, you are not willing yo share it.

[@hannahoster3155]

Question. What if I cant see any nav link between Click classes?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Then you have to ask a developer to add some class to the links or learn advanced techniques like CSS selectors to create more complex triggers

[@HairManiaGreeceAthens]

excellent!

[@dockeryz]

Why on earth would you use CSS classes to identify those links? Classes can change. I would choose something that is likely not to change, like the element. I would simply put a trigger that says does Click Element match this CSS selector "header a". Voila, you don't ever have to worry about changing the trigger since you'll most likely always be using the header element. If you doing it right, that is ;)

[@AnalyticsMania]

Because CSS selectors is a more advanced solution and this tutorial is for beginners. Trying to add explanation about CSS selectors will overwhelm beginners at this point.

[@dockeryz]

fair enough, that makes sense.

[@devarshidave9689]

For half of the video he has not shown what people are looking for...disappointed

[@AnalyticsMania]

What were you looking for? The first half is for the setup of custom events

[@daveroeser8461]

Possibly he was looking for the same as I am - how to set-up custom events and tracking within GA4 rather than GTM. Do you have a video on GA4 event set-up and tracking without GTM?

[@AnalyticsMania]

The video title, the thumbnail and the first 5 seconds of the video say that Google Tag Manager is also used. I don't have a tutorial without GTM.

[@owlxi]

So good! Thank you!