How to create click events in Google Analytics 4

Data is the most important thing in the world of digital marketing and website analytics. Understanding how people use your website is important if you want to improve the user experience, increase sales rates, and reach your business goals. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool that can help you understand how users act. Track a lot of different kinds of data, like GA4 click events, which let you watch and study how people use your website. In this detailed guide, we’ll look at how to make GA4 click events and use this feature to learn important things about how users act.

What Does Click Tracking Mean?

Click tracking lets you see where and when people click on your website, app, or even emails.

This can be done with Google Tag Manager or a Google Analytics that records mouse clicks and taps. The data can then be shown as numbers, as a heat map, or by individual events.

Here are a few ways that you can carry out Google Analytics click tracking:

• Button click tracking: Tracking the clicks on buttons like “Add to Cart” to get information.
• Outbound GA4 link click event: Keep track of when a link to another website is clicked.

Tracking hits on your website is an important part of your marketing plan. It gives you the chance to make your website and its content work better so that you can get the most out of your users.

How GA4 Click Tracking Can Help You

With the help of click tracking, you can keep track of what people are clicking on your website. They could be links, CTAs, or buttons that you put on your website pages. By looking at this, you can see if your guests are ignoring any important parts of your site.

If you see that these parts aren’t getting much attention, you can use that information to decide where they would work best.

Creating a click event in GA4 step-by-step process

Step 1: Set up built-in variables in Google Tag Manager

1. Install GTM on your site before going in. Then, go to the main Google Tag Manager Workspace and look for the Variables option in the menu on the left.
2. In the top right part of the screen, you’ll see a button that says “Configure”; click on it.
3. After hitting the Configure button, scroll down and turn on all the Click Classes .
4. Then, once you’ve selected all of the click types, hit “Save” and go back to the Variables tag.
5. Click the “Submit” button in the upper right area of the screen.
6. Follow the steps on the screen and wait for your GTM account to show all the changes. On your end, you should see a green message that reads: “version 2 is Live”.
7. This message means that your changes are now active and that GTM is ready to start tracking clicks right away. This is how you set up click variables in GTM.

Step 2: Click “Add New Tag” in the Overview section.

Now, go back to the main GTM screen. We need to make a tag for tracking buttons.

When you click the “Add a New Tag” button, you will be taken to a new tab where you can set up the tag.

Step 3: Go to Tag Configuration and make a new Event Tag

We need to make a tag that we can later “link” to the buttons on your website. First, give the new tag a name. In this case, we called it “Button Click.” If you have more than one button, you can use the exact name of the button to name the tag.

There are three choices here:

• Configuration tag: Here, you must choose “Google Analytics: GA4 Event” or “Manually Set ID” if your Google Tag isn’t ready yet. Either choice will work.
• Measurement ID: If your GA4 Tag is not yet set up, you will be asked to put your Measurement ID here. You can find your Measurement ID in your Google Analytics account.
• Name of the event: Remember that event names can’t have spaces in them. In this case, our event was called “button_click.”

Fill in the necessary parameters for each and move on to the next step.

Step 4: Set up a new trigger for the tag

1. You need to make a trigger that will trigger the tag variable to track clicks. Open the Trigger menu to “Choose a Trigger,” and then hit the plus button in the top right corner of your screen.
2. This will take you to the tab for setting up the trigger.
3. If you choose All Pages, you’ll see a list of each type of trigger here.
4. Scroll down the list and look for the Trigger that says “Click – All Elements.”
5. Choose it, and then click “Save” to move on.
6. After making both the Tag and the Trigger, the main Workspace screen will show the changes.
7. Now that the factors have been set up in Google Tag Manager, it’s time to see what they look like.

Step 5: Visit Google Tag Manager Preview

Go to the GTM Dashboard’s main menu, where you can find the Preview Screen. It is in the top right corner of the screen, next to the button that says “Submit.”

When you click “Preview,” Preview Mode will start up.

Step 6: Connect Tag Assistant to the website

Google Tag Assistant can be linked to your site to test out the changes you just made.

So, as soon as you open the Preview Tab, you’ll be asked to type in the URL of your website.

Make sure to include the exact URL of where your buttons are. In our case, we will test what happens when a button on the homepage of a website is clicked.

When you click “Connect,” the URL will show up in a new tab.

Step 7: Press the button and see if it works

At the bottom right of your screen, you’ll see a message that says “Tag Assistant Connected” in the tab that just opened.

Scroll down your page until you find the button you want to track, and then click on it. Just click the button, then move on to the next step.

Step 8: Return to Google Tag Assistant

1. Go back to the Google Tag Assistant Summary Tab after you’ve clicked the button. You’ll see a message that says “Fired 1 time” under the “Button Click” area.
2. This means that the respective Button Click Event went off correctly. GTA can tell you clicked on something, but that’s not the end of the story.
3. Even though our Tag is called “Button Click,” GTA only noticed that you clicked on something in the target URL.
4. It doesn’t know that you pressed the button right there.

