The Automation Guide for Marketers
In the following we will look at how to achieve Business Intelligence, Agility, Efficiency, and ultimately Growth through the proper application and configuration of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.
GA4 Core Concepts: Events, Parameters, Dimensions, Metrics, and More
To utilize Google Analytics optimally for your business, you must understand the six core concepts of GA4: Events, Parameters, Key Events, Dimensions, Metrics, and User Properties.
You can think of these six core concepts as a detective investigating a crime scene. The Events are the actions that happened on the night of the crime. The Parameters are the details of the actions; the door was red and opened at 10 PM. The User Properties are the suspects profile; he wore a blue hat and was a known member. The Key Event is the successful outcome for the investigator; the critical evidence was found. The Metrics and Dimensions are, respectively, the quantitative and qualitative data your investigator is looking for and writes down in his report.
| Concept | Type | Definition & Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Events | The Action | The foundational unit of data. An event is any user interaction or occurrence that is tracked on your site or app (e.g., page view, purchase, click). |
| 2. Parameters | The Details | Information that provides context and detail about an event. They are extra data fields attached to an event (e.g., the value of a purchase, or the form name for a submission). |
| 3. Key Events | The Success Signal | An event that you have marked as a conversion (a successful action) in the GA4 interface. These are your most important business outcomes (e.g., a completed signup or a purchase). |
| 4. Dimensions | The Categories | Descriptive attributes of your data used to segment and organize reports. Dimensions are generally non-numerical, qualitative data (e.g., Country, Page Title, or a custom dimension like form name). |
| 5. Metrics | The Numbers | Quantitative measurements of your data, typically used for calculations and totals. Metrics are always numerical values (e.g., Event Count, Total Users, Revenue, or a custom metric like a score). |
| 6. User Properties | The User's Profile | Attributes that describe a user or their enduring state. These are characteristics that remain the same across a user's entire journey (e.g., user id, gender, or a custom user property like subscription tier). |
The Synergy of Data: Why the six Concepts Drive Business Growth
Understanding the six core GA4 concepts is not just a technical exercise; it’s the blueprint for driving business growth. These concepts are not isolated elements; they form a pipeline that transforms raw user activity into actionable business intelligence.
| GA4 Component | Business Question Answered | Drives Growth By... |
|---|---|---|
| Events & Parameters | What is the user doing, and what are the details of that action? | Providing the granular detail necessary to diagnose friction or validate success in the user journey. |
| User Properties | Who are my users, and how are they different from one another? | Enabling audience segmentation for hyper-targeted marketing and personalized experiences (e.g., separating ‘Free’ users from ‘Premium’ users). |
| Key Events | Are we successfully achieving our business goals? | Directly measuring the return on investment (ROI) of every campaign, page, and feature. |
| Dimensions& Metrics | How does one group of users compare to another group? | Turning raw data into comparative, actionable reports (e.g., comparing Conversion Rate (Metric) by Traffic Source (Dimension). |
The Relationship: From Action to Insight
Think of the relationship like building a pyramid of intelligence:
- The Base (Events & Parameters): The user performs an Event (e.g., viewing a product). Your tracking captures this action, along with the precise Parameters (e.g., product name, price). This is the foundation of all data collection.
- The Profile (User Properties): A persistent User Property (e.g., member_since_2024) is attached to that user, allowing you to filter their actions across multiple sessions.
- The Output (Metrics & Dimensions): When you run a report, the raw parameter values are automatically translated into the usable reporting fields: Metrics (the totals, averages, and counts) and Dimensions (the categories for segmentation).
- The Goal (Key Events): When a crucial action occurs, you tag that specific event as a Key Event, which serves as the final, measurable objective for all analysis.
Configurations
When configuring Google Analytics you now have 2 choices: Do it manually or automate. Up until 2025, doing it manually was the only option, but with the emergence of Techiewisp, you now have a more efficient alternative. Let’s look at the automation potential.
The Automation Advantage: Efficiency Equals Agility
The manual configuration of this data pipeline—from setting up event tracking in Google Tag Manager to manually registering custom definitions in the GA4 Admin panel—is time-consuming, error-prone, and requires specialized coding knowledge. This technical debt severely limits a business's ability to move fast.
