Google Analytics 4 event parameters are basically a piece of information that gives you more details about a particular GA4 event.
Parameters are additional pieces of metadata that add context to event data.
–Google documentation
Content:
- Default Parameters in Google Analytics 4
- GA4 Event Parameter Limits
- Google Analytics 4 Event Parameter Examples
- GA4 Parameters Summary
Default Parameters in Google Analytics 4
In Universal Analytics, event event could have up to four pre-determined parameters: Action, Label, Category and Value. You could not change these nor add to them.
In Google Analytics 4, however, five parameters are included by default:
- language: the language setting of the user’s browser or device
e.g. English
- page_location: URL of the page user is on
e.g. https://www.yourwebsite.com/content
- page_referrer: URL of the page referrer to your site
e.g. https://www.google.com
- page_title: The web page’s title
e.g. Your Site Name – Content
- screen_resolution: The screen resolution of the user’s monitor.
e.g. 1280×768
GA4 Event Parameter Limits
While parameters are very useful, there are some limits you should know about.
How many parameters can I have per event?
In addition to the five default parameters, you can create up to 25 custom parameters per event.
If you hit the 25 parameter limit (unlikely) for a particular event and need to create more, you can delete some to make space.
What is the character limit of a parameter value?
Each parameter value has a 100-character limit, with the exception of page_location, page_referrer, and page_title parameters, which have a 300-character limit.
Google Analytics 4 Event Parameter Examples
To make things simple, let’s think of an example. Imagine you run the Ford* website.
*Company chosen at random
In the top navigation menu of their site, they list various types of vehicles. You could, then, create a “vehicle” event for every time someone visits the product page of a particular vehicle.
By looking at one particular product page – the Ford Escape S – I can think of different Google Analytics 4 event parameters I would want to track.
Here are some of the parameters I would create, along with what the parameter’s value would be:
- vehicle_type: Escape
- model: Escape S
- year: 2022
- price: $26,760
If you really want to drill down, you could apply the same strategy to their “Build” page where users can choose a color and different add-ons.
The point of collecting this data would be to better understand which vehicles and features are most popular. And since you have to enter a zip code/your location to access the build page, this data could be broken down geographically if you add a parameter for that, too.
To only have a “vehicle” event that fires every time someone visits the product page of a particular car, truck, etc. wouldn’t shed a lot of light on user behavior. But by creating custom parameters for each particular vehicle, Ford would learn a lot about what potential buyers seek.
How To Find Google Analytics 4 Event Parameters
In your Google Analytics 4 dashboard, click on the reports menu on the left (highlighted with a blue circle below) then click on “Events” under “Engagement.” (There are other ways to see your parameters, but this is probably the most straightforward.)
Then scroll down and click on any of the events. For websites, page_view will probably have the most data, while in apps, screen_view will probably have the most data.
In the GA4 demo dashboard, I clicked the screen_view event. When you get to this page for any event, you should see a widget on the right side that says “EVENTS IN THE LAST 30 MINUTES.” Click the dropdown there, and you will be able to see all parameters associated with the particular event.
Parameters in Reports
If you want to analyze parameter data in more detail, there are two ways to do so.
In Reports Tab
You can do this in any report that has event data, but I’m going to go through one specific example so you can follow along:
1. Go to Events > Life cycle > Engagement > Engagement overview
2. Scroll down to the “Event Count by Event Name” widget
3. Click on any of the events (I clicked “page_view”)
4. Scroll down to the “Events in last 30 minutes” widget and select one of the parameters from the dropdown
You can now see how many times that parameter was triggered within the event you selected (reminder: I selected page_view) in the last 30 minutes.
But that’s not very useful, is it? To only have data within a single event for the last 30 minutes.
Let’s make sure we can see data for a particular parameter in the Explore section.
In Explore Tab
To analyze parameters in the Explore section of Google Analytics 4, you will first need to add a custom definition. Here’s how to do that:
1. Go to Configure > Custom Definitions
2. Click the blue “Create custom definitions” button
3. Name your dimension. (Unlike event and parameter names, I don’t recommend against using spaces and capital letters here.)
4. Give it a brief description that will make sense when you or a colleague reads the the tool tip in Explore later on.
5. Leave the Scope type as Event and choose your parameter from the dropdown. Then click “Save.”
It may take 24-48 hours, but you should soon see your new custom dimension in Explore under “Custom.”
You can now apply that parameter to eligible reports in Explore.
GA4 Parameters Summary
Google Analytics 4 events are the “big-bucket” actions that users take on your website, while parameters are the final details that provide more context to those actions.
The good news is, you can add practically any parameter you can think of to your events. You can do this either directly in the GA4 dashboard, or in Google Tag Manager.
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