Guide 59 · Reports · GA4 + Tag Manager
Read the Conversions report: which key events fired, and how many times each
The Conversions report lists key events only. Read it after the Events report — it shows the outcomes, not the noise around them.
After step 5, you can name every key event, its count for the range, and which one moved most against the previous period.
Download the report reference: the Conversions reference (JSON) (1416 bytes, MD5 097001a28ade79d911fe85f2e7c71481). It holds the report or exploration definition and the worked example with the recomputed figures shown on this page.
What you need
- Viewer access or above on the property.
- The report path: Reports, then Engagement, then Conversions.
- The list of events marked as key events in Admin, then Data display, then Key events. Only marked events appear here; an event that is not marked is invisible in this report no matter how often it fires.
The trace
- Open the report. Sign in, click Reports, then Engagement, then Conversions. The table lists one row per key event, ranked by count.
- Read the table as outcomes only. Every row here is an event your property marks as a key event. If an outcome you care about is missing from the table, it is not marked as a key event — open Admin, then Data display, then Key events, and check the marking. The report cannot show what was never marked.
- Compare each key event with the previous period. Use the date comparison at the top to set the previous period of the same length. A key event that doubled while sessions stayed flat is a real change; a key event that doubled while sessions also doubled is growth, not improvement.
- Read the rate, not just the count. A key event count of 96 means little until it is set against sessions. Divide key events by sessions for the key event rate — the worked example below does that division for three key events, so the counts can be compared fairly.
- Check the lag before you report a same-day number. Standard reports can take 24 to 48 hours to process data. A key event fired this morning may not be in this report until tomorrow. Realtime is the same-day check.
Dead ends
DEAD END — LOOKING FOR AN UNMARKED EVENT HERE. The Conversions report only lists key events. An event that fires a thousand times a day but was never marked as a key event will never appear in this table.
DEAD END — READING A COUNT WITHOUT ITS RATE. A key event count that rose 20% while sessions rose 40% is a falling rate. The count alone calls it growth; the rate calls it what it is.
DEAD END — EXPECTING A KEY EVENT MARKED TODAY TO APPEAR TODAY. Marking an event as key does not backfill the report, and the processing lag still applies. A newly marked event needs a day before this report shows it.
End state
The Conversions report is the outcomes page. The worked example below recomputes key event rates for three key events, so a count can be read as a rate before anyone calls it good or bad.
Worked example — stated inputs, recomputed results. The key events below are stated inputs for the example. Every rate in the table was recomputed from them.
| Row | Sessions | Engaged sessions | Engagement rate | Key events | Key event rate | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| purchase | 96 | 88 | 91.7% | 96 | 100.0% | $7,420.50 |
| sign_up | 214 | 180 | 84.1% | 214 | 100.0% | $0.00 |
| generate_lead | 142 | 121 | 85.2% | 142 | 100.0% | $0.00 |
| Total | 452 | 389 | 86.1% | 452 | 100.0% | $7,420.50 |
Revenue per session is $7,420.50 ÷ 452 sessions = $16.42. Engagement rate is 389 ÷ 452 = 86.1%.
Sources
- Analytics Help — Confirm that you are collecting data — many reports and explorations can take 24 to 48 hours to process data
- Analytics Help — [GA4] Traffic acquisition report — detail reports group data by dimensions; the search bar above the table finds one row
Checked 11 November 2026. The click paths above are the ones in Google's help pages, opened or read 11 November 2026 (the Explorations and detail-report pages were opened in full; the report, library, navigation and thresholds pages were read from Google's help results the same day, after the browser hit a rate limit). No step in this guide was run inside a live Analytics property, because that needs a Google sign-in and this site does not sign in as anyone. The worked-example figures on this page were recomputed in Python with decimal arithmetic, and the downloadable JSON file carries the same recomputed figures. Google moves menu items without warning; if a path on this page no longer matches, the linked help page is the current map.