Getting Started with Google Analytics 4 (GA4): A Beginner’s Guide

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics, designed to offer a more complete view of user behavior across different platforms. Unlike Universal Analytics (UA), which focuses on session-based data, GA4 is event-driven, enabling you to capture the entire user journey, whether across websites or mobile apps.

GA4 provides tools to better track and analyze these behaviors, making it the go-to analytics solution for businesses looking to stay up to date.

# Key Features of GA4

1. Event-Based Tracking

GA4’s biggest change from Universal Analytics is that it treats everything as an “event”—whether it’s a page view, a scroll, or a form submission. This enables a more flexible approach to data collection and gives deeper insights into user interactions.

2. Cross-Platform Tracking

GA4 lets you track users across different platforms seamlessly. Whether they visit your website or use your mobile app, you can see their complete journey in one unified report.

3. AI-Powered Insights

With built-in machine learning, GA4 can provide predictive metrics and insights, like potential revenue from new customers or the likelihood of user churn. These insights help businesses make data-driven decisions more effectively.

# Types of Events in GA4: Custom & eCommerce

1. Custom Events

Custom events are user-defined events that help track specific interactions that are unique to your business or website. Examples of custom events include : button_click , form_submit , video_play, video_play, etc.

2. Ecommerce Events

eCommerce events are specialized events specifically designed to track and analyze interactions in an online store.Examples of custom events include : select_item,view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, purchase, etc.

How to setup GA4 events in Android Studio Docs:

Step 1 : Add google-gms dependency in your project level build.gradle.kts :

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.application) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.android) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.gms.google.services) apply false
}

Step 2 : Update your app level build.gradle.kts :

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.application)
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.android)
    alias(libs.plugins.gms.google.services)
}

dependencies {
   implementation(platform("com.google.firebase:firebase-bom:33.4.0"))
   implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics")
}