Step 9: Check the variables for the exact button

1. On the GTA Preview Screen, find the “Click” option in the menu on the left and click it.
2. Next, click on the tab called Variables.
3. On this Variables screen, you need to find two important parameters: Click on Text, then on URL.
4. Click Text is the exact text on the button, and Click URL is the exact link that you will be taken to when you click the button.
5. Tags are also affected by other variables, such as Click ID and Click Element. Since we only want to track button clicks, find the above variables and keep the tab open before moving on to the next step.

Step 10: Go back to Google Tag Manager’s Trigger section.

1. We need to return to GTM’s Trigger Configuration. Find the trigger you want to change (in our case, it’s called “Button Click”) and click on it.
2. Go to Trigger Configuration after pressing on the trigger and change “All Clicks” to “Some Clicks.”

Step 11: Set up new variables for specific triggers

We will use both the Click URL and Text variables so that the trigger only happens when the exact button conditions are met.

Perform the following actions under “Fire This Trigger when an event occurs and the specified conditions are  met”:

• Set the choices in the first one like this: Click Text – Equals – Exact for your button’s Click Text Variable.
• Press the + button, and then set the options in the second one as follows: Click URL – Equals – Your Button Click URL Variable.

Click the Save button when you’re done, and you’ll go back to the Tag Manager screen.

Don’t forget to click “Submit.” If you don’t, the changes won’t show up on the Tag Configuration as a whole.

Step 12: Make sure the button works

Now, your button click tracking tag must be set to be fired and recorded, but it’s necessary to make sure everything is right.

There are two things you can do to make sure your button is working.

1. Use Google Analytics 4 DebugView to check

GA4 has a Debugging Feature that displays all of your ongoing events and when they happen. So, go to the settings for Google Analytics and look for the DebugView. Then, click the button on your site. The DebugView will tell you that the button-clicking event is triggered, which means that the process worked.

2. Check out the preview on Google Tag Manager Assistant

Going back to GTA Preview Mode is another great way to check if the button is working. Open Preview Mode as described above, go to the button’s target URL with GTA turned on, and click the button.Then, return to the Google Tag Assistant Summary and check to see if the button tracking event is fired.

Tips for Effective Google Analytics Click Event Tracking

To get the most out of Google Analytics 4 click event tracking, keep these best practices in mind:

• Use event parameters: Use the custom GA4 button click event parameters to get more information about how users are interacting.
• Set your goals: Set your goals for Google Analytics 4 click event goals let you keep track of specific user actions that help you reach your business goals, like filling out a form or buying a product.
• Review and improve your events often: As your website changes, you should look at how you set up click event Google Analytics. Make sure you’re keeping track of the contacts that are most important to your goals right now.

Look For Mistakes on Your Site

Some people might click on a picture on a website in the hopes that it will lead them to another link. Or, they could click a button that isn’t set up right, and nothing would happen. With GA4 click tracking, you can quickly find bugs or mistakes.

You can keep track of all the clicks that didn’t work and keep people from finding the information they needed to become customers. By knowing where people get confused, you can work to fix them and make sure your buttons take people where you want them to go.

Helps Improve Sales and Conversions

In general, you can get the most out of your website by knowing what works and what needs work. This means that it should help improve important KPIs like conversion rates and income.

If you know exactly which CTAs work for your audience, you will also know what kind of content they like, what paths they take, and where they are most likely to see it. If you know how people move around your website, it will be easy to put the best sales triggers in the right places.

Conclusion

By making click events in Google Analytics 4, you can learn a lot about how people use your website. By keeping track of how users interact with buttons, links, and images, you can make choices based on data to improve the user experience, increase conversion rates, and reach your business goals. Make sure you set up GA4 properly, add the tracking code to the parts of your website, and look at the data regularly to find actionable insights. With click event tracking, you’ll be able to make your website work better and get better results.

FAQ

Can I track button clicks without using Google Tag Manager in Google Analytics 4?

Yes, GA4 can track outbound clicks and file downloads instantly without coding or GTM. But Google Tag Manager is the best way to track and change things in a more complicated way.

How do I use Google Tag Manager to track button clicks in Google Analytics 4?

To track button clicks with GTM, you need to create a trigger that listens for click events, allow click variables in GTM, find unique data about the button, tweak your trigger conditions, and create a tag to send the event to GA4 with more information.

How can I see what events Google Analytics 4 has tracked?

The Events area of the GA4 admin panel is where you can find your events. In GA4, you can also look at the characteristics of events in the Engagement and Realtime reports.

Can Google Tag Manager record when a button is clicked?

Yes, Google Tag Manager can track button clicks, but you must have the All Elements Click trigger turned on and add more conditions to the trigger. Carefully reading this guide will teach you how to do that.