GA4 is finally usable — the dashboards I ship to every founder
Two years in, GA4 has matured. Here are the exact reports, explorations and events I configure on day one of every engagement.
Most GA4 properties are installed and then ignored, because the default reports answer questions nobody asked. A useful setup takes about three hours.
Events worth defining
Define events for the four moments that matter: qualified page view, primary CTA click, form submit, and the activation action inside your product. Mark the last two as key events. Ignore everything else until these are clean.
Three explorations
A funnel exploration from landing to activation, a path exploration from your highest-traffic page, and a free-form report of conversions by session source. That trio answers ninety percent of weekly questions.
Connect the rest
Link Google Ads and Search Console, then build one Looker Studio page per stakeholder — a founder view with revenue and CAC, and an operating view with channel detail. One page each. Anything longer stops being read by week three.
Trust but verify
Compare GA4 conversions against your CRM monthly. When they diverge by more than ten percent, fix the tracking before you make another budget decision.
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