This is why automation, powered by an AI Agentic System like Techiewisp, is an indispensable win for growth and efficiency:
| Challenge of Manual Configuration | Techiewisp's Automated Solution | Outcome for Business Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Slow Iteration: Days of delay between asking a business question and getting the data configured. | Instant Deployment: The AI immediately translates your request (e.g., "I want to track video engagement") into the necessary Events, Parameters, and GA4 Custom Definitions. | Agility: You can launch a new campaign, track its specific performance, and begin A/B testing within minutes, not days. |
| Data Silos & Errors: Incorrect parameter naming or missing registration means data is collected but unusable in reports. | Guaranteed Consistency: The AI ensures that the parameters are correctly implemented in GTM and correctly registered in GA4, eliminating human error. | Reliability: You trust your data, allowing you to make high-stakes business decisions with confidence. |
| Focus on Technical Setup: Marketing teams spend valuable time debugging code and navigating complex menus. | Focus on Strategy: Marketers bypass the technical layer entirely and immediately use the data in Explorations to identify opportunities, solve problems, and drive revenue. | Efficiency: Your team's energy is redirected from repetitive configurations to high-value strategic analysis, accelerating the path to growth. |
Google Tag Manager: Power, Flexibility, and Complexity
GTM serves as a centralized tag management system that allows marketers to inject various code snippets (Tags) onto their website, controlled by specific rules (Triggers), without requiring a developer to touch the site's source code every time.
This capability creates both its greatest strength and its most significant burden for manual implementers.
The Win: Flexibility and Speed - Why GTM is Essential
GTM is essential for agile marketing because it decouples analytics and marketing tool deployment from the standard website development cycle.
| Advantage | Explanation | Business Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Agility | Marketers can deploy new tracking (e.g., for a new Facebook ad campaign or a new GA4 custom event) within minutes by simply publishing a change in the GTM interface. | Rapid Testing: Allows for quick A/B testing, immediate reaction to campaign performance, and faster time-to-market for new initiatives. |
| Control | GTM consolidates all tracking codes (GA4, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Tag, etc.) into one centralized platform, rather than scattering them throughout the website's code. | Reduced Errors: Minimizes the risk of broken website code, as marketers are working in a safe environment outside of the core website files. |
| Customization | GTM's Data Layer allows you to capture virtually any piece of custom data on your website (e.g., product SKUs, membership status, form success messages) and pass it to your tags. | Granular Data: Enables the implementation of the advanced Parameters required for deep analysis in GA4. |
The Demand: Why GTM Makes Manual Configuration More Demanding
While GTM enables flexibility, it also introduces a new, highly technical layer of complexity that must be mastered before data can reach GA4.
The Multi-Step Chain of Command
Before GTM, tracking was a single step: add a code snippet to the page. With GTM, tracking requires a minimum of three coordinated steps for every action you want to measure:
Define the Data Layer: A developer must structure the website's data (Parameters) in a specific format (the Data Layer) for GTM to read.
Create the Trigger: The marketer must build a precise Trigger in GTM to listen for the user action (the Event).This often involves complex CSS selectors or RegEx rules.
Configure the Tag: The marketer must then link the Tag (the GA4 Event tag) to the Trigger and map the captured Parameters from the Data Layer into the GA4 tag fields.
If any link in this chain—Data Layer Push, Trigger Rule, or Parameter Mapping—is broken, the tracking fails.
Increased Debugging Complexity
With code spread across the website, the GTM container, and the GA4 interface, a single error (e.g., a misspelled parameter name) can cause data collection to fail silently. Diagnosing and fixing these issues requires expertise in three distinct technical environments: browser consoles, the GTM Preview mode, and the GA4 DebugView.
In short: GTM shifts the coding burden from the web developer to the marketing analyst. It replaces simple one-time code insertion with a complex, ongoing process of three-part configuration management, making the process of implementing custom tracking in GA4 highly technical and time-intensive without automation.
Enhanced Tracking with Google Tag Manager
As we have just seen, Google Tag Manager allows you to implement custom tracking without involving an IT developer. This allows you to set up custom configurations for:
- Agile Marketing and Campaign Management
- Enhanced Event Tracking
- Streamlined Third-Party Integration
- Improved Data Accuracy and Consistency
Agile Marketing and Campaign Management
Google Tag Manager is all about speed and flexibility. Instead of waiting for a developer to implement tracking for a new campaign, a marketer can create the necessary tags and triggers in GTM and publish them in minutes. This allows for quick A/B testing and rapid deployment of new marketing initiatives. For instance, if you launch a new ad campaign, you can instantly set up a conversion linker tag and a conversion tracking tag in GTM to measure its success.
