How to Track Leads in Google Analytics 4: A Simple Setup

Decide what counts as a lead

List the actions that signal real interest, and leave out everything else:

• Successful contact form submissions.
• Clicks on your phone number or WhatsApp button.
• Completed bookings or demo requests.
• Purchases, if you sell online.

Create the events

Add the Google tag directly or through Google Tag Manager, then send an event for each action. Google recommends the event name generate_lead for leads. Fire it only after a form has been successfully submitted, not when the button is clicked, or you will count failed attempts too.

Mark them as key events

In the GA4 admin area, mark your lead events as key events. They will then appear separately in reports, which lets you compare traffic sources by the enquiries they produce rather than by visits alone.

Test before you trust the data

Use GA4’s DebugView or Tag Assistant to submit a test enquiry and confirm that exactly one event fires. Standard reports can take some time to update, so do not worry if a test does not appear immediately. Also test on a phone, since that is where many of your visitors will be.

Connect your ad accounts

Link GA4 to Google Ads and Search Console. For Google Ads, you can import key events so that campaigns can optimise towards leads. Use consistent UTM tags on campaign links from email, WhatsApp and social media, otherwise that traffic may be grouped incorrectly.

Common mistakes

These errors make reports look fine while making them wrong:

• Counting thank-you page refreshes as new leads.
• Installing the tag twice, which double-counts events.
• Letting internal staff traffic mix with customer traffic.
• Keeping the default data retention setting without checking whether it suits your reporting.
• Treating every lead as equal, without checking which ones became customers.