New Enhanced Measurement for Tracking Forms in GA4

One of the main benefits of Google Analytics 4 is the auto-tracking of events.

Enhanced measurement lets you measure interactions with your content by enabling options (events) in the Google Analytics interface. No code changes are required. When you enable these options for a web data stream, your Google Analytics tag starts sending events right away.

This is very handy as you don't have to set things up for scrolls, site search, video engagement, file downloads and outbound clicks. You have to register some custom dimensions to get all the parameters but its a lot easier than what you have to do in Universal Analytics.

New Form Interactions

Google have added a new enhanced measurement called Form Interactions. They're slowly rolling it out as not all accounts have it yet. You can check on the stream details if you have it.

You will have to enable it if you have the option. Its simple enough, just click the button.

What does it do?

As its new, I can't find any documentation about it. Search Engine Land reported it last week.

It looks like it captures two events.

form_start – start of the form

form_submit – when someone submits a form

There is a third event that I can see but it only seems to happen on my configuration, the event is called form_text. I am guessing thats a bug.

What parameters do the events have?

Looking in the debug view they have extra bits of information. These are

• first_field_name
• first_field_position
• first_field_type
• form_destination
• form_length
• form_id
• form_length
• form_submit_text

You can view these in the debug view or the real time reports. If you want to view these parameters in the standard reports, don't forget to register your custom dimensions.

How well do they track?

I have tested this on 4 forms, 2 work and 2 don't. The comment form and the standard WordPress contact form track perfectly. Contact form 7 and Mailchimp sign-up form don't. You will have to try it out on your own forms to see if does work. I think those that don't refresh the page might be tricky for Google at the moment.

Should I create an event called generate_lead?

A lot of form interaction events are actually leads so you probably should create an event called generate_lead under the create event option in GA4 from other events. Just be careful not to duplicate events if you are already tracking form fills.

Conclusion

As it doesn't track all forms, its not as useful as it first appears. Tracking form_start is good though as you can see how many people started and didn't submit. However, if Google doesn't track the form_submit properly then its going to give you the wrong information.

As with everything GA4, its improving every month so maybe next month it will track contact form 7 and Mailchimp. In the meantime, keep with tag manager to track those.

Video

A quick and dirty video about GA4 form tracking. If you want something polished, wait for another youtuber.

A more polished video about form measurement

Ben

Ben has a BEng (Hons) in Computer Science and 20 years of experience in online marketing, specialising in SEO, lead generation and affiliate marketing. After spending over a decade as an igaming affiliate, he has decided to concentrate on GA4 training and SEO Audits.