What Is GA4?

GA4 is Google's current analytics platform, built entirely around events instead of the pageview-and-session model Universal Analytics used. Every interaction - a page view, a scroll, a form submission, a video play - is logged as an event with parameters attached, rather than being forced into a rigid pageview/goal structure.

That shift matters for two reasons. First, it makes cross-platform measurement (web and app together) possible in one property. Second, it means most of the useful reporting comes from configuring events properly, not from GA4's default reports - a poorly configured GA4 property will look empty even on a busy site.

For most businesses, a proper GA4 setup means: key conversion events explicitly marked, a data layer feeding Google Tag Manager, and at least a handful of custom dimensions capturing whatever your business actually needs to segment by (plan type, lead source, product category).