Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google current web and app analytics platform that uses event-based tracking to measure user interactions across websites and mobile applications.
Definition
Google Analytics 4 is the current generation of Google web analytics platform, replacing Universal Analytics with an event-based measurement model. Instead of tracking pageviews as the fundamental unit, GA4 treats every user interaction as an event — page views, button clicks, video plays, scroll depth, file downloads, and custom actions are all recorded using the same event framework.
GA4 introduces cross-platform tracking that unifies website and mobile app data into a single property, privacy-centric design with cookieless measurement capabilities, machine learning-powered insights and predictive audiences, and a redesigned reporting interface built around exploration and analysis rather than pre-built reports.
Why It Matters
GA4 is the default analytics platform for millions of websites and its understanding is essential for any digital marketing professional. The shift from session-based to event-based tracking requires marketers to rethink how they measure success, configure tracking, and build reports.
The platform privacy-first approach, including modeled data for users who do not consent to cookies, reflects the broader industry shift away from individual-level tracking toward aggregated, privacy-preserving measurement methodologies.
Examples in Practice
A marketing team configures custom events in GA4 to track specific user actions like pricing page visits, demo request form starts, and documentation searches, creating a funnel analysis that reveals exactly where potential customers disengage.
An e-commerce company uses GA4 predictive audiences to identify users likely to purchase within the next seven days and serves them targeted ads, improving their retargeting campaign return on ad spend by 40%.
A content publisher leverages GA4 cross-platform tracking to discover that 35% of users who start reading articles on mobile complete long-form content on desktop, informing their responsive design priorities.