Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be connected to your WordPress site in two ways:

• OAuth - Sign in to your Google account and select your GA4 property, allows the use of a Google Analytics dashboard in your WordPress admin (Recommended)
• Manual - Cut/paste your Measurement ID from your Google Analytics account

Connection Methods

OAuth Connection (Recommended)

The OAuth connection method is the recommended way to connect Google Analytics to your site. It provides several advantages:

• Automatic setup: Measurement ID and API secrets are automatically configured
• Analytics dashboard: Access to a comprehensive analytics dashboard within your WordPress admin
• Custom dimensions: Automatic creation of custom dimensions for pageviews and user properties
• Server-side events: Automatic tracking of admin events like refunds via the Measurement Protocol API

To connect via OAuth:

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Settings → Conversion Bridge → Google Analytics
2. Select Connect with Google (Recommended) as your connection method
3. Click the Connect with Google button
4. Sign in to your Google account and grant the necessary permissions
5. Select your GA4 property from the list
6. The connection will be established automatically

Once connected, you'll see your connected property name and Measurement ID displayed in the settings.

Manual Connection

If you prefer to connect manually or don't have access to OAuth:

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Settings → Conversion Bridge → Google Analytics
2. Select Enter Measurement ID manually as your connection method
3. Find your Measurement ID in Google Analytics (see Where do I find my Measurement ID? below)
4. Paste your Measurement ID into the settings field
5. Save your changes

Note: Manual connections do not have access to the analytics dashboard or automatic custom dimension setup. These features require OAuth connection.

Where do I find my Measurement ID?

The Measurement ID is required when setting up the Google Analytics tracking code and conversion tracking on your site. To find it, follow these steps:

1. Login to your Google Analytics account
2. In the bottom left, click on Admin
3. In the Property Settings section, click on Data collection and modification
4. Click on Data Streams
5. Click on the stream that should have been created when you first created your GA4 property. If no streams exist, click on the blue Add stream button
6. Find the Measurement ID (should look like "G-XXXXXXXX") and copy it
7. Paste it into the settings within Conversion Bridge

Important: Do not confuse this with the Property ID. You want the Measurement ID.

Google Analytics Dashboard in WordPress Admin

As of version 1.11, Conversion Bridge includes a simplified Google Analytics dashboard that can be displayed in your WordPress admin. You must use the OAuth connection method in order for this to be available.

View a full dashboard example

Once connected via OAuth, this gives Conversion Bridge the ability to access your raw data and create a simple, easy to follow analytics dashboard with the most important information within your WordPress admin:

Dashboard Features

• Comprehensive E-commerce FunnelRepresents the step-by-step process users take before completing a conversion, such as making a purchase or signing up.: Represents the step-by-step process users take before completing a conversion, such as making a purchase or signing up (by device, country, region, city, language, browser)
• Sessions and Page Views: Track visitor engagement over time
• Session Duration: Average time users spend on your site
• Bounce RatePercentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page without interacting further.: Percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page without interacting further
• New vs Returning Users: Understand your audience composition
• Devices: Breakdown by OS, Browsers, Platform, Screens
• Weekday Heatmaps: Visual representation of Sessions and Page Views by day and hour
• Top Pages, Top Entry Pages, Top Exit Pages: Understand which content performs best
• Top Channels: See where your traffic comes from
• Top Referrals: Identify your best referral sources
• Location: Countries, Regions, Cities, Languages
• E-commerce Top Products: Viewed, Add to Cart, Quantity Purchased, Revenue

To enable the dashboard:

1. Connect via OAuth (see OAuth Connection above)
2. Enable the Enable Analytics Dashboard in Admin checkbox
3. The dashboard will be available in your WordPress admin menu

Custom Dimensions

Conversion Bridge automatically sets up custom dimensions in Google Analytics 4 to track additional data about your WordPress site's content and users. This feature requires an OAuth connection.

