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GA4 Basics Blog Series: How to Setup Google Analytics 4

Google Tag Manager:

1. Click into Tags section
2. Select “New” button
3. Label Tag Example “GA4 Configuration Tag”
4. Click into Tag Configuration
5. Click Google Analytics, then click “Google Tag”
6. Under Tag ID paste your GA4 Measurement ID e.g. G-X8L43VBE2X
7. Click Configuration Settings, then click Add Parameter
8. Enter the following: Configuration Parameter: send_page_view | Value: true
9. Click into Triggering, Add “All Pages” trigger
10. Save & Publish! Should look like this:
    

How to Optimize GA4 Data Settings

Data Collection:

• Google Signals: Turn on for ad personalization, turn off for less sampling/thresholding
• *If turned on, a Privacy Policy page must be live on the website and include these requirements in order to follow Google Policy.
• Instructions:
• Click into Admin section(bottom left corner)
• Click Data Collection (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Turn each section on or leave off, choose to acknowledge the User Data Collection Acknowledgement
  

Data Retention:

• Customize the event data retention period here, meaning when GA4 can remove extra details on your events (called event parameters) that are saved with events. We recommend changing this to 14 months.
• Instructions:
• Click into Admin section(bottom left corner)
• Click Data Retention (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Select 14 Months option
• Save
  

Data Filters

• Create internal traffic filters to exclude website traffic from employees, vendors and more.
• Instructions:
• Step 1 Data Streams Section:
• Click Data Streams (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Click into the Data Stream you want modified
• Select Configure Tag Settings
• Select Define Internal Traffic
• Click Create Button
• Add a filter name such as Minnesota Office IP
• In the Value section, paste your IP address (If you don’t know your IP you can Google in a separate window “What is my IP” and get this here)
• Click Create
• Step 2 Data Filters Section:
• Go back to main Admin section
• Click Data Filters (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Click into the filter created by default here titled “Internal Traffic”
• Note: This is setup to exclude anything with a traffic type parameter that is internal which is why step 1 was needed.
• Keep traffic_type parameter as internal 
• Recommend Filter state to stay at Testing until you’re sure you’re capturing traffic correctly. Once this is set to Active that data is gone and you cannot get it back.
• Save
  

Configure Your Domains

• If you’re using this GA4 property in more than one domain you will need to configure the Cross Domain Settings. With this setting we are basically telling GA4 that it’s okay to collect data from two or more separate domains.
• Instructions:
• Click Data Streams (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Click into the Data Stream you want modified
• Select “Configure Tag Settings”
• Select “Configure Your Domains”
• Keep Match type at “Contains”
• Domain section - type in any domain that is okay for cross-domain measurement
• Save
  

List Unwanted Referrals

• Identify any third party sites you may have that you do not want listed as referral traffic such as payment gateways, appointment sites, etc. 
• Instructions:
• Click Data Streams (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Click into the Data Stream you want modified
• Select “Configure Tag Settings”
• Select “List Unwanted Referrals”
• Keep Match type at “Referral domain contains”
• Enter website in Domain section e.g. paypal.com
• Select Add Condition to add more websites
• Save
  

Adjust Session Timeout

• Adjust how long it takes before sessions expire due to inactivity or become engaged sessions. Default is set to 30 minutes though you can go up to 7 hours and 55 minutes. This is optional and completely up to what makes sense for your business.
• Instructions:
• Click Data Streams (under Data Collection and Modification Section)
• Click into the Data Stream you want modified
• Select “Configure Tag Settings”
• Select “Adjust Session Timeout”
• Change time or leave as is
• Save