Before going into our main topic let's understand "What is Purchase journey in GA4".
The purchase journey in GA4 is the path that users take from becoming aware of your product or service to making a purchase. It can be broken down into four main stages:
Awareness: This is when users first learn about your product or service. This could happen through a variety of channels, such as online advertising, social media, or word-of-mouth.
Consideration: Once users are aware of your product or service, they start to consider it as an option. This is when they learn more about your product or service, compare it to other options, and read reviews.
Decision: Once users have considered all of their options, they make a decision about whether or not to purchase your product or service.
Purchase: This is the final stage of the purchase journey, where users actually make the purchase.
The purchase journey report in GA4 shows you how many users move through each stage of the purchase funnel. This can help you to identify areas where you can improve your marketing and sales efforts.
Note: This report shows only the user count but not by event count.
Issue:
The current issue in the purchase journey GA4 is that it is still under development. This means that there are some features that are not yet available, and some reports may not be as accurate as they could be.
One of the main issues with the purchase journey GA4 is that it does not automatically track all of the steps in the purchase funnel. For example, it does not automatically track when a user adds an item to their cart or proceeds to checkout. To track these steps, you need to implement custom GA4 events.
Another issue with the purchase journey GA4 is that it can be difficult to set up and use. This is because it is a new feature and there is not a lot of documentation available yet.
Here are some specific issues that have been reported by GA4 users:
The purchase journey report is not always accurate. For example, it may show that users are dropping off at a particular step in the funnel, when in fact they are simply going back to a previous step.
The purchase journey report can be difficult to interpret. For example, it can be difficult to tell why users are dropping off at a particular step in the funnel.
The purchase journey report is not always customizable. For example, you cannot easily add or remove steps from the funnel.
As you can see from the below even thought the analytics records the purchases but it is not showing the right numbers in the reports.
Solutions:
The solution is to create a custom purchase journey in GA4 reports, you can follow these steps:
Define the funnel steps. What are the key steps that users take on their way to making a purchase on your website? For example, the steps might be:
Visit product page
Add product to cart
View cart
Proceed to checkout
Enter shipping and billing information
Place order
Implement the funnel steps with GA4 events or page views. If possible, you should use GA4 events to track the funnel steps. This will give you more detailed data about how users are interacting with your website. For example, you could track a view_product event when a user visits a product page, or an add_to_cart event when a user adds a product to their cart.
If you can't use GA4 events, you can still create a funnel report using page views. However, the data will be less detailed.
Align the GA4 UI configuration (if required). If you're using GA4 events to track the funnel steps, you may need to update your GA4 UI configuration to make sure that the events are being tracked correctly.
For example, you may need to create custom dimensions or metrics to track the events. You can also use event parameters to track additional information about the events.
Create and double-check the Ecommerce funnel in Explore/Advanced analysis. Once you have implemented the funnel steps and aligned the GA4 UI configuration, you can create a custom funnel report in Explore or Advanced analysis.
To do this, create a new exploration and select the "Funnel" template. Then, add the funnel steps to the exploration.
Once you have added the funnel steps, you can review the report to make sure that it is working correctly. You can also use the report to analyze your purchase journey and identify areas for improvement.
Save the exploration as a report. If you're happy with the custom funnel report, you can save it as a report in the Library. This will make it easier to access the report in the future.
To save the exploration as a report, click the "Save as a report in the Library" button in the top right corner of the exploration. Then, enter a name and description for the report and click "Save."
Once the report is saved, you can access it from the Reports section in GA4. Now you can move it to your respective Collection folder.
Feel free to reach out to us with comments or your thoughts on the above!
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