The GA4 reports every marketer should check weekly

Google Analytics 4 is powerful, but it can also be overwhelming. Most teams either never open it or get lost in it. The fix is a short weekly routine: a handful of reports, the same questions every time, and a note of what you will change.

Before you start: set up key events

GA4 is only useful if it knows what success looks like. Mark your most important actions — form submissions, phone clicks, purchases, sign-ups — as key events. If you have not, do this first; every report below depends on it.

1. Traffic acquisition

This report shows sessions by channel: organic search, paid search, paid social, direct, referral, email and so on. Add your key events and the key event rate.

Ask: Which channels grew or dropped compared with last week and the same week last year? Which channel converts best, not just which sends most traffic?

2. Landing pages

Find the landing page report (you may need to add it to your reports library) and sort by sessions. Add key events and engagement rate.

Ask: Which pages bring in visitors but convert poorly? Those are your best candidates for improvement — better headlines, clearer calls to action, faster loading.

3. Key events by source

Look at key events broken down by session source and medium. This shows where your actual leads and sales come from.

Ask: Is paid media producing leads at an acceptable cost? Is organic search contributing more over time?

4. Engagement by device

Compare desktop and mobile engagement rate and conversion rate.

Ask: Is mobile converting much worse than desktop? If so, check the mobile experience of your top landing pages and forms — this is one of the most common hidden leaks.

5. Search Console insights

If you have linked Google Search Console to GA4, you can see the queries and pages that earn organic clicks.

Ask: Which queries are gaining impressions but have a low click-through rate? Improving the title and meta description for those pages is often a quick win.

Make it a 20-minute habit

1. Pick the same day each week.
2. Compare the last seven days with the previous seven and with the same period last year.
3. Write three bullet points: what changed, why you think it changed, and one action.
4. Check last week's action — did it work?

Common GA4 mistakes to fix

• No key events defined — you are measuring traffic, not results.
• Internal traffic not filtered — your own team's visits distort the data.
• Untagged campaigns — use UTM parameters on email and social links so they do not appear as direct traffic.
• Short data retention — extend event data retention in the admin settings so you can compare longer periods in explorations.

Analytics is not about more data; it is about better decisions. A focused weekly review will tell you more than any 40-page monthly report.