Google Analytics 4: Conversion by Landing Page by Channel

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is rolling out at a rapid rate (since the announcement of the end of Google Universal Analytics (UA/GA3)). Marketers and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals are starting to discover that many of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that they took for granted as being available out of the canned UA reports are simply not there.

For SEOs the biggest complaint, is they can’t generate a report showing conversion by landing page by channel. SEOs want to see conversions (including revenue) by the search engine the user came from broken down by landing page. GA4 still shows you conversion by channel (including organic search). However, if you add the dimension “Landing Page” there is a disconnect.

Disconnect between Organic Search Landing pages and conversions

This Google Analytics 4 implementation guide is for Google Tag Manager and GA4 users. It complements the official documentation and provides a guide on how to attribute conversions to specific landing pages by the default channel group.

This guide, shows you a simple solution to solve the problem and how to create a conversions by landing page by channel report. You require Admin level access to the Google Tag Manager (GTM) account.

How To GA4 Guide: Conversions by Landing Page & Channel

Step 1: Referrer Variable

Ensure the GTM Variable “Referrer” is enabled. If it is not, add it.

Ensure GTM Variable Referrer is Enabled

Step 2: External Pager Referrer Trigger

Create a trigger in GTM that fires every time a page loads if the referring site’s domain is not your site (traffic referred from another site). For example, if your site’s domain is “mysite.com” set the trigger to fire on Window Load where “Referrer” “does not contain” “mysite.com”.

Create a Landing Page trigger in GTM

Trigger Name: Landing Page – External Source
Trigger fires on: Set to Some Windows Loaded Events
Condition: Referrer “does not contain” the domain of your site

Step 3: Tag to Capture Landing Page

Create a GA4 Event tag “Landing Page” and set Triggering to “Landing Page – External Source”

GA4 Tag to Capture Landing Page by traffic source

Name the event. We named it “landing_page”. You can name anything your prefer, just ensure it meets GA4 naming conventions.

Verify you have the correct Configuration Tag set as well.

Step 4. Test Your GTM Set-up

From GTM enable Preview and then open your GA4 account “DebugView”.

Preview/Test your GTM set-up

In your GA4 account select “DebugView” under the Configure group.

Enable GA4 DebugView

You will see all the initial events that fired in GA4

Verify in GA4 DebugView that the Landing Page if event is working

That’s it! GA4 automatically associates the “page_location“ (aka “landing page”) to the event “landing_page” as well as the source and medium.

Step5: Configure your Report

Within GA4 Explore configure you report as follows

GA4 Explore create landing page report

For the columns setting, you can choose any conversion event (i.e. event count) you are tracking or revenue.

Setting Conversion points in GA4 Explore Report

This generates the following:

Total Events by Default Channel Group with Landing Page

If you prefer you can use the Ecommece Revenue variable

GA4 Ecommerce Revenue Variable

This generates the following report (Revenue by Default Channel and Landing Page) :

GA4 Report: Revenue by Default Channel and Landing Page

Use the filter option (SEOs) to see only traffic from Organic Search and assoicated landing pages from organic search.

Restrict GA4 Report to only Organic Search Traffic

Add the dimension of source to see which search engines are driving traffic to which landing pages and how much revenue etc. they generate. This produces the following report: Revenue by Organic Search Source and Landing Page

GA4 Report: Revenue by Search Engine and Landing Page

Once you’ve captured and tied a landing page to a specific source, you can explore a lot of different options for your reporting.

Summary

We know Google Analytics 4 has put much of the reporting requirements on its users and provides fewer reports. The above guide provides the solution for one of the most common Google Analytics reports requested by SEOs that of Conversion by Organic Search Landing Pages.

Hope you found this helpful. If you need any help with UA to GA4 migration or configuring GA4 reports feel free to contact us.

The above solution was researched and developed by Alan K’necht (K’nechtology Inc.) in partnership with Anil Batra (Optizent Academy).

Credit Where it’s Due

Are you sure Google Analytics is measuring your campaign conversions correctly?

An important read for anyone who is involved in Digital Marketing and uses Google Analytics for measuring success. Learn why your GA data might be giving incorrect to outright wrong information, or at best irrelevant information in my column for Digital Summit.

Read the follow article: https://digitalsummit.com/data-analytics/google-analytics/

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Time to Wave Bye-Bye to Page Views

Are you still reporting on page views when presenting your web analytics data? If you are, this is is a must read article by Alan K’necht. In his first article for Digital Summit, Alan addresses the need to rethink your current KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) as a way to more accurately measure and report on web site/mobile app performance.

Read the follow article: https://digitalsummit.com/search-seo/time-to-wave-bye-bye-to-pageviews/

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How to Make Your Data Sing

In this Marketing Land column, Alan K’necht discusses the need to put all your data into context instead of just reporting absolute values from digital/web analytics programs.

To exemplify the value of this approach to engage your stakeholders, we use data from K’nechtology’s acquisition of an electric car.

Read the full column at: https://marketingland.com/how-to-make-your-data-sing-282072

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