Enhanced Event Tracking
While Google Analytics automatically tracks basic page views, GTM lets you get granular with custom event tracking. This is where you can measure actions that are critical to your business but aren't standard page loads.
- Track form submissions: See how many people fill out your contact or lead generation forms.
- Monitor button clicks: Find out which call-to-action buttons get the most clicks.
- Measure video engagement: Track when users play, pause, or complete a video on your site.
- Track file downloads: See how many people download your whitepapers or product sheets.
These specific events provide rich, actionable data that helps you understand customer behavior and optimize your user journey.
Streamlined Third-Party Integrations
Most businesses use a variety of marketing and analytics tools beyond Google's own products. GTM simplifies the process of integrating these tools. Instead of adding separate code for each platform directly to your website, you can manage them all in one place within GTM. This includes popular tools like Hotjar for heatmaps, Facebook Pixel for ad tracking, and LinkedIn Insight Tag. This centralization not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors and keeps your website's code clean and fast.
Improved Data Accuracy and Consistency
GTM's Preview and Debug mode is an invaluable tool for ensuring your tracking is working correctly before you publish changes. This allows you to test tags and triggers in a live environment without affecting your visitors. By using GTM, you can make sure that your data is accurate and consistent across all your different analytics and marketing platforms.
The Choice: Automation vs. Manual Configurations
Should you choose to automate your configurations, the next section explains how to enable the jump over the tech hurdle of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. If you prefer manual configurations, there are comprehensive guides to be found on the subject on analytics.google.com.
Automated Configurations for Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
For instant and reliable technical configurations in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager we recommend automating GA4 and GTM set up and ongoing configurations. To archive this do the following:
- Create a GA account (Google Analytics)
- Subscribe to Techiewisp (Techiewisp)
- Log into Techiewisp, approve access to your GA account and explain what business Metrics and Dimensions you’re interested in. Get instant results.
Now you have been fast-tracked onto the Google Analytics highway; let’s turn our attention to how to navigate the possible business Metrics and Dimensions to track in Google Analytics.
Metrics and Dimensions in Google Analytics
If you have chosen to automate your configurations with Techiewisp, the AI Agentic will also guide you through the process of picking the correct Metric or Dimensions to track the Events and Parameters you are interested in and to understand your audience and success rate.
The key is to discuss the desired piece of business intelligence with Techiewisp in natural language, if you're not entirely clear on how best to track it. Once you have selected and confirmed your Metric or Dimension the configuration process will be instant. The results will show up in Google Analytics reports, which you can learn more about under the section “Google Analytics Interface”.
Nevertheless it is always a good starting point to understand how to narrow down which Metrics and Dimensions makes most sense for your business and gather some inspiration from practical examples. Before we delve into methods and examples, a word on data latency in GA4.
Google Analytics Latency
Whether you configure GA4 manually or automated, Google Analytics will always have a latency for new configurations. The time lapse (latency) between setting up custom definitions and seeing data in your main reports depends on the configuration step.
| Action | Latency | Key Information |
|---|---|---|
| Sending the event parameter | Realtime | Data for the raw event parameter will start flowing into the Realtime report (under the ‘Event count by Event name’ card) almost immediately, typically within a few minutes. |
| Registering the Custom Metric/Dimension | 24–48 Hours | It generally takes 24–48 hours for the registered definition to be available for use in standard reports and Explorations. |
| Data Retroactivity | Not Retroactive | Data collection for custom dimensions and metrics is not retroactive. They will only start collecting data from the moment they are officially registered in the Google Analytics UI. Data collected before registration cannot be analyzed using that custom definition. |
How to make optimal use of Google Analytics
When choosing which business metrics or dimensions you want to track, always ask yourself the “why” and not the “what”, for instance:
To make better decisions: By analyzing how many visitors you get from which source, a business can decide whether to increase their budget for social media ads or focus more on improving their organic search rankings.
To identify opportunities: When you measure engagement on your pages and content, your can reveal your most popular blog posts, which can be an opportunity to create more content on those topics or add relevant calls to action to those pages.
To Solve problems: A sudden drop in 'Engagement Rate' might indicate a problem with a recent website update, a slow page load time, or unengaging piece of content.
Google Analytics default settings will show some basics like how many users visit your website and which city and country they are from, but the rest you need to configure yourself.
