Google Analytics Interactive Demo
Explore an interactive product demo of Google Analytics, a web analytics platform used by over half of all websites to measure traffic sources, user behavior, and conversion performance across web and mobile.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics (GA4) is the web analytics platform used by over 56% of all websites. Launched in 2005 and now in its fourth major version, it helps website owners understand where traffic comes from, how users move through their site, and which actions lead to conversions.
GA4 runs on an event-based data model, meaning every user interaction, whether a pageview, scroll, click, or video play, is captured as an event. Machine learning predictions flag users likely to convert or churn. The Explore section gives analysts custom tools for funnel, path, and cohort analysis that go beyond what the standard reports surface.
Integration with Google Ads lets teams create audiences and optimize conversion campaigns directly from their analytics data. Search Console integration shows which organic queries are actually sending traffic. For teams that need to work with raw data, BigQuery export is available and free at modest volumes.
How to get started with Google Analytics
- 1
Create your GA4 property
Sign in to analytics.google.com and create a new GA4 property for your website. You add the URL and industry category during setup, and at the end you get a Measurement ID in the format G-XXXXXXXX. That ID is what connects your site to the property.
- 2
Install the tracking code
Add the Google Tag script to your site's head section, or deploy it through Google Tag Manager if you want to avoid touching code directly. Once it's live, the Real-Time report in GA4 starts showing activity within minutes, which makes it easy to confirm the tag is firing correctly.
- 3
Set up key events (conversions)
Go to Admin and mark your most important events as Conversions. Form submissions, purchases, demo requests, and signups are common starting points. Getting this right early means your reports and Google Ads optimization both work off the same set of signals.
- 4
Connect Google Ads and Search Console
Linking Google Ads lets you see which campaigns are actually driving conversions, not just clicks. Linking Search Console adds organic query data, so you can see which search terms send traffic and where they land. Both integrations take a few minutes to set up and change what questions you can answer from GA4.
- 5
Build custom reports in Explore
The Explore section is where GA4 goes beyond standard reports. Funnel Analysis shows where users drop off inside a conversion flow. Path Analysis maps where users go before or after a specific page. Cohort Analysis tracks how different groups of users behave over time. Most teams start with a funnel and build from there.
Explore more Google Analytics guides
Step-by-step interactive demos and tutorials for Google Analytics.
Who is Google Analytics most useful for?
GA4 is most commonly used by marketing teams tracking campaign performance, traffic attribution, and conversion rates across channels. Supademo works well here for building walkthroughs of your specific dashboard configuration, so teammates can find the reports they need without routing every question through an analyst.
For e-commerce teams, the event model makes it practical to track product page engagement, cart drop-off, and purchase completions in detail. Embedding Supademo demos on high-traffic landing pages, then measuring engagement through GA4 custom events, gives you a clean feedback loop on what's driving action.
Content teams often struggle to get editors and writers to use analytics regularly. A Supademo guide of your GA4 reporting workflow gives them a walkthrough calibrated to the questions they actually ask, like which articles drive return visits or convert to signups, rather than a generic platform overview.
SEO professionals get real value from the Search Console integration, which ties organic query data directly to landing page performance. Pairing that with Supademo demos on your highest-traffic organic pages gives you a way to convert that attention into product engagement.
Alternatives to Google Analytics
If GA4 isn't the right fit for your team, here are four tools worth considering based on what you actually need from analytics.
Mixpanel is built around user-level reporting, with cohorts, retention curves, and event flows that go deeper than GA4 on product behavior. Most teams use it for understanding what happens inside a product after signup. GA4 covers marketing analytics better; Mixpanel covers what users do once they're in.
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Plausible runs without cookies and is GDPR-compliant by default. The dashboard covers essential traffic metrics in a clean interface without the complexity of GA4. There's no user-level data, which is a real limitation for conversion analysis. It's a good fit for privacy-focused teams that want straightforward traffic visibility.
Fathom is a lightweight, cookieless analytics tool focused on core traffic metrics. The privacy story is solid, and the setup is quick. It lacks the depth you'd need for funnel analysis, audience building, or conversion optimization, so it works best for teams that want simple traffic data without the compliance overhead.
Adobe Analytics handles advanced segmentation, attribution modeling, and real-time data streaming at a level that enterprises with complex requirements use regularly. It's significantly more expensive and takes real investment to configure well. GA4 is free and covers what most teams need without that overhead.
FAQs on Google Analytics
Commonly asked questions about Google Analytics. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
Is Google Analytics free?
GA4 is free, and the data limits are sufficient for most websites. Google Analytics 360 is the paid enterprise tier, which raises sampling limits, adds SLAs, and unlocks additional features. Most teams never need to upgrade.
What is the difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics?
The core difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics is the data model. Universal Analytics measured sessions and pageviews as the primary units. GA4 treats every user interaction as an event, which makes it more flexible but requires rethinking how you set up tracking. GA4 also adds cross-platform tracking across web and mobile, and predictive metrics based on machine learning.
Does GA4 use cookies?
GA4 relies on first-party cookies by default. When consent mode is enabled, GA4 uses modeling to estimate behavior for users who decline cookies, which limits the data gap without requiring a hard consent wall. Third-party cookies are not supported.
How do I track conversions in GA4?
Tracking conversions in GA4 starts with defining the events that matter for your business, like form_submit, purchase, or sign_up, and marking them as Conversions in the Admin settings. GA4 automatically captures some events out of the box, including scrolls, file downloads, and outbound clicks. Anything beyond that requires either a code implementation or Tag Manager.
Can GA4 track mobile apps?
GA4 supports web and mobile tracking within a single property. Mobile tracking uses the Firebase SDK for iOS and Android, and once set up, you get unified reporting across both surfaces with shared user identity and conversion data.
What is the GA4 data retention limit?
GA4 retains event-level data for either 2 months or 14 months, depending on what you set in the Admin settings. Aggregated report data is kept indefinitely. Teams that need longer access to raw event data can export to BigQuery, and the integration is free at modest volumes.