GA4 custom reports. How to use them effectively?

The era of Google Analytics 4 has arrived, with it a lot more options for creating reports that can be customized for your business. Google has made many changes not only in the interface design, but especially in the presentation of data. In GA4, we can use the basic „Reports” tab and the „Exploration” tab, which we will look at in more detail today. 

In this article, you will learn about each type of custom report, so after reading, you will no longer have to wander and can choose the right data representation for you and your business. 

What custom reports can I create in Google Analytics 4?

You will see a gallery of custom report templates when you go to the Exploring section. When you start creating your first reports, they will all be saved automatically in a table (it’s a good idea to pay attention to the reports’ names and remember to give each one a title to distinguish it from the others). 

In Google Analytics 4, we have a choice of:

• Free exploration report 
• Path exploration report
• Path sequence exploration report
• Segment overlap report
• Cohort Exploration Report
• Report of values since the start of tracking

Depending on which report we choose and what data we want to observe, we can get information about the user’s path on our site, their behaviour, and the realization of certain conversions. We can also look at segments and cohort reports. Our data will be presented through tables, line charts, ring charts, and a geographic map. 

What elements do custom reports contain?

Depending on the selected report, each report consists of two panels: Variables and Card Settings 

In the Variables panel, we select the date range from which we want to extract data and the dimensions and data we need for the report we want to prepare. We also have this option if we need to obtain information from a specific segment of users or want to compare segments. We can then rely on the built-in segments or create our own, specifying the conditions we care most about. 

DIMENSIONS

These are one of the two most important elements of any report. The basic dimensions you can measure include event name (i.e., event name), device category, gender, country, etc. 

It is also worth expanding this list to include additional information such as „session—source/medium,” „product ID,” „transaction ID” (in the e-commerce industry), or ” session—campaign.”  

DATA

Do you already have all the dimensions you care about? Great. Now, let’s move on to the second most important element—data. It’s a good idea to use terms such as „sessions,” „sessions with engagement,” „rejection rate,” „transactions,” „product revenue,” „active users,” or „total number of users,” among others. 

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the basic dimensions and data, you can move into action and visualize your reports! 

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Data exploration

Let’s start with the most basic custom report in GA4. 

In the previous step, you got acquainted with the basic elements of each report. Now, we will focus on the Card Settings panel, where we need to fill in the rows and values, among other things. Here, Google Analytics 4 can help by dragging our dimensions and data highlights where they should be. 

To create your first free exploration report, insert the data in the right place, and a report will be generated based on that. 

By default, only a few dimensions and metrics are visible. If this set is insufficient for you, you can add other information by clicking the plus icon. In this case, it is worth using the search option, which will certainly help you find what you need. 

Free exploration report – what else is worth knowing?

• If we present the report as a table, our cell type defaults to a bar chart. However, with a larger and more diverse amount of data, it is worth changing the cell type to a heat map.
• You can still detect anomalies in this type of report—just turn on the „anomaly detection” slider. The system, which predicts values based on historical data, will mark on the chart where the actual value was different from the predicted value. 

Path exploration

In this report, you can create a path that a user follows on your site. For example, this path could start with a page entry and end with an event defined as making a purchase.

To create such a report, you must create the path steps you are interested in. To do this, click the pen icon and create your first step. Remember that for each step, you must create at least one condition that users must meet. 

If you don’t know or can’t remember what event or condition you can add, the GA4 panel will suggest you based on the conditions you have already defined. You can also add more possibilities in a step with „and” or „or” clauses. 

When you have all the steps defined, click „apply” and the prepared path will be displayed in the panel. 

Path exploration report – what else is worth knowing?

You can choose whether your path should be open or closed. In the case of a closed path, you must go through all the steps from beginning to end for your share to be counted in the report. On the other hand, if you choose an open path – the user can start the interaction from any step on the path. 

Path sequence exploration

The data in the path sequence exploration report is visualized as a tree. You will learn from it what the most popular pages a user goes to after entering your homepage. 

You can set a selected event or a page with a specific title as a starting point. On the report preview, you will see step one, which is to find out where users went from the initial page (or a specific event). If you want to know their next path, just click the page you are interested in so that the subsequent branches of your tree expand further. 

Path sequence exploration report – this will come in handy for you: 

Any link on your site takes users to a non-working page, but you’re unsure where they’re coming from? Check it with the path sequence exploration report. Start creating the report from the beginning, except that, in this case, don’t set the start point, but set the endpoint as a page with the title „Page Unavailable”. 

Overlap-segments

Segment overlap is a great report for analysing the common parts and relationships between user segments. Remember, however, that you can compare and analyze relationships between up to three segments on a single view. 

For creating a report, you can choose from already available segments or create your own with customized conditions. 

You will most often reach out to learn about your audience based on specific conditions, e.g., users of mobile traffic who came to your site from paid traffic. 

What else is worth adding to the segment overlap report? 

• Dimensions are needed to analyze the report further and look for more accurate connections between different groups of recipients.
• Filters are used to narrow down the information included in reports more precisely. Importantly, – in the filters, you can use data that you have previously transferred to the Card Settings panel. 

Explore cohorts

Let’s start with what cohorts are, anyway. They are users who share a common characteristic in a given report predetermined by Google Analytics 4. This could be, for example, a group of users acquired to our site on the same day or users who performed an event we specified. 

This report will give us information about the behaviour of users from a given cohort as they continue to use our site. 

How to read the cohort exploration report? 

In each cell of your table is a specific group of users who have met a condition, such as completing a transaction within a certain time period. If a given user completes a transaction in the first week, then in the second and third weeks, such a user will be included in each cohort (i.e. each row) in the table.

When running an e-commerce business, for example, this report will help us gain information about the most engaged users who regularly visit our store and who are our regular customers. 

If we want to analyze the cohort mining report in more detail, it is worth selecting and setting the interesting stay criterion, i.e., the specific conditions that users must meet to continue in a given cohort. 

Value-from-beginning-tracking

The last report available from GA4 shows information about users who were active on our site after August 15, 2020. Here, you can select user segments of interest and compare them over a specific time period.

With this report, you can gain valuable knowledge about which sources brought users to your site and received the highest overall revenue. You can also check unique dimensions such as the date of users’ first visit, the date of their first or last purchase, or the last activity on your site. 

For this report, changing the cell type to „heat map” is a good idea, as it allows you to analyze the data more easily and draw valuable conclusions. 

A few words at the end

Google Analytics 4 is becoming a more powerful analytics tool by the day, so it’s a good idea to explore its capabilities now. We hope this article has guided you through the basic elements of custom reports so you can easily create valuable data visualizations in the future. 

If you’d like to learn more about working with GA4 in practice, we ran a webinar on the subject! You can find it on our YouTube channel.