Skip to content
GetProfit
Log in

← All terms

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google Analytics 4 is Google's analytics service that records what visitors do on a website or app as events and shows which channels bring them to a purchase.

How it works

A tag on the site sends each visitor action to GA4 as an event: a page view, an add to cart, a purchase. Events you mark as key events can be imported into a linked Google Ads account as conversions. GA4 replaced Universal Analytics, whose standard properties began shutting down on 1 July 2023.

Even when set up correctly, GA4 and Google Ads count a sale differently (why the numbers never match):

  • Date. Google Ads books a conversion on the click date, GA4 on the purchase date.
  • Channels. Google Ads counts only sales that follow its own ads. By default, GA4 reports credit paid and organic channels, so an email can take the sale. The attribution model decides how much.
  • Time zone. The GA4 property and the Google Ads account can differ.

Where you see it

  • Google Ads: Goals → Conversions → Summary, where imported key events sit next to the tag’s conversion actions.
  • Portal: the Conversion check flags an analytics import and a Google Ads tag that are both primary and count the same purchase.

Example

Example store, not client data.

A shopper clicks the tableware shop’s Shopping ad on 30 June, returns on 1 July from a newsletter link and buys a dinner set for 600. Google Ads reports one conversion worth 600 on 30 June. GA4, with the paid and organic last click model, gives the 600 to the email on 1 July.

Not to be confused with

  • Conversion action — what Google Ads counts and bids on. A GA4 key event becomes one only after import.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “GA4 shows fewer Google Ads sales, so tracking is broken.” Right: dates and channels differ by design. For a closer match, Google suggests the “All conv.” or “All conv. (by conv. time)” columns.
  • Wrong: “We imported the GA4 purchase, so Google Ads bids on it.” Right: a conversion created in the GA4 interface arrives as secondary and steers bidding only once set to primary.

Sources