Google Analytics 4 has recently been experiencing issues with the accuracy in reporting key events (such as Google Ads conversions) on websites, including the click to call a ‘phone number, or to send an email. It’s important that these are tracked correctly, so the ROI from Google Ads can be accurately ascertained.
There are numerous possible reasons for this and there is little official information addressing the issue, but here are a couple of potential solutions:
1. Sometimes having Google Signals enabled can lead to GA4 custom events not showing up.
Google Signals leverages anonymised browsing data from signed-in Google users to enhance measurement capabilities in GA4. However, it also introduces a concept called “data thresholds.” This means that GA4 might not display events with deficient volume, to protect user privacy.
How it works – imagine you have a custom event tracking a specific button click on a rarely visited page. With Google Signals turned on, if only a few users click that button, GA4 might choose not to show that event in your reports due to the data threshold.
There are a couple of ways to address this:
Temporarily Disable Google Signals: If you need to see all events irrespective of volume for troubleshooting purposes, consider temporarily disabling Google Signals. However, remember to re-enable it later for the full benefits of Google Signals.
Create a Custom Report: GA4 allows you to create custom reports that include all events, regardless of volume. It can be a helpful workaround to see low-volume events even with Google Signals enabled.
By understanding data thresholds and how they interact with Google Signals, you can make informed decisions about displaying your custom events in GA4.
2. To resolve the issue with ‘phone call clicks not being counted correctly, add the custom code shown at the bottom of this page.
3. The alternative approach would also be to set up the onsite click actions as triggers and tags in Google Tag Manager.
You can read more about the many other reasons why GA4 custom events are not recording correctly.
If you want more information about this issue, please get in touch.