What you need to see will depend on your business, industry, business model and website(s), which means there is no one-size-fits-all standard configuration to ask for.
For that reason Techiewisp is set up as an AI Agentic System with whom you can discuss and get feedback on your ideas on how best to track your users behavior on your website and which actions might be considered key events. Techiewisp will also know how and when to use Google Tag Manager to ensure and optimize your tracking.
To give you some inspiration to your tracking vision, here are the 10 most used custom metrics, that are configured in Google Analytics. This is far from a complete list, but it’s a starting point and focuses on the custom tracking that separates basic reporting from advanced, actionable business intelligence.
Most Used Custom Dimensions and Metrics in GA4
These custom definitions are essential for getting beyond basic traffic analysis and understanding why specific user actions lead to conversions. These require either manual or Techiewisp automated setup in GTM and GA4.
10 most used Custom Metrics & Dimensions
| No | Focus Area | Description | Why is it used: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Custom Conversion Event | Tracks specific, unique actions critical to your business, (e.g., button clicks, form submissions, or video plays.) | Tailors tracking to unique business goals beyond standard purchases. |
| 2. | Video Engagement | Tracks video plays, pauses, or completion rates, (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%.) | Assesses video content performance. |
| 3. | Scroll depth | Measures how far users scroll down a page, (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%.) | Gauges content engagement, especially for long-form pages. |
| 4. | Funnel Conversion Rates | Tracks drop-off rates through multi-step processes, (e.g., signup or checkout funnels.) | Pinpoints user journey bottlenecks. |
| 5. | User Type | Tracks user segments, (e.g., "Logged-in" vs. "Guest" or "Premium" vs. "Free.") | Personalizes marketing analysis; vital for subscription models. |
| 6. | Internal Search Queries | Track keywords users enter in your site's search bar. | Uncovers user intent. |
| 7. | Form Submission Rate | Percentage of users completing forms, (e.g., contact or lead generation.) | Critical for lead generation; not auto-tracked. |
| 8. | Revenue | Tracks specific revenue streams, (e.g., subscription vs. one-time purchases.) | Refines monetization analysis. |
| 9. | Cart Abandonment Rate | Percentage of users adding items to cart but not purchasing. | Optimizes checkout funnels. |
| 10. | Engaged Time Per Page | Measures active time spent on a page. | Better reflects content engagement. |
As you can see relevant Metrics and Dimensions for your business are very much an extension on how you choose to present and pitch your product or service. If video is a central part of your presentation, then it makes sense to track how many sees any given video, how long they watch and does it lead to conversion?
If your pitch is mostly reliant on your webpage text, it is most relevant to know which pages are mostly read, for how long and do they lead to any key events? The pages that result in most engagement and conversion can tell you what works and should be expanded or the reverse.
The overall look of your site also matters; do the users spend very little time on your site before they leave or do they stay and engage. This will tell you whether your landing site looks appealing and trustworthy.
To use Google Analytics for BI, understanding the Interface and where to find your data is an important step.
The Google Analytics Interface
When you first open your account in GA and have enabled site tracking you will have immediate access to the most basic and default understanding of your web site traffic in the form of:
Users & Traffic (New users, return users, number of sessions)
Engagement (Average engagement rate, number of engaged sessions)
Monetization (Total revenue)
To enable tracking specific to your site - such as number of clicks on your “subscribe“ or “purchase” buttons, video or article views, scroll depth, user types or cart abandonment rates etc. - you must use custom metrics or dimensions, which means you must configure them in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.
5.1 Google Analytics features and practical examples
The most important and valuable features of Google Analytics are:
1. The Standard Reports (The Traffic Acquisition Report, Pages and Screens Report, Conversions Report, Demographics Report, Retention Report).
2. Explorations (can be found under ‘Explore’ button in the side menu)
3. Custom Reports (can be found under the ‘Library’)
The standard Reports will show both the default tracking settings and any custom dimensions, such as specific User Types, that you chose to set up, like ‘Free’ vs. ‘Premium’ or Scroll Depth on chosen content, like your recent blog post or landing page value proposition.
Custom metrics will show up in the Explorations Report or Custom Report and Key Events chosen by you will show up in the Conversions Report.
Mapping GA4 reports to the AARRR (Pirate) Metrics
Before we dive into practical examples on how to use these features, keep in mind that they each can help you in one of three key areas: Understanding your audience, evaluating website performance and measuring marketing ROI.