Pageview Custom Dimensions (Event-Scoped)

These dimensions are attached to pageview events and provide detailed insights about your WordPress content. When you enable extra properties in the settings, Conversion Bridge automatically creates the corresponding custom dimensions in your GA4 property.

Available pageview dimensions:

• Author: Track which authors drive the most traffic or engagement. Helpful for blogs, news sites, or multi-author publications.
• Category: See which content categories perform best. Helps you plan future content around what your audience cares about most.
• Tags: Like categories, but more specific. Great for understanding niche interests and refining your content strategy.
• Logged In: Track behavior differences between logged-in users (like customers or members) and general visitors.
• Language: Useful for multilingual sites. Helps identify which languages your audience prefers and how they behave.
• Post Type: Distinguish between blog posts, pages, products, or any custom post types. Lets you analyze performance by content type.
• Role: Track which WordPress user roles are most engaged with your content.

To enable pageview custom dimensions:

1. Connect via OAuth
2. In the Google Analytics settings, check the properties you want to track under Include extra properties
3. Save your settings
4. Conversion Bridge will automatically create the corresponding custom dimensions in your GA4 property

Custom dimensions are created with EVENT scope, meaning they're attached to individual pageview events. This allows you to analyze pageviews by these dimensions in your GA4 reports.

User Custom Dimensions (User-Scoped)

These dimensions track information about logged-in users and are scoped at the user level, allowing you to segment users by their attributes across all their sessions.

When you enable Include user info in the settings, Conversion Bridge will:

1. Track user properties sent from plugin integrations (e.g., membership plugins, e-commerce plugins)
2. Automatically create USER-scoped custom dimensions for each unique user property
3. Send user properties with all events for logged-in users

Common user properties that may be tracked:

• is_member: Whether the user is a member
• membership: User membership level or plan
• memberships: User memberships (comma-separated)

To enable user custom dimensions:

1. Connect via OAuth
2. Enable Include user info in the Google Analytics settings
3. Save your settings
4. As user properties are sent from plugin integrations, Conversion Bridge will automatically create the corresponding USER-scoped custom dimensions

User custom dimensions are created with USER scope, meaning they persist across all sessions for that user. This allows you to analyze user behavior by these attributes in your GA4 reports.

Automatic Dimension Setup

Conversion Bridge automatically handles custom dimension creation:

• On OAuth connection: When you first connect via OAuth, dimensions are automatically set up for any enabled properties
• On settings save: When you enable new properties or user info, dimensions are created immediately
• On plugin update: During plugin updates, missing dimensions are automatically created for existing configurations

User ID

Google Analytics allows you to add the currently logged in user's ID to all tracking. This lets you track the specific user across devices (while they are logged in).

This is a feature for sites that regularly have recurring visitors to their site and perform actions while logged in. For example, sites using e-commerce, learning management, or membership plugins could benefit from better understanding their active users website usage.

To enable User ID tracking:

1. Enable the Send user ID of current logged in user checkbox in the Google Analytics settings
2. The WordPress user ID will be automatically included in all GA4 events for logged-in users

Note: User ID is only sent for logged-in users. Anonymous visitors will not have a user ID attached to their events.

User Info

Some of the plugins integrated with Conversion Bridge can add user information/attributes to be sent to your analytics platform for the currently logged in user. For example, the membership plugins can include information about which membership plan the user has. This can help you better understand which content is more popular with specific types of memberships on your site.

When enabled, user info is sent as user properties in GA4, and corresponding USER-scoped custom dimensions are automatically created (see User Custom Dimensions above).

To enable user info:

1. Enable the Include user info checkbox in the Google Analytics settings
2. User properties from plugin integrations will be automatically sent with all events

Learn more about User Info in the User Info documentation.

Debug Mode

Debug mode in Google Analytics 4 is a feature that can be used when testing Conversion Bridge to ensure data is being properly sent. When you enable it, it provides detailed, real-time information about the data being sent to Google Analytics. This includes:

1. Event Validation: It shows whether events are being fired correctly when users perform certain actions, like clicking a button or submitting a form.
2. Error Reports: If there are issues with the tracking code or with specific events not being recorded correctly, debug mode helps identify these errors.
3. Parameter Checks: It allows you to see the parameters and user properties being sent with each event, ensuring that the data collected aligns with what you intend to track.

