One of the great things in Google Analytics 4 is that you can measure conversions only if the visitor performed a sequence of several actions that occurred one after the other. In the old Analytics this wasn’t possible, and I frequently came across questions from people who wanted to create an event (or measure a goal) only if the visitor performed several actions. For example, “I want to count a goal only if the visitor came from organic search, then watched a video, and then submitted a lead.” This is obviously not possible in Universal Analytics, but in Google Analytics 4 you can do this easily. In this post, I will show you how to use this feature to overcome a limitation of Google Analytics 4 that did not exist in the old Universal Analytics.
What Is the Problem?
In Universal Analytics, a goal was counted only once per session. For example, if a visitor submitted their details in a form and reached a thank-you page, and you defined a goal on that thank-you page – the goal would be counted only once, even if the visitor refreshed the thank-you page repeatedly. In Google Analytics 4, however, conversions are based on events marked as ‘Mark as conversion’, so every time the event is triggered, a conversion is counted.
In the screenshot below, you can see that I send an event called form_submit every time the visitor submits the form:
Afterward, I enabled the toggle that marks this event as a key event (formerly called a conversion):
And indeed, you can see in the debugger that every time the event is sent, a conversion is also counted (the green flag indicates that it is a conversion), even though I am still in the same session:
This is obviously not what we want, so we will use the feature I mentioned at the beginning of the post.
The Solution (Without Dealing With Any Code)
Everything in Google Analytics 4 is event-based, so you can continue sending events for all actions visitors perform, even if they perform the same action multiple times. To count the conversion only once per session, we will use an automatic event that is sent whenever a new session starts in Google Analytics, called session_start.
Using the feature I mentioned at the beginning of the post, we will send a new event called form_submit_once_per_session whenever a visitor triggers the regular form_submit event after the session_start event. In other words – our new event will only be sent if the session_start event was sent first, and since this happens only once during a session, the new event (on which the conversion will be based) will also be sent only once per session.
Sounds complicated? Let’s see how simple it is:
To send the new event, go to Audiences and perform the following actions:
1. First, delete the existing condition and click on Add sequence:
2. Now we will define the following sequence:
Under Sequence scoping, you should select ‘Within the same session’, because we want this sequence of actions to occur within the same visit.
Next, define the session_start event as Step 1, followed by the event we send when the visitor converts (form_submit in my case):
3. Now click on ‘Create new’ under Audience Trigger on the right side, and enter the name of the new event you want to create when the condition is met.
From now on, whenever a visitor completes the sequence of actions, they will enter the audience and trigger the new event. If within 30 days the visitor visits the site again and submits their details – the new event will not be sent, unless you check the checkbox for ‘Log an additional event when audience membership refreshes’, and then the new event will be sent in every session (assuming the condition is met).
The answer to the question “Should I check the checkbox or not” depends on the timeframe after which you want to count a conversion again when the visitor performs the event. For example, if I am collecting real estate leads, people don’t buy an apartment every month, so once someone submits a lead and is counted as a conversion, I wouldn’t want to count them again as a conversion for a period much longer than 30 days.
4. Now all you have to do is turn off conversion counting on the old event:
5. And verify that it works using the debugger. You can see that the form_submit event was sent 3 times, but only after the first time was the new event form_submit_once_per_session sent:
Summary
Google Analytics 4 simplifies many things that previously required writing code. In this post, I demonstrated how to use the Audiences feature in GA4 to create a new event that is sent only if a condition based on a sequence of actions—rather than just a single action—is met. You can apply this however you like to create new events based on actions visitors take, all without touching any code!
About the Author
Shooki Mann, founder of LIXFIX, specializing in complex Google Analytics and Tag Manager implementations.
