GA4's default reports are designed for everyone, which means they're perfect for no one.
You've probably noticed this. You open GA4, click through the standard reports, squint at engagement metrics that sort of tell you something, and then... you make a decision based on vibes anyway. The data's there. Somewhere. Buried under seventeen clicks and three dimension changes.
Here's the thing: GA4 is powerful. Genuinely powerful. But its interface feels like it was designed by someone who's never actually had to report to a client on a Friday afternoon. The solution isn't learning where everything is hidden—it's building custom reports that surface exactly what you need, when you need it.
I'm going to walk you through seven custom reports that solve real problems. Not the theoretical ones in Google's documentation, but the ones that come up in actual marketing work. Each one includes the specific dimensions, metrics, and filters you need. Consider these templates you can copy and adjust.
1. The "Where Do My Conversions Actually Come From" Report
GA4's default attribution is... let's call it optimistic. It wants to give everyone a participation trophy. Your email campaign gets credit. Your organic search gets credit. That random direct visit? Also credit.
This report cuts through that.
What it shows: First-touch attribution for conversions, with the full customer journey visible.
Setup:
- Dimension: Session source/medium (primary), Session campaign (secondary)
- Metrics: Conversions, Conversion value, Sessions, Engagement rate
- Filter: First user source/medium (to see what actually started the journey)
- Comparison: Add a segment for "Converters" vs "All Users"
The magic is in the comparison. You'll see which channels bring in browsers versus buyers. I've watched this report save clients thousands in wasted ad spend when they realized their "high-performing" display campaign was just really good at getting the last click on people who were already going to convert.
Why it matters: Your boss wants to know which channel deserves more budget. "It's complicated" is accurate but unhelpful. This report gives you a defensible answer.
2. The "Content That Actually Drives Business" Report
Pageviews are vanity metrics. There, I said it.
You need to know which content moves people toward conversion, not just which headlines got clicks from your newsletter.
What it shows: Content performance ranked by conversion contribution, not traffic.
Setup:
- Dimension: Page path + query string (primary), Page title (secondary)
- Metrics: Views, Engaged sessions, Conversions, Engagement rate, Average engagement time
- Sort by: Conversions (descending)
- Filter: Remove thank-you pages and checkout pages (they convert by definition)
Add a calculated metric if you're feeling ambitious: Conversion rate per page (conversions/views). This separates content that converts from content that just... exists.
One client discovered their most-trafficked blog post had a 0.02% conversion rate, while a boring product comparison page nobody read had 12%. Guess which one they optimized first? Guess which one actually moved revenue?
3. The "Mobile vs Desktop Reality Check" Report
Everyone says mobile-first. Not everyone checks if mobile users actually convert.
What it shows: Complete behavior and conversion differences between device types.
Setup:
- Dimension: Device category (primary), Session source/medium (secondary)
- Metrics: Users, Sessions, Engagement rate, Conversions, Conversion rate, Average engagement time, Bounce rate
- Comparison: Create segments for each device type
This report has killed more "let's go mobile-only" strategies than I can count. Yes, 70% of your traffic is mobile. But if 80% of your revenue is desktop, you've got decisions to make. Maybe your mobile experience needs work. Maybe your product is legitimately better purchased on desktop. Maybe (controversial take) not everything needs to be mobile-optimized to the same degree.
The secondary dimension by source/medium reveals even more. Mobile social traffic behaves completely differently than mobile organic search. Treat them accordingly.
4. The "Landing Page Performance" Report
Not all entry points are created equal. Some pages are built to welcome new visitors. Others accidentally become landing pages because Google decided they should rank.
What it shows: How each landing page performs at starting customer journeys.
Setup:
- Dimension: Landing page + query string (primary), Session source/medium (secondary)
- Metrics: Sessions, New users, Engagement rate, Average engagement time, Conversions, Bounce rate
- Filter: Sessions > 10 (to remove statistical noise)
- Sort by: Sessions (descending), then review by engagement rate
Look for the disconnect. High traffic, low engagement? That page isn't delivering on whatever promise got people there. High engagement, low conversions? Maybe you need a clearer next step.
I use this report every month to find pages that are accidentally doing heavy lifting. A client's careers page was their third-highest landing page from organic search. It had zero conversion tracking and no clear CTA. Two hours of optimization later, they had a functional recruitment funnel they didn't know they needed.
5. The "User Journey Sanity Check" Report
GA4 calls this exploration type "Path exploration." I call it the "why are people doing that?" report.
What it shows: The actual paths users take through your site, not the ones you designed.