This detailed feedback is crucial for diagnosing and fixing any issues with your Google Analytics setup, ensuring that the data you collect is accurate and reliable. Once everything is working as expected, you will want to turn off debug mode.

To enable debug mode:

1. Enable the Debug mode checkbox in the Google Analytics settings
2. Optionally, select which user roles should see debug mode (defaults to all users)
3. Debug events will be sent to GA4's DebugView

You can also use the Chrome extension Debugger for Google Analytics 4 to see more data on the events being sent to Google Analytics while testing on your website.

E-Commerce Product Variation Tracking

When sending e-commerce events to Google Analytics 4, Conversion Bridge gives you control over how product variation IDs and names are tracked. This helps ensure your GA4 reports match how you want to view and analyze product data.

Tracking Product Variation IDs

• Use variation product ID/SKU (Recommended): This tracks each variation (like size or color) with its unique ID or SKU. This is the best way to see how specific variations perform. (Example: "SHIRT-SM-RED")
• Use parent product ID/SKU: Treats all variations as the same product by using the parent product's ID or SKU. Use this if you only care about overall product performance and not the individual variation details.

Tracking Product Variation Names

• Use parent product name only (Recommended): Tracks all variations under the same product name, making reports simpler and easier to read. (Example: "Cool Shirt")
• Use parent product + variation attributes as name: Adds variation info (like size and color) to the product name. Useful if you want to see the full variation in your reports. (Example: "Cool Shirt – Small, Red")

Conversion Bridge will always send the "item_variant" parameter regardless of which settings you select to ensure it is sending as much detailed information into Google Analytics 4.

To customize e-commerce tracking:

1. Enable the Customize ecommerce tracking checkbox
2. Select your preferred options for variation ID and variation name tracking
3. Save your settings

Consent Mode

Conversion Bridge supports Google Analytics 4 Consent Mode v2. This helps GA4 understand whether a visitor has allowed analytics or marketing cookiesA small piece of data stored in a user’s browser that helps websites remember user activity, preferences, or sessions across visits..

When the site loads, Conversion Bridge sends an initial consent state to Google. If no cookie banner plugin is active, the default is allowed. This tells Google Consent Mode that analytics and marketing storage are allowed.

If a supported cookie banner plugin is enabled, Conversion Bridge listens for the visitor's choice. When they accept or reject cookies, Conversion Bridge updates Google Consent Mode in real time. Google then passes that state to GA4 and any other Google tools on the page.

To enable Consent Mode:

1. Enable the Enable Google Consent Mode checkbox in the Google Analytics settings
2. Ensure you have a supported cookie banner plugin configured (if you want to respect user consent choices)

Make sure Consent Mode is only enabled in one place. If your cookie banner already sends consent signals, do not turn on a second Consent Mode feature elsewhere.

You can test your setup with Google's Tag Assistant debugger to see consent changes as they happen.

Excluding the Script Tag

By default, Conversion Bridge will add the core JavaScript tag to your website for the basic page view tracking. However, if you have used another plugin like Google Site Kit (or any other plugin) to connect Google Analytics to your site, you can exclude Conversion Bridge from also adding this tracking script and causing double page views.

To exclude the script tag:

1. Enable the Exclude script tag option in the Google Analytics settings
2. Conversion Bridge will still track conversion events, but will not add the base GA4 tracking script
3. Ensure your other plugin is properly configured to track pageviews

Even with the script tag excluded, Conversion Bridge will still send conversion events to GA4 if you have Measurement Protocol credentials configured.

Measurement Protocol / Server Side Events

Conversion Bridge supports Google Analytics 4 Measurement Protocol for server-side event tracking. This allows you to track events that occur on the server (such as refunds) that cannot be tracked via browser-based tracking.

Measurement Protocol requires OAuth connection.