Why Tracking the Right GA4 Metrics Matters for Your Business Growth

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has completely changed how businesses understand their website and app performance. Instead of relying only on pageviews or sessions, GA4 focuses on events, giving deeper insights into user behaviour, engagement, and conversions.

If you want to grow faster in 2025, tracking the right GA4 events is the key. Here are the most important GA4 events you must trackwith explanations, benchmarks, and practical insights inspired by the reference content.

1. Total Users & New Users

One of the primary GA4 metrics is the Users metric. It includes:

• Total Users Total audience reach
• New Users First-time visitors

Why You Should Track It

This pair tells you the size of your audience, the strength of your acquisition, and your growth path.
In a world where data accuracy drops (like post-iOS14 privacy updates), these numbers help validate your marketing channels.

Benchmarks

• Healthy websites: 2030% New Users every month
• E-commerce: Around 25% New Users

What You Can Learn

Check the User Acquisition Report.

• If New Users increase but Total Users remain flat your retention is weak.
• Pro tip: Compare by devicemobile New Users often convert 15% lower due to friction.

Real Example

A SaaS client switched from paid ads to content marketing because New Users rose 40% in six months with organic content.

2. Sessions

A Session is a group of user interactions within a 30-minute period.

Why You Should Track It

• Sessions help you understand traffic quality, not just quantity.
• High sessions + low engagement = clickbait traffic.
• This metric also directly impacts funnel analysis.

Benchmarks

• Normal websites: 25 sessions per user per month
• Loyalty-driven businesses (finance): 8+ sessions

How to Interpret

Use the Sessions by Source/Medium report.
If Direct traffic is high but conversions are low your brand awareness is strong but nurturing is weak.
Session duration < 2 minutes = UX issues.

Industry Averages

• B2B: 77.61 seconds
• B2C: 92.33 seconds

3. Pageviews & Unique Pageviews

• Pageviews = All page loads
• Unique Pageviews = One view per session

Why You Should Track It

These metrics show how users consume your contenta powerful indicator when AI-generated content floods the internet.

Benchmarks

• B2B websites: 2.5 pages/session
• E-commerce: 46 pages/session

How to Interpret

Check Pages & Screens Report.

• High pageviews = strong content
• Low unique pageviews = users bounce quickly

Cross-check with exit rates. If exit rate >50% on important pages rewrite CTAs.

Case Example

A travel website found mobile users viewed 30% fewer pages added AMP pages pageviews increased 25%.

4. Engagement Rate

GA4 replaces the Bounce Rate with a modern metricEngagement Rate.

A session is engaged if:

• User stays 10+ seconds, or
• Has a key event, or
• Views 2+ pages

Why You Should Track It

It is the most reliable way to measure actual user interest.

Benchmarks

• 5060% = Good
• 70%+ = Excellent
• Returning visitors should reach 80% engagement

How to Interpret

Pages with engagement rate < 40% need interactive elements like videos, quizzes, or better UX.

Engagement strongly correlates with higher conversion rates.

5. Average Engagement Time

This shows how long users actively interact (scrolls, clicks, activity) rather than simply keeping a tab open.

Why You Should Track It

It measures content stickinessespecially critical for multimedia, blogs, and video-based content.

Benchmarks

• 12 minutes = Average
• 3+ minutes = Strong engagement

How to Interpret

Use heatmaps together with this metric.
If users spend time on product pages but dont convert missing trust signals like:

• Reviews
• Testimonials
• Social proof

6. Bounce Rate

Though deprioritized in GA4, Bounce Rate is still available and useful for quick health checks.

Why You Should Track It

• High bounce = user dissatisfaction or wrong traffic.
• It tells you where expectations dont match landing page reality.

Industry Benchmarks

• Ideal: <50%
• Average: 4060%
• But industries vary:
• Travel sites: 82.58%
• Real Estate: 44.50%
• Lead generation pages: ~42%

How to Interpret

Check bounce rate by landing page.

• Spikes from social traffic? Refine targeting.
• Low bounce + high engagement = performing page.

7. Event Count & Key Events

Events = User interactions (clicks, scrolls, video plays).
Key Events = Events you mark as important for conversions (e.g., form submissions).

Why You Should Track It

GA4s event-based model is powerfulyou can measure user actions beyond page loads.

GA4 allows up to 30 key events.

Benchmarks

Users should trigger 510 events per session on average.

How to Interpret

Check the Events Report.
If Key Events are low:

• Audit GTM triggers
• Improve CTAs
• Simplify forms

For monetization, use the Monetization > Events report to check value-based events.

Conclusion

Tracking the right GA4 events helps you:

• Understand user behaviour
• Improve acquisition & retention
• Optimize content
• Increase conversions
• Strengthen your marketing strategy

GA4 is not just an analytics toolits a decision-making system. Use these essential events to make smarter, data-driven decisions and gain better insights into your websites performance.