THE PLAIN-ENGLISH GLOSSARY
Short, useful definitions for the terms you will meet in GA4. Open any entry for a practical example and a direct route to the related lesson.
26 terms, written for humansA user who had an engaged session, or who GA4 recognizes as active under its measurement rules. It is the main user count shown in many GA4 reports.
Use active users to compare reached audiences, but do not confuse the count with signed-in accounts.
A set of rules or a model that assigns credit for a key action across marketing touchpoints.
Search and email may both receive credit when they appear in the journey before a purchase.
A configured group of users based on behavior, attributes, or sequences, used for reporting or eligible activation.
Users who began checkout but did not purchase in the last 30 days.
A link that sends raw GA4 event data into BigQuery so you can analyze it with SQL and other data tools.
Query one row per event and unnest event_params to read custom details.
A condition that focuses a standard GA4 report on a defined set of data.
Compare mobile traffic with all traffic in an engagement report.
A way for Google tags to adjust their behavior and send signals based on a visitor’s consent choices.
Analytics behavior can differ when a visitor denies analytics storage.
A custom dimension or metric registered in GA4 so your own parameter or user property can be used in reporting.
Register form_name as an event-scoped custom dimension.
An event name you define when no automatically collected, enhanced measurement, or recommended event fits the action.
A unique configurator_complete event for a product builder with no suitable recommended event.
A website or app source that sends data into a GA4 property.
A production website data stream has its own Measurement ID.
A near-real-time GA4 view for inspecting events from devices with debug measurement enabled.
Confirm that generate_lead arrives with form_name after a test submission.
An attribute used to describe or group data.
Page title, event name, country, and session source / medium are dimensions.
A session that meets GA4’s engagement criteria, such as lasting beyond a threshold, including a key event, or including multiple page or screen views.
Use engagement metrics alongside key actions rather than treating engagement as business success.
Optional data-stream settings that collect several common web interactions without separate custom tags.
Outbound clicks, scrolls, site search, video engagement, and file downloads can be covered.
A distinct interaction recorded on your website or app.
page_view, sign_up, add_to_cart, and purchase are events.
Extra context sent with an event.
form_name = demo_request explains which form produced generate_lead.
A flexible analysis workspace for custom tables, funnels, paths, cohorts, segments, and more.
Build a four-step checkout funnel and break it down by device category.
An event marked as especially important to the business.
A validated purchase or qualified generate_lead event can be marked as a key event.
The identifier that tells a web tagging setup which GA4 data stream should receive the data.
A web Measurement ID normally begins with G-.
A number calculated from your analytics data.
Sessions, active users, event count, and total revenue are metrics.
A Google-suggested event name and parameter structure for a common action or industry use case.
Use purchase with transaction_id, currency, value, and items.
The level at which a dimension, metric, segment, or rule applies, such as user, session, event, or item.
form_name is event-scoped; item_brand belongs to an item.
A subset of users, sessions, or events used inside an Exploration.
Analyze only sessions that included a pricing-page view.
A visit containing a person’s interactions during a period of activity.
One user can generate several sessions, and each session can contain many events.
A BigQuery SQL operation that expands repeated records, such as GA4 event parameters or ecommerce items, into rows you can query.
Read value.string_value from the event_params record whose key is form_name.
A stable, non-PII identifier you can supply for signed-in users to support cross-device analysis where it is present.
Use an approved random account identifier, never an email address.
Campaign values added to external destination URLs to describe source, medium, campaign, and optional creative or keyword detail.
utm_source=newsletter and utm_medium=email classify a campaign link.