To understand how each of these reports can help your business, it is helpful to look at it through the lens of the classic Pirate Metric principle: AARRR:
Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue.
Let’s see how each feature in Google Analytics helps you measure metrics in these areas.
The Traffic Acquisition Report
As evident in the name this report focuses on the first of our pirate metrics: Acquisition.
This is a must-have, it answers the all-important question of how your users find your product or service. Are you strongest in Organic search, Paid Ads, Social Media or Direct Traffic? If a lot of your users find you through Social Media, then you will know to invest more in this channel.
This report also answers the question of what devices, browsers and operating systems are most commonly used to engage with your website. This is vital for ensuring that your website is user-friendly across all platforms, particularly for the technologies most used.
Default metrics like measuring website traffic, traffic sources or technologies will show up in the Traffic Acquisition Report as well as Custom User Dimensions, if you choose to have them configured.
Pages and Screens Report
This report can be understood as the second of our pirate metrics: activation, and it shows how your users engage with your content. It shows for instance what pages they visit, how long they stay and what their journey looks like. This means it can help you identify your best-performing content.
Metrics like engaged sessions, most visited pages or content, average engagement time and engagement rate will turn up in the Pages and Screens Report.
Conversions Report
Here you measure the last and most important of our pirate metrics: Revenue and it is where you can directly see the return on your website and marketing investments. This is where you measure success.
A conversion is any meaningful action on your website, like a purchase, a newsletter signup, or a contact form submission. When you ask Techiewisp to set a metric up as a key event, it will turn up in the Conversions Report.
Demographics Report
The Demographics Report does not directly correlate to our pirate metrics, but it does answer one of the first and central questions you should ask: Who is your target audience? The answer to this question will help you build the foundation of your business strategy, like ad targeting, content messaging and branding. The demographics report can show the age, gender, location and interests of your users.
Retention report
This report correlates to the third of our pirate metrics: Retention.
The tracking here will indicate customer satisfaction and shows how many users return to your site. A high retention rate indicates a strong brand, product or valuable content, while a low rate might signal to improve the user experience or content strategy.
Default metrics like how many users are returning visitors, return rate and average returns will show up in the Retention Report.
Custom report & Explorations
All metrics that are not set as a default metric and which do not constitute a dimension of a default metric or a key event can be found in either the Custom report or Explorations depending on the configuration. For an overview of possible custom metrics see the section “Most used Custom Metrics and Dimensions” below.
As you might have noticed there is no Google Analytics standing report that directly correlates to the fourth pirate metrics of Referral. Referral is about word of mouth, also known as organic growth. Referral can be measured in two ways: As the sources from which you get your users and as an actionable referral option on your website.
As mentioned earlier the sources of your users can be found in the Acquisition Report, which in this way serves a double purpose of acquisition and referral. If you do have a referral program on your landing site, this can be measured in a Custom report.
If you for instance have an option of sharing an invite, you can ask Techiewisp for metrics like number of invites sent or referral conversion rate. Such metrics will be considered custom metrics and will show up in a custom made report in “Explorations” in Google Analytics.
Conclusion: The Choice is Simple
You’ve seen the power and complexity of modern analytics.
Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager are foundational to business growth, providing the data for Business Intelligence, agility and strategic decisions. However, that power comes with a significant price tag: countless hours spent on setup, debugging and the constant fear of faulty data.
Most businesses spend weeks configuring custom dimensions, metrics and GTM tags, only to find themselves debugging errors a month later. This isn't agility; it's a time sink that drains resources and slows your marketing ROI.
The tension is clear: You need the insights, but you don't need the headaches.
Stop Configuring. Start Growing.
What if you could bypass the complexity entirely?
This is where Techiewisp AI Agentic System changes the game: We've built the automation layer you need to do the grunt work. By intelligently generating and deploying the exact GTM configurations, custom metrics, and dimensions detailed in this article - and more - we eliminate manual errors, ensure data integrity, and provide instant business intelligence from day one.
You don't need to be a GA4 expert; you need reliable data.
The choice is simple:
Option A: Continue the manual route, spending your team's valuable time configuring, debugging and waiting for insights.
Option B: Leverage Techiewisp to automate the entire process and focus 100% of your energy on acting on the data to drive real, measurable growth.
Are you ready to stop debugging and start growing? Visit Techiewisp.com now and start your journey from configuration slump to growth acceleration.
Click here to unlock Instant Business Intelligence with Techiewisp.