Since July 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has officially replaced Universal Analytics (UA). This shift is more than just a user interface update — it represents a complete transformation in how data is collected and analyzed. GA4 is event-driven, and only those events you manually mark as key events are counted as conversions in reports.

This means that the traditional “Goals” system from UA no longer exists. Instead, you decide which user interactions are valuable. In this article, we’ll explain what key events are in GA4, how they relate to conversions, what changed in 2024–2025, and how to set up your analytics properly.

What Is a Conversion in Marketing?

A conversion in marketing is a targeted user action that indicates the achievement of a specific business goal. In other words, it’s the moment when a website visitor or app user performs a desired action that the company considers valuable.

A definition often used in professional analytics:

A marketing conversion is the process of turning a potential customer into an actual one through a meaningful interaction.

Examples

The types of conversions depend on the business’s or campaign’s goals. For example:

• For an e-commerce store: completing a purchase or adding an item to the cart.
• For a service-based business: submitting a contact form or requesting a callback.
• For media or content platforms: subscribing to a newsletter or viewing a certain number of pages.
• For a mobile app: registering an account, launching the app for the first time, or reaching a specific level.

Each of these actions signals that the user is moving in a direction that benefits the business.

Why It Matters

Understanding and tracking conversions is fundamental to effective digital marketing. Conversion analytics helps companies:

• Evaluate the performance of advertising channels (e.g., which campaign drives more conversions)
• Make informed decisions about website or UX optimization
• Determine the cost per lead or customer (CPA, ROAS)
• Automate Google Ads campaigns through conversion import

If you’re not tracking conversions, you’re not seeing the true return on your marketing efforts.

What Are Key Events in Google Analytics 4?

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), key events are events that you manually mark as conversions. These events signal to the system that a specific user action is valuable to your business.

Unlike in Universal Analytics (UA), where conversions were set up through a dedicated “Goals” system, GA4 treats everything as events. This means:

1. Every user interaction (page view, click, scroll, purchase, etc.) is tracked as an event.
2. You decide which events to mark as key, so they count as conversions in reports.
3. Once marked, a key event appears in the “Conversions” report and becomes available for import into Google Ads.

For example, if your website uses a generate_lead event to track form submissions, simply marking it as a key event enables GA4 to treat it as a conversion.

In 2024, Google officially replaced the term conversion event with key event in GA4 to clarify that any event can become a conversion — if you mark it as key.

This shift makes the system more flexible, accurate, and transparent — but also places more responsibility on marketers to define what truly matters for their goals.

GA4 vs. Universal Analytics: How the Logic Has Changed

The transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is far more than just a UI redesign — it’s a complete shift in how analytics works. GA4 abandons the session-based model and traditional goals in favor of an event-based structure, offering greater flexibility and precision in tracking user behavior.

Key Differences Between UA and GA4

Feature	Universal Analytics (UA)	Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Data Model	Session-based	Event-based
Goals / Conversions	Conversions set up through a separate “Goals” system	Events marked as key events
Conversion Limits	Up to 20 goals per view	Unlimited number of key events
Event Parameters	Limited (Category, Action, Label)	Custom parameters for each event
Event Collection	Requires manual setup or Tag Manager	Many events collected automatically (enhanced measurement)
Reporting	Standard reports based on sessions	Event-based reporting via Explorer, BigQuery
Google Ads Integration	Goals only	Any key event can be imported
Mobile Analytics	Limited, via third-party tools	Native support for app + web in a unified stream

GA4 offers greater flexibility, but it requires careful planning of your event structure — from naming conventions to parameter selection and how those events will be used in advertising and reporting.

What Changed in 2024–2025?

The transition from Universal Analytics to GA4 was officially completed in 2023, when Google stopped processing new data in the legacy system. Since then, GA4 has become the sole active solution for both web and app analytics, and its capabilities have continued to evolve.

Updates Introduced in 2024

In 2024, Google rolled out several important updates aimed at clarifying the concept of key events and improving platform integrations:

1. Refined Key Event Logic

The term “conversion event” was officially replaced with “key event”.

The messaging became clearer: any event can count as a conversion if you mark it as key.

2. New Event Comparison Reports

A new Event Comparison tool was introduced, allowing users to analyze the performance of multiple key events side by side.

Pre-built templates were added for common use cases: lead generation, e-commerce tracking, content interaction, and more.

3. Simplified Google Ads Integration

Key events are now automatically available for import into Google Ads, eliminating the need for manual linking.

Event transmission latency was reduced, and data accuracy for imported conversions improved.

New Features in 2025

In 2025, GA4 continued evolving toward greater automation and flexibility:

1. Automatic Key Event Suggestions (ML-powered)

GA4 began recommending potential key events based on user behavior patterns and common conversion actions.

Suggested events can be enabled with a single click via the Insights section.

2. In-GA Event Builder (No GTM Required)

A new in-GA event builder was introduced, allowing users to edit parameters, adjust trigger conditions, and create new events directly within GA4 — no need for Google Tag Manager.

These updates made GA4 not only more powerful but also more accessible to non-technical users who want to manage analytics independently.

How to Set Up a Key Event in GA4 (Step-by-Step)

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), key events are the foundation of conversion tracking. Setting them up takes just a few minutes, but it requires a clear understanding of your event structure and business priorities.

Here’s a quick guide on how to do it correctly:

Where to Find Events in GA4

To view all the events your website or app is tracking:

1. Log in to your GA4 property.
2. In the left-hand menu, go to Admin.
3. Under the Property column, click on Events.

This section displays all the events—both automatic and custom—that GA4 is currently receiving.

How to Mark an Event as a Key Event (Conversion)

To turn an event into a key event:

1. In the Events section, find the event you want to mark as key (e.g., generate_lead, purchase, form_submit).
2. On the right side of the table, toggle the switch under “Mark as key event”.

