How to Set Up Events and Custom Definitions in Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) uses a flexible, event-based tracking model that gives you deeper insight into how users interact with your app or website. Unlike Universal Analytics, which focused on sessions and pageviews, GA4 tracks all interactions as events.

This article walks you through:

• Understanding events in GA4
• Sending custom parameters with events
• Creating custom dimensions and metrics (also called custom definitions)
• Analyzing your event data using GA4 reports and explorations

What Are Events in GA4

Events are the core of GA4’s tracking model. They capture every user interaction such as pageviews, scrolls, clicks, downloads, and custom-defined actions.

There are four types of events:

1. Automatically Collected Events
   These are tracked by default, such as first_visit, page_view, and session_start.
2. Enhanced Measurement Events
   These can be toggled on or off in your settings. Examples include scroll, file_download, and outbound_click.
3. Recommended Events
   These are events Google suggests based on your business type, such as purchase, sign_up, or login.
4. Custom Events
   These are events you define yourself, such as item_name or media_title. You can send additional context by adding event parameters.

Why Use Custom Definitions

GA4 only displays a limited number of parameters in standard reports by default. If you want to analyze custom event parameters (like tour_name), you’ll need to register them as custom definitions.

In Google Analytics 4, Custom Definitions is the umbrella term for:

• Custom Dimensions: non-numeric data (e.g., tour name, form ID)
• Custom Metrics: numeric values that can be measured or aggregated (e.g., price, quantity)

This article focuses only on creating custom dimensions.

How to Create a Custom Dimensions

Follow these steps to register it in GA4:

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account.

2. From the main screen, click on the Settings cog icon, then select "Custom Definitions."

3. Choose "Create Custom Dimensions."

4. Create custom dimensions that match the following specifications:

   Scope	Parameter name	Dimension name	Description
   event	collection	Collection	The Collection name
   event	item_name	Item Name	The name of the lightboxed item
   event	language_selected	Language selected	The currently selected Language setting
   event	media_current_time	Media Current Time	The current index position in seconds of the playhead
   event	media_duration	Media_Duration	Total duration of the playback in seconds
   event	media_percent	Playback Threshold	The playback threshold that has been reached
   event	media_title	Media Title	The name of the media
   event	media_type	Media Type	The type of media
   event	method	Method	The method used to select the stop ie "map", "keypad", "qr-code", "hamburger", "search"
   event	screen_section	Screen Section	The section of the screen
   user	device_id	Device ID	Firebase's user_pseudo_id
   event	item_id	Item ID	The unique ID assigned to each item

5. Click Save

GA4 will only start capturing this data from the moment the custom definition is created. Past data is not retroactively linked.

How to Analyze Custom Event Data

To view analytics for specific events:

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Navigate to Reports
3. Click on Engagement > Events
4. Scroll down and select an event under Event name
5. Once selected, scroll back up and use the filter to focus on the specific event you want to track (e.g., tour_download, tour_update). This will display a detailed breakdown of how often that event was triggered, by whom, and under what conditions, depending on the parameters you included.

Example Events You Can Track

Need help setting up GA4 tracking, events, or custom definitions for your STQRY project? Feel free to reach out to our support team at support.stqry.com. Happy app building!