How to track conversions in Google Analytics is a critical skill every digital marketer must master. Conversion tracking is no longer just a bonus—it’s an absolute must in any digital marketing strategy. When done right, it empowers marketers to measure the return on investment (ROI) of campaigns and traffic sources, evaluate website and app performance, and identify the most profitable customer segments. Mastering conversion tracking in Google Analytics can transform how effectively your marketing drives growth.
In this expert guide, you’ll explore how conversion tracking in Google Analytics has evolved—particularly after the phase-out of Universal Analytics in 2023—and walk through the step-by-step process to set up conversion events. You’ll also discover how to elevate your analytics by using first-party data and additional analytical tools to fill in Google Analytics’ limitations.
What Is Google Analytics Conversion Tracking?
Learning how to track conversions in Google Analytics starts with understanding that conversions are specific user actions tracked as events. These actions can be anything meaningful to your business, from purchases and form submissions to video completions or brochure downloads. Unlike Universal Analytics (UA), where conversions were goal-based (mainly destination-driven), Google Analytics’ event-based model allows for more flexible and customized tracking.
Conversions in Google Analytics are not limited to sales alone. For example, e-commerce sites might define a conversion as a completed purchase or checkout, while lead generation businesses may consider a conversion to be a form submission, newsletter signup, or even a demo request. The key is to identify and track the actions that align with your business goals.
How Google Analytics Tracks Conversions
Understanding how to use Google Analytics for tracking conversions begins with creating and logging events. These events represent user interactions such as viewing a page, scrolling, playing a video, clicking a button, or completing a transaction.
Once events are configured and captured, the most important ones are marked as conversion events. These are typically known as macro-conversions (primary goals). Other less-critical but useful events, like newsletter signups or adding a product to the wishlist, are considered micro-conversions—smaller actions that can lead to more significant outcomes later.
To illustrate, let’s say your top conversion goal is a booking confirmation. That specific event can be singled out and tracked as a conversion, allowing your team to focus on analyzing its performance and optimizing the path that leads users there.
Key Differences Between Google Analytics and Universal Analytics
Since Google Analytics replaced Universal Analytics in mid-2023, marketers and analysts have had to adapt to a fundamentally different tracking model. While the core function of analyzing user interactions remains, the methodology has shifted to a more flexible and user-centric system.
Google Analytics Uses Events, Not Goals
Where UA relied heavily on predefined goals—typically triggered when a user reached a specific page like /thank-you or /order-complete—Google Analytics now tracks all user activity as events. You can then mark the most valuable events as conversions.
This provides greater freedom. You’re no longer limited to a handful of rigid goal types. Instead, Google Analytics allows detailed event customization that reflects your customers’ journey more accurately.
Unlimited Conversion Events
One notable advantage of Google Analytics is the removal of limits on the number of conversion events you can track. Universal Analytics only supported up to 20 goals per view, which created barriers for businesses with complex user journeys. Google Analytics, however, offers an unlimited number of conversion events—perfect for tracking every meaningful interaction across a multifaceted funnel.
Multiple Conditions for Conversion Triggers
Another major improvement is Google Analytics’ ability to set conversion conditions based on multiple parameters. In UA, goals were based on a single condition such as time on site, pageview, or session duration. Google Analytics lets you combine multiple conditions—for instance, a user who landed via a certain campaign and spent a minimum amount of time on a particular page can trigger a conversion.
For example, in an online marketplace, you might create different conversion events for buyers and sellers, which provides more refined data segmentation. Or you might track conversions by campaign type—separating out branded from non-branded ad campaigns.
Step-by-Step: Setting Up Conversions in Google Analytics
To make the most of Google Analytics, it’s essential to understand how to create and configure different types of events.
Step 1: Create a New Event
Head over to the Admin section in Google Analytics, then navigate to the Events tab under the “Data display” section.
Click New Event and assign a descriptive, easy-to-recognize name to your event. Stick to a clear naming convention—using lowercase letters, underscores, and avoiding spaces (e.g., form_submit_contact_page).
Next, you’ll need to define the matching conditions—the criteria under which the event will be triggered. Parameters could include page_title, transaction_id, or item_id. You can even set up multiple conditions for one event.
Let’s say you want to create a conversion when users land on a thank-you page. You’d define a condition like: page_title contains ‘Thanks for signing up’.
Once your event is configured, test it using DebugView in Google Analytics to ensure it fires at the correct time.
Step 2: Mark Event as a Conversion
Once your event is functioning, return to the Events section in Admin. It may take up to 24 hours for your event to appear here after creation.