3. After activation, GA4 will begin tracking this event as a conversion in the relevant reports.

Tip: If the event you need hasn’t appeared in GA4 yet, you can create it using Google Tag Manager (GTM) or directly within the GA4 interface via the Event Builder.

How to Link a Key Event to Google Ads

To ensure GA4 conversions are sent to Google Ads:

1. In GA4, go to Admin.
2. Under the Property column, select Google Ads Links.
3. Click “Link” and choose the appropriate Google Ads account to connect.

4. After linking your accounts:
   • The enabled key events in GA4 will automatically become available for import into Google Ads.
   • In Google Ads, go to Tools → Conversions → Import from GA4 to add the relevant events as optimization goals.

For effective Smart Bidding and automated strategies, make sure to import only those events that reflect truly valuable user interactions.

Common Mistakes and Recommendations

Even experienced specialists can make mistakes when configuring key events in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). These issues can distort analytics and reduce the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Below are the most common problems — and how to avoid them.

Untracked Events

Issue:

Some events never reach GA4 — the system doesn’t capture them, or they’re incorrectly transmitted from your website or app.

Possible causes:

• The event hasn’t been created or is misconfigured in Google Tag Manager (GTM)
• Incorrect structure: wrong event name or missing required parameters
• The event hasn’t been triggered by a real user action yet

Solutions:

• Check event registration in DebugView
• Use Google Tag Assistant for troubleshooting
• Ensure all events are being sent to the correct GA4 property

Duplicate Conversions

Issue:

The same user action is counted multiple times as separate conversions, leading to inflated metrics.

Possible causes:

• The event is triggered multiple times during a single session
• There are duplicate events with different names (e.g., form_submit and lead_form_submit) but identical functionality
• The same conversion is imported from both GA4 and manually created in Google Ads

Solutions:

• Define clear and specific trigger conditions for the event
• Set limitations (e.g., count the event only once per session)
• Review and consolidate your Google Ads conversion imports to avoid overlapping data sources

Missing Key Event Marking

Issue:

The event appears in GA4 reports but isn’t counted as a conversion, meaning it doesn’t show up in the Key Events report or Google Ads.

Possible causes:

• The event hasn’t been marked as a key event
• A common misconception: simply tracking an event means it will count as a conversion — this is not the case

Solutions:

• Go to the Events list in GA4 and enable the “Mark as key event” switch
• Regularly review the Events section and update your key event list based on evolving business goals

Recommendation: Maintain a documented list of tracked events and indicate which ones are key events. This helps ensure consistency, especially if multiple team members are involved in analytics management.

What to Know Before Implementing GA4 Analytics

Building a proper analytics setup in Google Analytics 4 isn’t just a technical task — it’s a strategic decision that directly impacts the effectiveness of your marketing. Here are the key things to keep in mind.

Why It Matters for Marketers

GA4 isn’t just a new version of Google Analytics — it’s a fully reimagined platform that gives marketers deeper insight into user behavior. For marketers, this means:

• Greater flexibility in defining what counts as a conversion
• Improved integration with Google Ads and other tools
• Precise tracking of events across all stages of the user journey
• The ability to tailor analytics to specific business goals, not just default metrics

If you’re not working with key events in GA4, you’re losing visibility over the real performance of your campaigns.

Should You Migrate Everything Manually?

The transition from UA to GA4 isn’t a simple copy-paste of your old setup — it requires building a new analytics logic from the ground up. That’s because GA4 and UA operate on fundamentally different principles:

• Some metrics and events from UA are no longer relevant or don’t have direct equivalents in GA4
• Certain events should be redefined, optimized, or merged
• Old UA “Goals” often can’t be replicated 1:1 — they must be recreated using custom events in GA4

Manually transferring everything is inefficient. It’s better to start with a clean, streamlined event structure, test it, and scale gradually.

When to Involve Experts

You can set up GA4 on your own — especially for simple websites. But in some cases, it makes sense to involve analytics professionals or an agency:

• You have a complex site structure or multiple domains
• You need full integration with Google Ads, CRM systems, or Google Tag Manager
• You want to implement cross-channel or audience-segmented analytics
• You need to archive historical UA data or automate reporting

Working with experts helps you save time, avoid critical mistakes, and get results faster.

The newage. team has hands-on experience implementing GA4 analytics for e-commerce, SaaS, service providers, and large enterprises. If you’re ready to implement modern analytics or improve your current setup, reach out and we’ll help with analysis, configuration, and integration.

GA4 isn’t just a tool — it’s the foundation of your marketing strategy in 2025.

FAQ: Common Questions About Key Events and Conversions in GA4

What’s the difference between a regular event and a key event in GA4?

A regular event tracks any user interaction (e.g., a click or page view). A key event is one you manually mark as valuable for your business. Only key events are counted as conversions in GA4 reports.

How many key events can I create in GA4?

GA4 has no limit on the number of key events — unlike Universal Analytics, which allowed up to 20 goals per view. However, it’s best to focus only on events that truly impact your business decisions to avoid clutter.

Do I need Google Tag Manager (GTM) to create events?

Not necessarily. GA4 lets you create events directly in the interface using the Event Builder. That said, for more complex triggers or precise control, GTM is still recommended.

How can I tell if an event is already marked as key?

Go to Admin → Events. In the list, look at the “Mark as key event” column — if the toggle is on, the event is considered a conversion.

Can I edit event parameters after creation?

Yes. In 2025, GA4 introduced in-interface editing via the in-GA Event Builder. This lets you update trigger conditions, event names, and parameters — all without needing GTM, making it easier for marketers to adapt tracking logic on their own.