Conversions & goals explained

A plain-English guide to conversions and goals in Google Analytics 4 — what counts as a conversion, how GA4 tracks them as key events, and why they matter more than raw visitor counts.

Traffic numbers are interesting. Conversion numbers are vital. A conversion is when a visitor takes the specific action you actually want them to take on your website. This guide explains what conversions are and why they matter far more than raw visitor counts.

Quick summary

A conversion is any action that matters to your business — a form submission, a phone number click, a purchase, a file download. GA4 now calls these key events. They were "goals" in Universal Analytics and "conversions" in early GA4. A high rate means your website is working. A low one means something needs attention.

What is a conversion?

A conversion is a valuable action taken by a website visitor. What counts as a conversion depends entirely on your business goals.

Common conversions include:

Submitting a contact form
Clicking your phone number
Completing a purchase (for online stores)
Downloading a brochure or guide
Signing up for an email newsletter
Booking a call or appointment
Watching a key video

You decide what matters. GA4 tracks it.

Why conversions matter more than traffic

It is tempting to celebrate when your visitor numbers go up. But traffic without conversions is just noise.

Consider this scenario:

Website A: 5,000 visits per month, 10 enquiries
Website B: 1,000 visits per month, 40 enquiries

Website B is performing far better for business — even though it has one-fifth the traffic.

The metric that captures this difference is conversion rate: the percentage of sessions that result in a conversion.

Website A: 0.2% conversion rate Website B: 4% conversion rate

How GA4 tracks conversions

In GA4, conversions are tracked as key events. Any event GA4 collects can be marked as a key event; standard properties can have up to 30 of them.

Chykalophia sets up key events for you when we install GA4. Common ones we configure include:

form_submit — when your contact form is submitted
A custom event for clicks on your phone number
purchase — for e-commerce stores
Custom events for specific actions on your site

Once these are set up, GA4 counts them and shows the totals in your reports.

Where to find key events in GA4

There is no single "Conversions" report in GA4. Key events show up in two places:

As a column. Many reports, including Landing pages and User acquisition, include a Key events column. Use the All events menu above it to narrow the count to one specific key event.
As a metric. You can add the Key events metric to other reports.

Because the column sits on the acquisition reports, you can see which channels (Google search, social media, email) drive the most valuable actions, not just the most visits.

If you run Google Ads, attribution for ad conversions lives in the separate Advertising section.

Check key events by traffic source

Open Reports, then Acquisition > Traffic acquisition, and look at the Key events column. This shows you which channels drive not just visits, but actual business outcomes. If you cannot find a report, it may have been removed from your property's left-hand navigation — an editor or administrator can add it back.

Conversion rate: what is good?

There is no published benchmark to measure yourself against. Google defines the metric but never sets a target, and rates vary enormously by industry, by traffic source, and by what the action actually is. A "good" rate for a £4,000 consulting enquiry looks nothing like a good rate for a newsletter signup.

The useful comparison is your own history. Track the rate month by month, and treat a downward trend on a page as the signal worth acting on. When it drops, the usual causes are friction in the journey: unclear calls to action, too many form fields, or a slow-loading page.

In GA4 the on-screen metrics are Session key event rate and User key event rate.

Micro vs macro conversions

A macro conversion is your primary goal — a purchase, an enquiry, a booking.

A micro conversion is a smaller step that suggests interest — watching a video, clicking to your pricing page, spending more than two minutes reading.

Tracking both gives you a more nuanced picture. High micro conversions with low macro conversions means people are interested but something is stopping them from taking the final step.

Common questions

How do I know if my conversions are set up correctly?

Ask us to check. We can watch your key events fire as they happen using GA4's DebugView, which shows the events Analytics is collecting in real time once debug mode is switched on. You can also look at the Realtime report: your key events should appear in the "Key events by Event name" card. If nothing shows up, something may need fixing. See our troubleshooting analytics guide.

Can GA4 track phone calls automatically?

No. GA4's out-of-the-box "enhanced measurement" covers page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement, file downloads and form interactions — phone-number taps are not on that list. A tap on a tel: link has to be set up as its own event, which we do for you. GA4 cannot track calls that come in through a traditional number at all; that needs separate call-tracking software. Ask us if call tracking matters for your business.

What happened to 'Goals' from the old Google Analytics?

In Universal Analytics they were called "Goals." Early GA4 called them "conversions." The current name is key events. The concept has stayed the same throughout; only the label changed. In today's GA4, "conversion" has been narrowed to mean an action used to measure and optimise Google Ads campaigns.

My conversion numbers look very low — is something wrong?

Low counts could mean: the events are not set up, the form or purchase flow is broken, visitors are not finding your calls to action, or your traffic is not well-matched to what you offer. On a small site, GA4 also withholds data in a report when there are too few users in the date range to show it without risking identifying someone; widening the date range often brings the numbers back. Start by checking our troubleshooting guide.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.