GA4 in Action: Essential Skills & Hidden Features

Take control of your Google Analytics 4 setup and learn how to configure it for meaningful insights across all your channels. We’ll cover everything from essential tracking setup to advanced features, including custom segments, conversion paths, predictive audiences, and custom campaign reports that actually make sense for your needs. Whether you’re familiar with GA4 or still finding your way around, you’ll walk away with powerful new approaches to level up your analytics game.

Transcript

1. Baris Asa GA4 in Action Essential Skills & Hidden Features
2. Hello, I'm Baris Asa. 👋 • 8+ years of experience in Growth & Marketing • Love playing with numbers - Finance Graduate • Reverse Career Path: Startup → Corporate • MarTech - B2B & B2C SaaS - FinTech - HRTech PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
3. Me IRL PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
4. Agenda PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action I. Universal Analytics vs. GA4 II. Essential Settings of GA4 III. Google Ads Data in GA4 IV. Custom Channel Group Setup
5. Agenda PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action V. Custom Reports VI. Custom Segments VII. Predictive Audiences VIII. Attribution (Conversion) Paths
6. Before we start, we need a GA4 dictionary!
7. GA4 Dimension and Metrics https://data.ga4spy.com/ PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
8. Universal Analytics vs. Google Analytics 4
9. Session-Based Tracking UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS Event-Based Tracking GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4
10. Universal Analytics vs. Google Analytics 4 PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
11. Essential Settings
12. Change Data Retention Period PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
13. Default Session Duration PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
14. Default Session Duration PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
15. Default Session Duration PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
16. Default Session Duration PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
17. Default Session Duration PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
18. Exclude Internal Traffic PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
19. Exclude Internal Traffic PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
20. Exclude Internal Traffic PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
21. Exclude Internal Traffic PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
22. Exclude Internal Traffic PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
23. Create/Review Key Events (Conversions) PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
24. Add Values to Key Events PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
25. Add Values to Key Events PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
26. User ID - Cross Device and Logged User PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
27. User ID - Cross Device and Logged User PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
28. User ID - Cross Device and Logged User PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
29. Exclude Unwanted Referrals PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
30. Exclude Unwanted Referrals PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
31. Do not Send Personal Information PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
32. Do not Send Personal Information PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
33. Don't Forget! Register Custom Dimension PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
34. Fix Unassigned Traffic • • • • • Standardise your UTM parameters Check cross-domain tracking setup Check event configurations Optimize reporting identity Create custom channel groups PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
35. Unassigned Traffic - UTM Strategy PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
36. Unassigned Traffic - UTM Strategy Example 1 https://test.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb-ad&utm_campaign=shoes-new- season&utm_content=ad Here, ‘fb-ad’ is not a system-defined traffic medium. So Google will label all the traffic from this URL under the ‘unassigned’ channel group. ❌ PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
37. Unassigned Traffic - UTM Strategy Example 1 https://test.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=shoes-new- season&utm_content=ad Here, ‘paid’ is a system-defined traffic medium. So Google will label all the traffic from this URL under the ‘Paid Social’ channel group. → https://utmprep.com/utm-validator/ ✅ PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
38. Fix Reporting Identity PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
39. Fix Reporting Identity PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
40. Fix Reporting Identity PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
41. Fix Reporting Identity PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
42. Fix Reporting Identity PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
43. Custom Channel Group Example: Track Your AI Traffic
44. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
45. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
46. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
47. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
48. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action chatgpt\.com|perplexity\.ai|deepseek\.com|gemini\.google\.com|copilot\.microsoft\. com|meta\.ai|you\.com|blackbox\.ai|chat\.mistral\.ai|felo\.ai|arc\.net|andisearch\.co m|komo\.ai|waldo\.fyi 👇 Copy 👇
49. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
50. Custom Channel Group - AI Tracking PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
51. Google Ads Data in GA4
52. Connect Google Ads Account to GA4 PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
53. Connect Google Ads Account to GA4 PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
54. Google Ads Data in GA4: Acquisition Overview PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
55. Google Ads Data in GA4: Acq. Overview → Google Ads Campaigns PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
56. Google Ads Data in GA4: ​ User Acquisition Reports PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
57. Google Ads Data in GA4: ​ Traffic Acquisition Report PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
58. Google Ads Data in GA4: ​ Explorations PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
59. Google Ads Data in GA4: Planning → Google Ads Report PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
60. Custom Reports
61. Custom Reports PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
62. Custom Reports PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
63. Custom Reports - Exit Pages Report PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
64. Custom Segments
65. Create Custom Segment PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
66. Create Segments - Custom/Prebuilt PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
67. Create Custom Segments PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
68. Create Custom Segments PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
69. Predictive Audiences
70. Predictive Audiences PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
71. Predictive Audiences - Eligibility • • • In the last 28 days, over a seven-day period, at least 1,000 returning users must have triggered the relevant predictive condition (purchase or churn) and at least 1,000 returning users must not. Model quality must be sustained over a period of time to be eligible. To be eligible for both the purchase probability and predicted revenue metrics, a property has to send the purchase and/or in_app_purchase (collected automatically) events. Don't forget You need to collect value and curency with purchase events. PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
72. Predictive Audiences & Google Ads PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
73. Attribution Paths (Conversion Paths)
74. Attribution Paths PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action
75. Filter Attribution Data in Google Sheets PPC Live #15 - Baris Asa - GA4 in Action https://www.beastanalyticsco.com/brighton To Sum Key Events To Sum Revenue Create Key Event Helper To find Avg Days to Key Events Create Touchpoints Helper To find Avg Days to Key Events 👇 Use it 👇
76. if you enjoy talking about marketing analytics, growth or digital marketing let's connect! ✨ hello@barisasa.com
77. Thank you!