Get started exploring your audiences with GA4 and the GA4Publishers dashboard.

Most setups take approximately 20 minutes.

1. Create your loyalty audiences

Important: Once configured, Audiences can take 24-48 hours to show in GA4 and GA4Publishers.

Go to Configure > Audiences

Log in to your GA4 account, and select Configure from the left-hand side. Then select Audiences.

Then select “New audience”.

Define the Audience

We’ll be creating three different audiences that reflect loyalty:

• Users who have visited only once in 30 days. This is your least loyal audience.
• Users who have visited 2-5 times in the last 30 days. This is a moderately loyal audience, who you should seek to understand to grow their engagement.
• Users who have visited 6 or more times in the last 30 days. These are your loyal readers, who you should seek to overserve.

Users who have visited only once in 30 days.

• Select “Create a custom audience”
• Name the Audience “1 session in 30 days”
• Under “Include Users when”, select “Add new” and use the search box to begin typing “session_start”.

• Select session_start. This is the “event” that fires at the start of every session, and lets Google Analytics know a new session has launched.
• Select “Add parameter” and begin typing “Event count” and choose “Event count”.
  

• Choose the “>” operator and indicate 0 sessions.
• Toggle “Time period”, enter 30 days, and select “Most recent time period.” Your screen should now look like this:

• Hit apply.
• Now we need to exclude anyone who has come more than once. Select “ADD GROUP TO EXCLUDE.”
• Do the same method to choose “session_start” and “event count” as parameter. Now use the “>” operator again, enter “1”, and mark the same time period options and select apply.
• Your screen should now look like this:

• Hit “Save” in the top right.

Congrats! You’ve just created your first audience.

Now you’ll do the same for the following audiences:

• 2-5 sessions in 30 days:
  • Include users when session_start Event count >1 in the last 30-day-period
  • Exclude users when session_start Event count >5 in the last 30 day-period
• 6+ sessions in 30 days:
  • Include users when sessions_start Event count >5 in the last 30-day period

That’s it! Your loyalty segments are now set up.

IMPORTANT: You won’t see your Audiences begin to show data for up to 48 hours. Audiences are also not retroactive, so users won’t be added to the Audience based on data from prior to the creation of the Audience. This is a significant difference from the previous version of Universal Analytics, and a major reason why you should get your Audiences set up as soon as possible.

2. Identify your conversions

Telling Google Analytics which actions constitute conversions, such as payments and registrations, unlocks some of the most powerful insights about how the content you produce contributes to your sustainability.

Event-based conversions

GA4 produces and listens for Javascript “events” based on user interactions. Many common plugins and tools produce these events automatically, so it’s possible you do not need to code your own. You only need to flip a toggle to identify them as conversions.

From the GA4 configuration menu, select “Events”.

Scroll through the list of events and identify the ones that have to do with high-value actions. I recommend beginning only with those that are most key to your success, such as new subscriptions, payments and newsletter signups or registrations. If you don’t see any relevant events, this is normal. You can still use the GA4 Publishers dashboard.

Flip the toggle on the right-hand side.

Note: if you just set up GA4 for the first time, you may not have a complete list of events. Events are only included in this list once they’ve fired.

Page-based conversions

Important: Once created, new events can take 24-48 hours to show in GA4 and the GA4Publishers dashboard.

In cases where there are no events available, you may identify a conversion by indicating visiting a page, such as yoursite.com/thankyou. You’ll want to be confident that the only traffic to this page is that of a user who took a specific action.

• Go to Configure > Events and select “Create event” in the top right.
• From the screen that opens, select “Create” in the top right.
• Give the event a name, such as “Donate_thanks”. You cannot use spaces.
• Under matching conditions, select “Add condition” and enter the following:
  • Parameter: event_name equals page_view
  • Parameter: page_location contains thankyou
• The screen should look like this:
  

• Hit “Create” in the top right.
• It can take 24-48 hours to appear in the “Events” section of the Configuration panel. Come back later and turn the “Mark as conversion” toggle to on, or on the left-hand menu navigate to the “Conversions” section of the Configuration panel, hit “New conversion event” and enter the name of the event you’ve created.

Congrats! You’ll now be able to track and investigate conversion activity in Google Analytics 4 and GA4Publishers. You’ll want to consider creating new audiences based on users who have ever hit the individual conversion events, so you can track newsletter subscribers and paid users through their entire history.

3. Turn on Demographics & Interest data collection

Collecting demographic and interest data in Google Analytics can help you learn more about the audiences you’ve created. By default, this data collection is turned off in Google Analytics 4 and you’ll have to enable it.

• In your Google Analytics 4 account, go to Admin (the gear icon in the lower left-hand corner).
• Under “Property”, make sure your GA4 dashboard is selected, then click “Data settings”, and then “Data collection”.
  

• On the next screen, under “Google signals data collection”, select “Get Started” .
• Follow all the prompts, read the disclosure and click “Activate”.
  • Important: Consider your privacy policy and terms of service before consenting to this service, and ensure it’s in line with your policies and your values about data collection and privacy.
• When you return to the “Data collection” screen, ensure “Granular location and device data collection” is enabled.

Within a few days, you should be able to see age, gender, geography and interests of your readers inside Google Analytics 4 and the GA4Publishers dashboard.

4. Connect your data

You’re almost done! The last step is the easiest.

Logging in via your Google account

Before you access the dashboard, you must be logged in to the Google Account to which your Google Analytics 4 property is connected.

If you have more than one Google account, then the account you’re attempting to use must be your default account – or you must be signed out of all other accounts. Unfortunately, Google Data Studio doesn’t let you switch account profiles while inside a dashboard, and it will always open under the profile of your default account. You can work around this by either connecting from a different browser, or logging out of all other accounts.

Selecting you Google Analytics 4 property

Once logged in, simply visit the dashboard and select your Google Analytics property in the dropdown along the top:

That’s it! Your data should now be connected and the reports populating.