Set Up Page Timer Tracking in Google Analytics (GA4): 2022 Setup Guide

Page timer tracking in GA4 requires creating a GA4 event tag with Google Tag Manager and pairing it with a properly configured timer trigger.
That's what we're going to do in this video tutorial. We also compare it to timer tracking in Universal Analytics and review how we can build a custom Exploration report in GA4.
Have questions or comments? Leave them in the comments. I'm always up for learning more...and for new video ideas.
There's typically a new video every week or two about GA4 or Google Tag Manager or Looker Studio or sometimes Google Ads or SEO. If you want to follow along with what I'm learning (trying to learn) you can subscribe at the link below:
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🔗 Links to 📖📖📖 BLOGS: These are the most popular blogs on the Root and Branch site from KZbin visitors
✭ Do These 10 Steps to Install AND Configure GA4 Properly: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga...
✭ Events in GA4 and How it Compares to UA: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ev...
✭ GA4 Reports Explained: Standard Reports, Explorations, Custom Reports: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga...
✭ Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/go...
✭ A Practical Guide to Event Parameters: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga...
✭ GA4 Problems (And What You Can Do About Them): www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga...
✭ Google Analytics 4 Link Click Tracking: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/go...
✭How to Install Google Tag Manager (GTM) on Wordpress: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ho...
✭And Some SEO! How to Edit robots.txt on Wordpress!
www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ed...
🔗 Links to 📹📹📹 VIDEO TUTORIALS: These are most popular GA4 instructional videos as measured by views or watch time
📺 How to Set Up GA4 in 5 Minutes With GTM: • Set Up GA4 (in 5 Minut...
📺 How to Properly Configure Your GA4 Property: • 10 Steps to Configure ...
📺 6 Key Differences Between GA4 and UA: • Google Analytics 4 (GA... 🔑🔑🔑🔑🔑🔑
📺 The Truth About GA4 Event Parameters: • The Truth About GA4 Ev...
📺 GA4 Hits, Events, Sessions, and Users Explained: • Google Analytics Event...
📺 How to set up GA4 FORM SUBMISSION tracking with a thank you page: • How to Set Up a GA4 Fo... 🙏
📺 How to set up BUTTON CLICK tracking with GA4 and Google Tag Manager: • Set Up Page Timer Trac...
📺 How to set up PAGE TIMER tracking with GA4 and Google Tag Manager: • Set Up Page Timer Trac... ⏲
📺 How to Set Up LINK CLICK Tracking with GA4 and Google Tag Manager: • Button Click Tracking ... 🖯
📺 How to Set Up SCROLL DEPTH Tracking (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%) with GA4 and Google Tag Manager: • How to Set Up GA4 Link... 🖯
📺 How to Build a Link Click Tracking Report Using GA4 data and Looker Studio: • Google Data Studio GA4... 📊📊📊
📺 Campaign Tracking in GA4 to See UTM Tagged Traffic: • Campaign Tracking GA4 ...
📺 GA4 Conversion Tracking Compared to UA: • GA4 Conversion Trackin...
📺 Registering Custom Dimensions in GA4 Explained: • GA4 Custom Dimensions ... -
📺 How to Link GA4 and BigQuery: • Google Analytics 4 + B...
📺 Users in GA4 Explained vs. UA Users: • GA4 Users Explained: N...
📺 Creating and Using Audiences in GA4: • How to Create GA4 Audi...
📺 3 Practical Ways to Use the Path Exploration Report: • GA4 Path Exploration: ...
📺 How to Set Up Site Search in GA4 and UA: • Video
📺 Video review of the Source/ Medium report in GA4: • GA4 Reports: How to Re...
📺 All about the GA4 Certification: • Google Analytics 4 Cer... 🏆
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Thanks for coming by!

[@hemingwaythegreat645]

Love this video, so much value, thank you so much, spent hour looking for this information

[@rooted-digital]

I'm so glad it was helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share this encouraging note. (Ps. Also a big Hemingway fan)

[@yuriykabanets7665]

Thank You! Very Useful!

[@rooted-digital]

Glad to hear it, Yuriy! Have you been able to set up a Campaign report in GA4 so you can see any of your UTM tagged traffic? If not, I'd recommend this video as time allows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZTZmJJ-mM6EqZI Wish you all the best! Zack

[@robinweigerber1777]

Nice Video! Thank you. I just finished my page_timer setup ;).

[@rooted-digital]

Wooo wooo! Congrats, Robin. 😎

[@daniel.buchner]

Thanks for the content

[@rooted-digital]

You’re most welcome. Thanks for taking a minute for the encouraging words. 🙏

[@cadubarcelos5170]

Salvou o BR aqui!! Tks my friend!!

[@rooted-digital]

You are welcome! Glad it was helpful.

[@berkkalyoncu415]

thx a lot

[@rooted-digital]

You're very welcome, Berk!

