Measuring forms in GA4 is now easier

It has been over a year since Google Analytics 4 appeared. In that time, the new version of Google Analytics (GA4) has continued to evolve and add numerous new features. One such feature is the “Enhanced Measurement” option, which makes it easier to measure interactions on your Web site.

In the past, measuring forms was a time-consuming job that required a lot of technical knowledge. However, Google Analytics 4 allows you to measure forms more easily, giving you more insight into how your visitors interact with your forms.

What are the events for the improved measurement?

Out of the box, there are a number of events that Google Analytics 4 tracks itself for you. This means you don’t have to set as much yourself in a tool like Google Tag Manager and you can collect more information immediately.

Then consider events such as:

• Scrolls
  An event is automatically saved for each page when you reach the bottom of a page. This allows you to better measure interaction. The percentage of the scroll to be triggered is customizable.
• Outgoing clicks
  Every time a visitor clicks on an external link, it is saved. Domains set up as cross-domains are not included as outbound clicks.
• Searching apage
  Should your website have a search engine, you can set the query parameter to save all searches. The query parameter is always behind the question mark in your URL. In the URL“https://universonline.nl/?s=Student,” the letter “s” is the parameter.

  

• Video interaction
  When someone starts or completes a YouTube video, an event will be saved. For now, this only works with Youtube by default. Through GTM, this can be extended.
• File downloads
  Capture a file download every time a visitor clicks on a download.
• And now also … form interactions

How does the automatic form measurement work?

Enhanced measurement not only introduces form submission, it also introduces interaction. This not only measures the submit() event sent by the form when it is submitted, but also happens when the form is used for the first time within a session.

You will start to see the following 2 events in Google Analytics 4:

• form_start
  Shows you the first time a user interacts with the form in a session.
• form_submit
  Shows when a user submits a form.

There are a number of parameters that are automatically included:

• form_id
  This is the ‘id’ attribute in the <form> DOM element.
• form_name
  This is the ‘name’ attribute in the <form> DOM element.
• form_destination
  This is the URL to which the form will be sent.
• form_submit_text
  This is the text of the submit button, if it exists.

Things to watch out for

The new functionality is no fairy tale. If you ask to enter data on a form, there are about one million different ways you can do it. Currently, it only works with forms with the submit() event. If you’re working with a custom JavaScript callback that builds an HTTP request to your Web server, it’s not going to work.

There are JavaScript libraries that also use dummy form submissions to collect GET data about their users (Facebook). In these cases, you may see a form event in GA4 for each page load, if the Facebook Pixel is activated on the page view event. For this, we hope there will be a solution.

Google Analytics 4 is the future: this is the moment

Measuring your forms, and many more components, becomes easier thanks to Google Analytics 4. The new version of GA allows you to collect data on visitor interactions so you can better see what works and what doesn’t. If you are not yet familiar with Google Analytics 4, now is the time to get started with it. Need help? Our specialists will be happy to help you!