Setup:
- Exploration type: Path exploration
- Starting point: page_view (or a specific landing page)
- Dimension: Page path and screen class
- Breakdown: Session source/medium or Device category
- Step depth: 4-5 steps
This isn't technically a report you save in Reports, it lives in Explorations. But you'll use it enough that it deserves a permanent spot.
The insights here are uncomfortable. You'll discover people are skipping your carefully crafted product pages and going straight to pricing. Or they're bouncing from your homepage to your blog and then leaving. Or they're visiting your contact page three times before converting (which means your form probably sucks).
Real example: A SaaS client's ideal journey was homepage → features → pricing → demo request. Actual journey? Homepage → pricing → blog post → pricing again → demo request. They were burying pricing behind a features page nobody wanted. Once they made pricing accessible from the homepage, demo requests increased 34%.
6. The "Campaign Performance Deep Dive" Report
GA4's default campaign reports show you data. This report shows you whether your campaigns actually work.
What it shows: Complete campaign performance including downstream behavior.
Setup:
- Dimension: Session campaign (primary), Session source/medium (secondary), Session manual term (tertiary)
- Metrics: Users, Sessions, New users, Engagement rate, Conversions, Conversion rate, Average engagement time
- Filter: Session campaign is not (not set)
- Comparison: Add date range comparison to previous period
The tertiary dimension (manual term) is clutch if you're running multiple ad variations. You can see which specific ad or keyword is driving quality traffic versus just traffic.
This report is especially valuable if you're running campaigns across multiple platforms. You can finally answer "Should we spend more on LinkedIn or Google Ads?" with actual data instead of whoever's sales rep called last.
Pro tip: If you're not using UTM parameters consistently, this report will be useless. Fix your tracking first. Your future self will thank you.
7. The "Engagement Quality" Report
GA4 killed bounce rate (sort of) and replaced it with engagement rate. This report shows you if that engagement actually means anything.
What it shows: Correlation between engagement metrics and conversion probability.
Setup:
- Dimension: Session source/medium (primary)
- Metrics: Users, Engaged sessions, Engagement rate, Average engagement time, Events per session, Conversions, Conversion rate
- Sort by: Engagement rate (descending)
- Add comparison: Converters vs Non-converters
The comparison segment is where this gets interesting. You'll see the engagement patterns of people who convert versus people who don't. Maybe converters spend 3+ minutes on site. Maybe they view 5+ pages. Maybe they trigger specific events.
Once you know what "good" engagement looks like, you can optimize for it. Not just traffic. Not just time on site. But the specific behavior patterns that correlate with business outcomes.
A B2B client discovered that conversions correlated strongly with viewing at least one case study and one pricing page. That insight reshaped their entire content strategy and email nurture sequences.
Actually Using These Reports (The Part Everyone Skips)
Building reports is easy. Using them consistently is hard.
Here's what actually works: Schedule a recurring calendar event. Every Monday at 10am, or the first Friday of each month, or whatever rhythm matches your decision-making cycle. Block 30 minutes. Review these seven reports. Write down three observations. Share them with your team.
That's it. You don't need a 40-page analytics deck. You need consistent attention to meaningful metrics.
Save these reports to your GA4 Library so they're always accessible. Name them clearly ("WEEKLY - Conversion Sources" not "Custom Report 7"). Add them to a custom dashboard if you want everything in one view.
And for the love of data accuracy, document your setup. Six months from now, when someone asks "Why are we measuring it this way?" you'll want an answer better than "I think that's what made sense at the time?"
The Templates (As Promised)
I've put together a Google Sheet with the exact configuration for each of these reports. Every dimension, every metric, every filter. You can copy it and use it as a checklist while building your own.
What's included:
- Exact dimension and metric configurations
- Filter settings and comparison segments
- Notes on common setup mistakes
- Variations for e-commerce vs lead generation
- Suggested review frequency for each report
The sheet also includes some bonus explorations that didn't make this article but solve specific problems (like "Why is our conversion rate dropping?" and "Which pages do converters visit?").
You can access it here: [Link to your template resource]
The Real Value
These reports won't magically fix your marketing. They'll just make it obvious what needs fixing.
You'll spot the channel that's burning budget on window shoppers. The landing page that's confusing everyone. The content that's working harder than you realized. The device experience that's costing you conversions.
GA4 has the data. These reports just organize it into decisions.
Build them once. Use them forever. Adjust as your business changes. And maybe, finally, you'll open GA4 without that slight sense of dread.
Start with report #1. It takes about 10 minutes to set up and immediately answers the question your boss asks most often. Then build the others as you have time. Within a week, you'll have a complete custom reporting suite that actually serves your needs instead of Google's assumptions about what marketers want to see.
The default reports will still be there if you need them. You just won't need them as much.
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