[@ericspamer9416]

Great video! Huge thank you! Should the event automatically appear in GA4? I do not see it after following these steps four days ago in GTM.

[@rooted-digital]

Hi Eric, Yes, you should see the event in your Events reporting. Although, if you've created any event parameters with your GA4 event, you'd need to register those as custom dimensions (www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-custom-dimensions/) before seeing them in your reports. Question for you: was the page timer event working properly when you tested in GTM preview and debug mode? I'd double check that first, and then I'd also double check to confirm that you've published the GTM container (I've been guilty of forgetting that second part more than once in my life!). Best wishes to you. Zack

[@caiodicenzo4032]

Super helpful video, thank you! I have one question: I'm trying to create this event, but in the tag editor, it says "Measurement ID" instead of "Configuration Tag." Is that something I need to set up separately?

[@rooted-digital]

This is really just due to a Google change. You don’t need to set up anytime else separately. Place your GA4 measurement ID (from your GA4 data stream in your GA4 admin panel) and you’ll be good to go. And you can read about that change if you’re interested right here: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/new-google-tag/ Thanks for watching and I’m glad it was helpful for you. 😎

[@ClaireFrizelle]

Hi! Thank you for this! I have found that the conversion goal is extremely inflated compared to the same duration goal in UA. Even with the '1' limit in GTM, the event seems to fire multiple times per session. E.g someone is on there for 9 minutes and a 3 minute timer fires 3 times. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong or if there is a fix for this, thanks!

[@rooted-digital]

Hmmm...If you look at your Events report (in engagement section) how do your sessions compare to your engaged sessions and to your 1 minute timers? Here's what I see on my end for the last 28 days: 12,285 session starts 10,085 1 minute timers firing 8,328 engaged sessions (user_engagement event) This seems like a plausible set of numbers to me and I haven't had reason to question the accuracy until your note. Is the relative relationship between those 3 metrics on your end similar? Or do you see way more 1 minute timers firing?

[@ClaireFrizelle]

@@rooted-digital I have a 3-minute timer but this is how everything compares: 4,135 session starts 2,018 3-minute timers firing 4,262 engaged sessions (user_engagement event) I'm not sure why my engagement sessions are higher than the timer - possibly because mine is 3 minutes? When i test my 3 minute timer even in debug I see the same conversion fire twice if I sit on the event for 3 minutes. ALSO more interesting is the 3-minute duration goal in UA there have only been 407 session duration completed. Which is while below the 2,000+ I am seeing in ga4.

[@digimediagrow3845]

Thank you so much for such a great video. I can see my timer event in debug mode but how I can convert that into the event section so that I can import that to Google ads? I can't see any existing event

[@rooted-digital]

Hi there, do you see the timer event in your GA4 data now? Sometimes it can take GA4 some time after a new custom event has been created in GTM for the event data to fully show up in GA4. If it's not there yet, I'd double check to make sure you've published the most recent version of the container. And you can mark the event as a conversion in the Configure menu in GA4 (let me know if you need help with finding this) and then import it to Google Ads.

[@digimediagrow3845]

@@rooted-digital Yeah you are right. It took up to 24 hours to show auto-generated and I manual events. Another thing, in existing events there is scroll (created by GA) How do I know depth of scrolling and customize it.

[@rooted-digital]

@@digimediagrow3845 good news. Glad to hear it. In terms of the scroll event, the default enhanced measurement 'scroll' event in GA4 fires at 90%. I just made a video showing how to get additional detail. This video shows the process of creating data at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 90% scroll depths. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2LNh5WebJ6NpK8 Also, can I ask you a question? I published a blog yesterday about GA4 event parameters. Event parameters and custom dimensions were (perhaps still are) the least intuitive parts about GA4 event tracking for me. If you'd be willing to give this a read, I'd love to get your take. Is this helpful? What is still unclear? Or did you find these things to be a little less confusing than I did at first... www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-event-parameters/ Thanks, Zack

[@ajinkyasakhare1370]

Hi Zack, I followed all the steps shown in the video. I have created a tag and trigger in GTM that is firing in preview mode correctly. But that timer event doesn't appear in the existing events section in GA4 which you showed at 8:39 in your video. I can not see it even in debug mode. May I know what steps I need to follow to enable the time spent event?

[@rooted-digital]

Hi Ajinkya, have you published your GTM container to push everything live? If everything is working properly in GTM preview mode, I can think of two potential options: 1.) The container hasn't been published to show the most recent changes Or 2.) It just needs a little more time. Assuming your container has been published and everything is live, I'd give it 24 hours and come back and check to see if you're seeing the event in your engagement reporting tomorrow.

[@jackkeith1783]

Hey man, great video! Q: How long does it take for the "event" to show up under Events in GA4 from GTM? I don't see mine, and it's been 40 minutes. Thanks!

