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How to use GA4 to understand your user's customer journey

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Unleashing GA4’s funnel visualisations for eCommerce success

Understanding your customer’s journey through the sales funnel is invaluable for increasing both eCommerce conversions and profits.

Delve into each stage in your customer journey to gain insights into user behaviour. Using this information, you can identify (and resolve) friction points while shedding light on opportunities for optimisation.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful ally in this quest. It offers funnel visualisations that not only pinpoint drop-offs but also provide a roadmap for addressing issues. And it tops our list of analytics tools every marketer needs to know about.

Sales funnel icon and pound icon sign illustrating conversion optimisation against a purple background

Key benefits of GA4’s funnel visualisations

Identifying drop-off points

GA4 allows you to construct comprehensive funnels that reveal the gaps in your customer’s journey.

From the initial touchpoint to conversion or drop-off, every step can be illuminated. Crucially, this enables you to pinpoint where users are exiting the funnel.

Granular analysis with events

Unlike traditional approaches that focus on end goals, GA4 empowers you to include various events in your funnel. This granularity lets you analyse each step, providing a more nuanced understanding of user interactions. 

Whether it’s clicking on a product, viewing a page, or other micro-interactions, GA4 captures it all.

Comparative insights

Enhancing your analytical arsenal, with GA4 you can highlight data such as device or channel, helpful when comparing drop-off rates among different user segments.

By understanding variances between groups, you can tailor strategies to address specific challenges and enhance overall funnel performance.

Revenue-centric insights

GA4’s funnel visualisations don’t just stop at identifying drop-offs; they extend to revenue-focused analytics. 

You’ll be able to identify where drop-offs correlate with a loss of revenue, and gain valuable strategic insights. This knowledge empowers you to refine and optimise your ecommerce site, boosting conversions and maximising revenue potential.

Mastering GA4 to understand your user’s customer journey

With GA4’s funnel tools, you transcend traditional analytics by tracking a customer’s journey from the very initiation of their interactions with your marketing channels to the final conversion on your online shop. This holistic view offers profound advantages:

  1. Comprehensive tracking beyond checkout
  2. Holistic understanding of sales drop-offs
  3. Strategic refinement opportunities

Comprehensive tracking beyond checkout

Traditionally, the most commonly used analytics tools had limited tracking across your site and checkout journey. GA4, however, allows you to follow users from their earliest interactions, offering a complete picture. 

This expanded tracking capability unveils critical insights into pre-purchase behaviour, enabling a more holistic optimisation strategy.

Holistic understanding of sales drop-offs

Armed with a holistic view of the customer journey, you can identify specific points where sales drop-offs occur. Whether it’s ineffective messaging, suboptimal user experience, or unconvincing product pages, GA4’s funnel visualisations lay bare the hurdles hindering conversions.

Strategic refinement opportunities

Armed with insights from GA4, you can strategically refine your marketing, digital channels, and ecommerce site. 

Improvements are backed by data-driven decisions, and whether they relate to tweaking messaging, optimising user flows, or enhancing product presentation, these insights will guide your next move. 

Katie, Sales Strategist, sat in office booth working on laptop

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Takeaways

Using GA4 to understand your user’s customer journey gives you crucial insights to deliver a more seamless and conversion-driven user experience.

GA4’s funnel visualisations serve as a compass, guiding you through customer journeys. By leveraging its capabilities, you not only identify drop-offs but gain the tools to proactively address these issues.

Like what you’re reading? You can learn more about using GA4 to expose dark spots in your checkout flow. Get our guide: How GA4 Exposes Your Major eCommerce Weaknesses.

Tess looking at camera in front of a metal backdrop

Tess Coughlan-Allen Marketing Lead

Thursday 4th January 2024