How to Create Custom Reports in Google Analytics (GA4)

Super frustrated trying to find the information you need within the new Google Analytics (GA4)?

For bloggers used to the old version of Google Analytics (UA), trying to find even basic information within the new version (GA) can be a serious pain.

Thankfully, all of the information is still there. (Or at least most of it…) You just need to set up a few custom reports to be able to access it quickly and easily.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through how to set up a few basic reports so you can get the information you need. Don’t worry — it’s a lot easier than you think!

How to Install Google Analytics (GA4)

If you haven’t yet installed Google Analytics (GA4), you’ll want to start there first.

Google Analytics will let you see how many people are landing on your site, where they’re coming from, what pages they’re visiting, and a lot more. This is great data to have to help you make data-driven decisions.

1. First, create a Google account you want to use for your website, such as [email protected], if you don’t have one already. You’ll use this account to access your analytics.
2. Then, visit analytics.google.com and start going through the process of creating a GA4 account. This article from SEMRush will show you how to set up a Google analytics account.
3. Copy/Paste Method: If your theme lets you easily add a bit of code to a “header” section that you can access in the settings, this is my preferred method. Simply paste in the code.
4. Plugin Method: If your theme doesn’t have an easy way to add code into the header section (this is NOT the same as copy/pasting it into a page) or if you’re worried you’re going to break something, you can add Google analytics with the plugin MonsterInsights.

If your website is new, there might not be a lot of data to track within the first couple of months. But you still want to get it up and running as soon as possible.

In the future, when you want to apply for an ad network, get sponsored post deals, sign a book contract, or be considered for other partnerships, you’ll need to know how many pageviews you have, on average.

BONUS: How to Exclude Your Own Traffic from Google Analytics (GA4)

Of course, most of the traffic you DO get in those early days will be you working on your own website. Here’s how to exclude your own traffic from Google Analytics for more accurate data.

How Google Analytics 4 Works By Default

First, watch this video to get a quick overview of what GA4 looks like by default:

In this video, I’ll show you what you can see (and not see) as soon as you set up Google Analytics 4, without any customizations.

Be sure to make those changes to your home dashboard while you’re watching! They’re quick and easy, but make a big difference. (And once you set them, they stay set.)

How to Set Up Custom Reports within Google Analytics (GA4)

In this video, I’ll show you how to create DETAIL and OVERVIEW reports within Google Analytics so you can see exactly the information that you want at a glance.

• Go to Reports > Library and Create a Collection. (You can call it [Your Site Name] Stats.)

• Create Your Detail Reports, such as:
  • Traffic Acquisition: Referral (detailed instructions below!)
  • Traffic Acquisition: Specific Site (Add a filter for that URL)
  • Traffic Acquisition: Email
  • Traffic Acquisition: Google organic Search Traffic
  • Traffic Acquisition: Social Media
  • Engagement: Traffic By Page

• Create Your Summary Report, if Wanted
  • This will allow you to see summary cards of each of your individual reports in one overview report.
     
• Add your Detail Reports and Summary Reports to Your Collection so they Display in your sidebar.

How to Set Up a “Referral Traffic” Custom Report

This report will let you see which websites are sending traffic your way. There is currently no way to see the exact URL on that website that is sending you traffic — just the website as a whole.

• From your Google Analytics dashboard, go to Reports
• Click “Library”
• Click the “+ Create New Report” button
• Create a Detail Report
• Select the “Traffic Acquisition” template
• Dimensions: “Session Source”
• Filter: “Session Default Channel Group” exactly matches “Referral”

How to See Referral Traffic from a Specific Website

This report will let you see which pages people are visiting on your site from a single website. This might be helpful if you regularly write for a different site or they regularly share your content, and you want to see what content they are sharing.

• From your Google Analytics dashboard, go to Reports
• Click “Library”
• Click the “+ Create New Report” button
• Create a Detail Report
• Select the “Traffic Acquisition” template
• Dimensions: Landing Page + Query String
• Filter: “Session source” contains [type in the domain name, like monetizemyministry.com]

How to See Traffic from Your Email List

This report will let you see how many visits to your website are coming from the emails you (or others) send out. This can be helpful for finding a benchmark so you can improve month over month!

• First, you need to add UTM strings to your URLs. If you have Convertkit, there’s a checkbox in the settings that allows you to add this code to all of your links in one click.
• Otherwise, you can add this code to all of your individual links manually, simply by adding “?utm_medium=email” to the end of your links. Example: https://monetizemyministry.com/?utm_medium=email.
• Once people start clicking this link, you can track how many people visit pages on your website with this code. You won’t be able to see this data until after people click, though.
• To create your report: From your Google Analytics dashboard, go to Reports
• Click “Library”
• Click the “+ Create New Report” button
• Create a Detail Report
• Select the “Traffic Acquisition” template
• Dimension: Select “Landing Page + Query String” or “Page Title” to see which pages/URLs on your site people are visiting from your email.
• ConvertKit users: Alternately, if you use Convertkit (or other email service providers that give you UTM tags), you can choose “Session Campaign” for the dimension to see exactly which emails are sending the traffic.
• Filter: “Session source / medium” exactly matches “Convertkit / email” (Or session medium exactly matches email if you don’t have Convertkit.)

Additional Advanced Custom Reports

As you get more familiar with GA4, you can start to set up additional reports to help you see all kinds of information at a glance!

For example, if you ever pay for sponsored eblasts, press releases, or Facebook ads, you can add UTM parameters to the end of your links, and then set up custom reports with filters that let you see JUST the traffic that has those specific UTM parameters.

This lets you see at a glance which campaigns are and are not sending you traffic!