[@rooted-digital]

Hi Jack, great question. I’d give it 24 hours. I think Google might say 24 - 48, even though it’s sometimes faster. If it’s working in GTM preview and debug mode, you should be fine but kind of frustrating / odd that we need to wait for the “real” confirmation in our reports. Good luck and Godspeed to you!

[@artoui]

@@rooted-digital Hi, I followed all steps in your video and set up the GTM Tag and trigger, and in the preview mode it works fine, the Trigger is firing after 1 minute. My question is whether the event will be imported automatically? I haven't created an event for the timer in GA4, do I have to do this manually? Or will the event including its data be imported/created automatically? Thank you very much in advance!

[@jackkeith1783]

@@rooted-digital Thanks, I see it now,

[@ptlaci1]

Thank you, very useful. But this only fires if the visitors stay on one page only, right? I set it up and if I am browsing and switching between pages and the TM code reloads, it does not count.

[@rooted-digital]

Hello, yes that is correct. This will only fire an event when the timer has been hit on a specific page. Can I ask, what are you hoping to track? If you want, for example, to have a record of how often you have an engaged session (not pageview) of 60 seconds, I believe you could do this by changing your timer for counting engaged sessions. That is step #3 on this 10 step set up guide (www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-setup/). And here's the GA4 support article that might have some other relevant info. support.google.com/sa360/answer/12653359?hl=en Good luck to you!

[@ptlaci1]

Thanks. Yes, I would like to track every session that lasts longer than 60 sec as a conversion in Google Ads.

[@tobyvdveen]

Hi! How do you set up a trigger for a certain amount of pages visited during one session (for Google Ads)?

[@rooted-digital]

Hello, this is remarkably more complicated than you'd expect. If you scroll down to method 2 in this linked article, you'll have a way to set up the trigger in GTM that you can use for your Google Ads conversion tag. Good luck! www.analyticsmania.com/post/pages-per-session-conversion-google-analytics-4/#how

[@jataqtechnologies3186]

Hey there! Liked it but in my Google Tag Manager preview its working but its not showing in GA4? What should i do?

[@rooted-digital]

Hello there! Did you publish the GTM container code after testing? I'm sure you thought of this, but I'm asking because I've done this myself on numerous occasions and it's been the reason. ; ) If you have published, let me know if the event is still not showing up for you. Typically, there can be a 24 hour delay after publishing until you see the event data in your GA4 event reports, but that time should have elapsed by now. Keeping fingers crossed for you. Good luck and Godspeed!

[@timporosky3663]

How do you use this tag/trigger event to adjust bounce rate? Also, I would like to use this to create an audience (in Google Ads) for retargeting web traffic that ONLY includes people who were on the site for longer than one minute.

[@rooted-digital]

Good questions. A couple answers. - In GA4 there is not a tag setting that you can use to adjust the bounce rate as you could in UA. This is because "bounce rate" is fundamentally different in GA4 as compared to UA. Totally separate calculation. Check out this overview of the GA4 engagement rate (bounce rate is the inverse of engagement rate in GA4): www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-engagement-rate/ - You can make changes to affect your bounce rate by adjusting your timer for engaged sessions in GA4. Check step 3 in the tutorial below: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-setup/ - In terms of audiences, you could create an audience based on users who have your new 1 minute timer event. The sound quality isn't great, but here's a video showing how to create GA4 audiences. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpOphoCZZcmtbJY Best of luck!

[@timporosky3663]

@@rooted-digital thank you for all this valuable info! One follow up: is it possible to set a timer so that you can see engaged traffic (3+ seconds) but also see your normal (all) traffic stats? Like a filter. Just curious to see the engaged traffic but don't want to filter the entire data just in case

[@user-su1sp1ke7v]

Hi! How is total time measured on the site? The timer trigger starts counting on every page load but doesn't measure the total time spent on the site.

[@rooted-digital]

You're 100% right. This approach in the video is only useful for tracking the time spent on individual pages. If you want to track the duration of the entire session, it's quite different. Here are 3 things that I think are related. 1.) GA4 is built differently from UA (the prior version of Google Analytics) and isn't built in a way to nicely accommodate session duration conversions. With that said, check out item 3 below. 2.) GA4 *does* track average "engagement time" per session using the "engagement_time_msec" event parameter. If you want to read how that works, I did my best attempt here: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/ga4-user-engagement/ 3.) Here is a blog from someone else who outlines a workaround to track session duration conversions in GA4. twooctobers.com/blog/track-session-duration-conversions-in-ga4/ Personally, it's been more useful for me to focus on different metrics in GA4 but I know some folks still really do like this one. Best of luck!

[@reznor1718]

How do you make this show up as an event for custom audiences?

[@rooted-digital]

Do you already have your audiences created? Here's a video on audiences, just in case: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpOphoCZZcmtbJY If you're looking at your Events report (Engagement -> Events) and want to see event count for a specific audience, you can hit Edit Comparisons in the top right and apply the specific Audience you want to look at. Hope that helps. Good luck and Godspeed!