How to set up outbound clicks on Google Analytics 4

Setting up outbound clicks on Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an important factor that cannot be overlooked in the process of monitoring and evaluating website performance. Optimizing website performance is one of the top priorities for business owners and marketers. In today’s article, Optimal Agency will learn how to set up outbound clicks on Google Analytics 4 to collect more comprehensive and accurate information about how users interact with your campaigns. Links leading away from your website.

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Learn about Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an effective website analysis tool developed by Google. Before GA4 launched, Universal Analytics (GA3) had existed for more than 11 years, supporting hundreds of millions of websites to track their development progress. Although GA4 officially launched in October 2020, it was not until 2023 that Google declared GA4 a mainstream data delivery platform. This shows that Google has carefully considered changing user habits for more than a decade, convincing them to install and experience GA4’s new features. When GA3 is officially “discontinued”, users will be ready to use this new version. GA4 is expected to inherit the outstanding advantages of GA3 and overcome previous limitations, becoming the most accurate and powerful website analysis tool.

How Google Analytics Works 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tracks real-time traffic, helping advertisers analyze traffic fluctuations for websites and individual pages, make decisions, and discover reader insights. GA4 operates through three main stages: Measuring, Reporting, and Analyzing.

Measurement: After creating your account, you have two options for implementing tracking code on your website: Google site tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager. This JavaScript code connects your website to Google Analytics, allowing data to be passed into your GA4 account. GA4 can check website activities in real-time.

Reporting: Google Analytics 4 offers a variety of out-of-the-box reports to visualize data from websites and apps:

• Acquisition report: Check how users access the website.
• Engagement report: Information about how users interact with the website.
• Demographics report: Provides information about user location, age, and interests.

Analysis: GA4 breaks down the user journey into several steps, for example: view product > see more products > provide information > purchase. This helps you gain a deeper understanding of user behavior and can A/B testing Google Ads or change the way content is presented on your website/app. GA4 allows you to see whether changes have a positive, negative, or insignificant impact on the business. This is an important tool for content optimization and sustainable revenue growth.

How to set up outbound clicks on Google Analytics 4

Setting up outbound clicks in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is essential for tracking and evaluating your website’s performance. Here are the steps shared by Optimal Agency to set up outbound clicks in GA4 accurately to collect comprehensive and precise information on how users interact with links leading away from your site.

Step 1: Enable outbound click tracking in Google Analytics 4

First, access the admin page of Google Analytics 4. Then, select “Data Streams” and choose the specific web data stream you want to track. This will open the data stream tracking settings for your website. Next, check if the “Enhanced Measurement” and “Outbound Clicks” features are enabled. If not, click the gear icon to enable tracking of outbound clicks. If you have just enabled these features, it may take about 24 hours to see this data in both standard and custom reports.

Step 2: View information in standard reports

In standard reports, finding information about outbound clicks is relatively easy. These clicks are generally labeled as “clicks” and will appear if you have previously enabled Enhanced Measurement.

To view this information, go to Reports > Engagement > Events. However, the level of detail in the data might be limited. If you click on the “Click” event, the report may not show the specific URLs that were clicked. To see details about which URLs were clicked and how many times, you need to create a custom report in the Explore section.

Step 3: Create detailed custom reports

In the left sidebar of the GA4 interface, select “Explore” and then click “Blank.”

To create two dimensions in the report, click the plus icon (+). Then, select “Event name” and “Link URL” and click import.

In the metrics section, click the plus icon (+) and add the metrics you want, such as “Event count” and “Total Users.” Double-click the “Link URL” dimension and add all the metrics you just imported to the exploration, or you can drag and drop them. Here, you will see a list of all the links that have been clicked. However, the first row in the table might be blank. This is because the current report is showing data for all events in your property, not just outbound clicks. To narrow down the data, go to “Filters,” drag and drop the dimension or metric, and select “Event name.” Then, set the condition to:

• “Event name exactly matches” and enter “click.”
• Save the filter.

Now, the report will only show “click” events and the first column of the table will display the list of outbound links that were clicked. To view all values of the “Link URL,” you need to hover over the specific link. Hopefully, GA4 will allow adjusting the width of each column in the table in the future.

Step 4: Add Filters to optimize the report

It seems that GA4’s automatic tracking of outbound links also includes phone numbers, email addresses, and links containing “javascript: void(0).” To remove these, create three additional filters in GA4’s exploration section:

• The link URL does not contain “javascript: void(0)”
• The link URL does not contain “mailto:”
• The link URL does not contain “tel:”

These filters will make your report clearer and more accurate.

Step 5: Operate and View Outbound Clicks in Google Analytics 4

All the information has been conveyed above. Now, you can easily set up a report to track outbound link clicks using GA4. By default, the report will only display the top 10 rows.

Common issues when setting up outbound clicks in Google Analytics 4

When setting up outbound click tracking in Google Analytics 4, several specific issues may arise that require attention and timely resolution. Here are some common problems and solutions related to this process:

Delay in Recording Outbound Click Events: The time delay in recording outbound click events in GA4 can be long, reducing data accuracy.

• Solution: Ensure the GA4 tracking code is placed in the main area of your website to optimize load time. Use tools like Google Tag Assistant to check if the tracking code is correctly implemented

Lack of Detailed Data on Outbound Clicks: The collected data may not provide enough detail, such as information about specific links or destination pages.

• Solution: Ensure you have configured the correct trigger conditions to record the necessary information. Use environment variables to pass values like the link URL into the event.

Conflicts with Other Events: The outbound click tracking code may conflict with other events on the website, affecting data accuracy.

• Solution: Check for conflicts between events and optimize their structure. Use GA4’s Debug Mode to track and troubleshoot events

Failure to Track Exceptional Destination Pages: There may be instances where exceptional destination pages are not tracked, leading to data gaps.

• Solution: Ensure the trigger conditions include the correct types of links you want to track. Cross-check data with the live view to confirm that all destination pages are accurately recorded.

By proactively addressing these issues and using monitoring tools, you can ensure that setting up outbound clicks in Google Analytics 4 goes smoothly and yields reliable data.

In the article above, Optimal Agency has shared detailed and accurate information. We hope that the information provided helps everyone understand how Google Analytics 4 works and successfully set up outbound click tracking on this platform.

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