Building the GA4 data model from events
GA4 (Google Analytics 4) structured data collection around events: actions a user takes. A page view is an event. A button click is an event. A form submission is an event. Video play, purchase, download, signup are all events. Each event carries parameters (which page, which button, which form field, how long the video played). This granular event structure replaces GA3's fixed categories and gives much more flexibility.
Sessions group events by user within a time window (default 30 minutes of inactivity). Conversions are designated events the business cares about (signup, purchase, contact form). Audiences are groups of users who share properties (all users from a country, all users who viewed the pricing page, all users who added items to cart but didn't purchase). Each of these is built from event data.
Why event tracking requires upfront intent
GA4's flexibility is powerful but demands upfront planning. In GA3, you got traffic, sources, and pages automatically. In GA4, you must define what constitutes a conversion, what user properties matter, and what custom events to track. A poorly configured GA4 property collects noise but misses the business metrics. A well-configured property streams clean data that feeds dashboards, attribution models, and audience building.
The gap between raw event data and business insights is intentional. GA4 wants you to think about causation. If users who view your pricing page have 3x higher purchase rate than random visitors, that's actionable. But GA4 doesn't know to track pricing-page-views until you configure it. The system enforces specificity: defining conversion events forces clarity on what success means.