You open GA4 and see users, sessions, events, and key events.

There’s plenty of data. But can you use it to answer the questions your business is asking?

Why aren’t more visitors registering? Which marketing campaigns attract people who take action? Where should you focus your efforts to improve results?

Answering these questions starts with a measurement plan.

In this edition of Analytics Insights, let’s look at how to build one using a simple example.

When planning analytics, it’s tempting to start by listing events:

“We should track button clicks, form submissions, downloads, and scrolls.”

Before creating that list, ask: What are we trying to accomplish?

Imagine you’re promoting a live class. Your goal is to increase registrations.

That goal gives your measurement a purpose. You can now identify the questions you need to answer to improve registrations.

When you type a prompt, you summarize. When you speak one, you explain. Wispr Flow captures your full reasoning (constraints, edge cases, examples, tone) and turns it into clean, structured text you paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI tool. The difference shows up immediately. More context in, fewer follow-ups out.

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For a live class, useful questions might include:

Each question points to something you need to measure.

This is the connection that often gets missed. Teams collect data because an interaction is easy to track, then try to figure out what to do with it later.

Writing the questions first helps you decide which interactions deserve attention.

A completed registration tells you that someone signed up. Tracking the actions leading up to it can help explain where others stop.

Consider these three actions:

Registration button click: Shows that a visitor took a step toward signing up.

More information click: Shows that a visitor explored additional details. It may indicate interest, uncertainty, or a need for clarification.

Completed registration: Confirms that the visitor finished the process.

Together, these actions give you more context.

For example, many registration button clicks combined with few completed registrations would give you a reason to investigate the registration process. Is the form confusing? Does the next page load correctly? Are visitors encountering an unexpected requirement?

The data helps you identify what to investigate. You still need to examine the experience to understand the cause.

Your plan connects each business question to the data needed to answer it.

Here’s a simplified example:

Then document the details: what each event means, when it should fire, and what additional information you need, such as the class name or button location.

Clear definitions matter. “Registration completed” should mean the same thing to your marketer, analyst, and developer.

Once you know what to measure, the next step is an implementation plan: instructions for the people setting up the tracking.

After implementation, validate that the data is being collected correctly. Then use it to answer your questions and decide what to improve.

The full process connects your strategy to your decisions:

Strategy → Goals → Questions → Measurement plan → Implementation plan → Implementation → Validation → Analysis and decisions

If you’re unsure why you’re tracking an event—or what decision it supports—that’s a good reason to revisit your measurement plan.

In my live workshop, I’ll walk through a practical example and show you how to turn business goals and questions into a measurement plan using GA Auditor.

The focus is on deciding what to measure and organizing it into a useful plan. Tag implementation is outside the scope of this session.

Register for the live workshop: Build Your GA4 Measurement Plan

Bring a website or business goal you’re working on so you can apply the approach to your own measurement needs.

—Anil Batra