Unlike Universal Analytics, everything in Google Analytics 4 is an event. To simplify our understanding of them, Google Analytics 4 breaks down events into the following categories:

1. automatically collected events
2. events collected via enhanced measurement
3. recommended events
4. custom events.

The primary goal of this article is to explain what GA4 recommended events are, why you should use them and how to set them up. Let’s get started.

What are recommended events in GA4, and why should you use them?

Recommended events in Google Analytics 4 is a group of events that Google recommends using to allow you to enjoy the following benefits of Google Analytics 4:

• Using dimensions and metrics created explicitly for that. If you use a recommended event in Google Analytics 4 instead of the custom event, for instance, “sign_up” instead of “signup”, and you specify the sign-up method as the event parameter  “method”, you can use “Method” dimension to build reports in GA4 Explore. Otherwise, you will need to create a custom definition, and most likely, you will reach the limit in some time. 

• Improving your analytics with the accurate forecast and machine-learning algorithms that Google Analytics 4 uses via the automatically collected events, events, collected via enhanced measurement and recommended events. This data is also used for predictive audiences.

• Advancing your analytics with data available in more reports and well-structured formats. For instance, you can send e-commerce data using custom events and even “purchase” data can be sent via “order” event instead of “purchase”, but why would you do that? Such events as “add_to_cart”, “select_promotion”, “purchase” as also recommended events. So if you send them into Google Analytics 4 in the suitable format, you can see item data, you can access “User Purchases Journey” report. 

And it’s not the end of the benefits you can find along the way by sending the data in the format Google Analytics 4 can read better. 

The primary rule of setting up GA4 events is 

1. Check if the event you want to implement isn’t in automatically collected events. 
2. If no, then look at events collected by enhanced measurement. 
3. If it’s not there, too, then look at the list of recommended events 
4. And if you still don’t see it, implement it as a custom event. 

What events are recommended to use in GA4?

Google understands that different business niches use different events. Therefore, they recommend one set for games and another for ecommerce companies. They also have one set of events for every business.

It’s also worth mentioning that every recommended event has an event parameter you can use to send vital information. As mentioned above, “sign_up” has “method”. Another event “share” has even three event parameters: “method”, “content_type” and “item_id”. You can find the list of all event parameters available for the specific event on this page. 

Recommended events for All Businesses 

Recommended events for Retail / Ecommerce

Recommended events for Games

How to set up the recommended events in GA4?

In order to set up the recommended event in Google Analytics 4, you should follow the same approach as with any custom event. You can use Google Tag Manager, Measurement Protocol or API to send data into GA4. 

If you want to learn more about how to do it using Google Tag Manager, you can read my other blog, where I show how to do it. In a nutshell, 

1. You create a trigger in GTM
2. You create select the tag “Google Analytics: GA4 Event” and specify the event name and event parameters.
3. Check your implementation via GTM Preview Mode and GA4 DebugView
4. Publish GTM container

How to check your implemented recommended event?

As mentioned in the previous section, remember to use DebugView to check if all the data is received in the correct format. 

It’s essential to check it before you roll out your new implementation to the whole website or app traffic. You can also use a developer traffic filter to exclude your activity from Google Analytics 4.

Below is the troubleshooting of the “share” event in the GA4 DebugView report.

Final Word 

To summarise, Google Analytics 4 recommends events for every business category. You can use these events to improve your analytics and advance it by using mode sophisticated machine-learning features of Google Analytics 4, such as predictive audiences. 

Apart from that, it’s highly beneficial to use recommended events in GA4 because you will use event parameters available in GA4 Explore reports by default without needing to add them as custom dimensions. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. 

Frequently Asked Questions