GA4 setup step by step: account, data stream, Tag Manager and key events
Measurement, reporting and GA4
6 min read
Published: · Updated:
You open the Realtime report after setting up GA4 and your own visit isn’t there. Or the opposite: every page view shows up twice. Both usually trace back to the order in which things were set up. The order that works: create the account and property, add a web data stream, connect the Google tag through Google Tag Manager, then mark your key events. Consent and the Search Console link fit in around those four.
Below is each step, plus the places where we have seen setups go wrong. Menu names shift over time, so the official Google pages are linked at the bottom.
What should you decide before touching GA4?
Decide what the site is for and which single action you want to count. Two lines on paper are enough.
Say a small pottery studio runs a website to get sign-ups for weekend classes. The action worth counting is the sign-up form being submitted. Without that sentence, GA4 will install fine and still have nothing to tell you.
Also have three things ready: a Google account that isn’t someone’s personal inbox, a person who can edit the site, and a plan for the cookie banner.
Account versus property
An account is your organisation. A property is one site or app you measure, and an account can hold several. In Admin you create the account first, then the property. The property asks for a reporting time zone and a currency. Pick the ones you actually work in, because changing them later muddles historical reports.
Check whose name the account is under. If a freelancer or agency created it under a personal login, you can lose access the day the relationship ends. You should own the account and add the people who work for you as administrators.
How do you create a web data stream?
In the property, open Data streams, choose Web, and enter your site address and a name for the stream. Enhanced measurement comes switched on by default. It picks up scrolls, outbound clicks, file downloads and form interactions without extra code. Read what each toggle collects and turn off whatever you won’t use.
Once the stream exists you’ll see a measurement ID starting with G-. Copy it somewhere; the next step needs it.
Connecting GA4 through Google Tag Manager
You can paste the tracking code into the site yourself. We’d use Tag Manager instead, because the next time you want to measure a new button, nobody has to open the site’s code.
- Create a Tag Manager account and a web container, and have the container snippet added to the site once.
- Add a new tag of the type Google tag and paste your G- measurement ID.
- Set the trigger to all pages.
- Click Preview, browse your site, and confirm the tag fires.
- Open GA4’s Realtime report and look for your own visit.
If an old tracking snippet is still pasted into the theme alongside Tag Manager, each visit is counted twice. That’s the double-counting from the start of this post. Find the old snippet and remove it. GA4’s DebugView is also worth opening once; it shows events as they arrive from your browser.
Which events should be key events?
GA4 collects everything as an event: page views, scrolls, clicks, form submissions. The few that matter to your business can be marked as key events. This is what used to be called a conversion.
For the pottery studio, the form submission is the event. Enhanced measurement’s form interaction option is a start, but it does not tell you the form was actually sent; for an accurate count you build your own event in Tag Manager. Google suggests generate_lead as the name for a lead form. Once the event shows up in the events list, switch on its key event toggle.
Mark few. If everything is a key event, nothing is. For a service site, a first list could be: form submission, click on a phone or email link, click on a messaging button. Shops add purchase and the product-step events, whose names Google lists on its recommended events page.
Does consent mode matter, and when?
Whether you need a consent banner at all, and what it must say, depends on where your site is published and who visits it. That is a legal question. If you have visitors in the EU or the UK, ask a lawyer rather than a blog post.
On the technical side, Google’s consent mode lets tags behave according to what the visitor chose. Before the visitor decides, the site declares default states (for instance, analytics and ad storage denied). When they choose, the states update. Google’s documentation lists four consent types: analytics storage, ad storage, ad user data and ad personalization. The last two arrived with the second version of consent mode.
In Tag Manager the order matters: consent first, measurement tag second. If your cookie banner tool supports Google’s consent mode, it handles this. If it doesn’t, you fire a consent tag on the Consent Initialization trigger.
When consent is denied, what GA4 can still measure depends on the mode and settings you chose. A gap in your reports is expected. Read Google’s current documentation for the exact behaviour.
Linking Search Console
Search Console shows which searches your site appeared for and which got clicks. Linked to GA4, you can read that next to visitor behaviour. In Admin, open Search Console links under product links. You need the Editor role on the GA4 property and verified ownership of the Search Console property, and you pick the web data stream you just created.
Four details trip people up. One data stream links to one Search Console property. A link can’t be edited; if it’s wrong, you delete it and set it up again. Data takes about 48 hours to appear and is kept up to 16 months. And the related reports are unpublished by default; you publish them from the report library.
Wondering how paid and organic traffic should be separated in those reports? SEO vs. advertising covers it. If a site rebuild is coming, how to avoid losing SEO in a redesign explains why measurement should be live before launch.
A short test before you call it done
- Does your own visit appear in Realtime?
- When you submit the form yourself, does the key event count?
- Open one page. Does the report show two views? If yes, there’s a duplicate tag.
- Click “reject” on the cookie banner. Does measurement behave the way you expected?
Also decide how your own team’s visits will be kept out of the numbers. On a small site they can swamp everything else.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Can I set up GA4 without Google Tag Manager?
Yes. You can add the Google tag straight to the site’s code. The catch is that every later change, such as measuring a new button, means editing the site again. If someone else maintains your site, that’s a wait each time. Tag Manager removes most of that dependency, which is why we recommend it.
Is a key event the same as a conversion in GA4?
Largely, yes. GA4 now says “key event” where it used to say “conversion”. The idea is unchanged: you mark an action that matters to your business. The difference is that other Google products, such as Google Ads, may keep their own conversion definitions, so compare the two if you link an ads account.
Do I need cookie consent to use GA4?
The legal answer depends on where your site is published and who visits it, so ask a lawyer. Technically, consent mode lets Google tags respond to the visitor’s choice. Visits without consent can produce incomplete data, which is expected, so gaps in a report don’t automatically mean something is broken.
What do I need to link Search Console to GA4?
The Editor role on the GA4 property and verified ownership of the Search Console property. Both need to cover the same site. One data stream connects to one Search Console property only, and a link can’t be edited afterwards, only deleted and recreated. Data appears after about 48 hours.
To watch the search side as well, see how to set up Google Search Console.
Once it is set up, check the counts with the test in conversion tracking before running ads.
Related service
07
Measurement, reporting and GA4
We define what you should measure, plan the tracking and turn data into reports you can decide from.
Quick message on WhatsApp
Pick a ready-made message; it opens in WhatsApp.
Sending a message is up to you; this panel doesn't ask for your name or phone number.
Services
- Brand strategy and positioning
- Brand identity and design
- Websites and search visibility (SEO)
- Content, social media and written communications
- Performance marketing and advertising
- Email and customer relationships
- Measurement, reporting and GA4
- Campaign planning and print-ready design
- Consulting and workshops