Locate your event and toggle on the “Mark as conversion” option. The selected event will now appear in the Conversions section of your reports, allowing you to analyze its performance in detail.
Using First-Party Data to Strengthen Google Analytics Conversion Tracking
One of the key elements in how to track conversions in Google Analytics effectively is leveraging its integration with first-party data—data collected directly from your customers via interactions with your site or app. This includes behavioral data, subscriptions, and past transactions.
Using first-party data can significantly enhance campaign optimization, user segmentation, and personalization efforts. It allows marketers to go beyond high-level metrics and dig into what drives conversion at a granular level.
As long as users have consented, Google Analytics automatically collects this data. This opens the door for more accurate attribution models and advanced customer journey mapping, especially when paired with customer modeling and AI-based insights.
Google Analytics Conversion Tracking Limitations
While Google Analytics has revolutionized analytics, it does come with certain limitations that users should be aware of.
Anonymized Data
Google Analytics anonymizes all user data to comply with privacy regulations. While this is important for protecting user identity, it does create a blind spot for marketers trying to trace back high-value leads to their origin sources.
For example, while you might know that a segment of users generated $10,000 in revenue, you won’t be able to determine whether they came from a sales call, a remarketing ad, or a referral campaign.
Limited Attribution Window
Google Analytics’ attribution window is capped at 90 days. This means if a user first visits your site in January and converts in May, their earlier interaction won’t be attributed to the final conversion.
While this may not affect businesses with short sales cycles, it poses a challenge for those with long lead times or high-value purchase journeys. Ideally, marketers want to understand all touchpoints, regardless of when they occur.
Minimal Offline Tracking
Google Analytics excels in online behavior analysis but falls short with offline conversions. Phone calls, in-person consultations, and in-store purchases generally aren’t tracked unless paired with third-party software.
This becomes a limitation for businesses relying on mixed online-offline funnels. For purely digital operations, however, this shortfall is mostly negligible.
Improve Conversion Tracking Accuracy with Smart Analytics Tools
To overcome some of Google Analytics’ limitations, tools like SmartTrack Analytics (imaginary name) can offer deeper insights. These platforms help reconcile data discrepancies, especially for e-commerce businesses with varied sales touchpoints.
Here are a few benefits:
- Compare Ad Platform Metrics with Google Analytics Data: Analyze side-by-side results from ad platforms and Google Analytics to get a clearer picture of return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Smart Budget Allocation: Identify which channels truly deliver revenue so you can optimize your media spend more effectively.
- Fix ‘Other’ Revenue Gaps: Reallocate revenue previously categorized as ‘other’ in Google Analytics by better matching customer actions with traffic sources.
- Predict Diminishing Returns: Detect the optimal point of investment to avoid waste and enhance profitability.
- Merge Historical and Google Analytics Data: Seamlessly connect your old Universal Analytics data with your current Google Analytics account for a fuller view of your performance timeline.
Final Thoughts
Switching to Google Analytics has brought increased flexibility and granularity to conversion tracking. With unlimited events, multi-condition triggers, and robust integration with first-party data, Google Analytics offers powerful insights into user journeys and campaign performance.
By mastering how to track conversions in Google Analytics and addressing its limitations using supplemental tools, marketers can sharpen their reporting, maximize ROI, and better understand what drives success.
If you’re ready to go even deeper, explore our advanced guides like “Google Analytics Basics for Ecommerce” or learn how to connect conversion metrics with profit tracking by integrating your cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) data.
FAQs
What counts as a conversion in Google Analytics?
In Google Analytics, a conversion is any event you decide is important, like someone submitting a form, making a purchase, or signing up for your newsletter. Understanding how to track conversions in Google Analytics means recognizing that you’re no longer limited to preset goals—you can now customize events based on what truly matters to your business.
How do I set up a conversion event?
First, you create a custom event under the Google Analytics admin settings. Once that’s working and shows up in the events list, just flip the toggle to “Mark as conversion.” Google Analytics will start tracking it as a key metric moving forward.
Why isn’t my conversion showing up right away?
Google Analytics can take up to 24 hours to register a new event, so don’t panic if you don’t see it instantly. Use DebugView to test it live, and make sure your conditions are correctly set.
Can I import offline conversions into Google Analytics?
Not directly. Google Analytics isn’t great with offline tracking on its own. But you can bridge the gap using third-party tools or CRMs that push offline events back into your analytics setup.
Does Google Analytics track the full customer journey?
Mostly, yes—but only within a 90-day window. That means if someone visits today but buys months later, Google Analytics might not connect the dots unless it’s within that timeframe. For longer journeys, you’ll need external data support.