Originally Published 26/11/20
Google Analytics has long been an invaluable tool for mortgage brokers, offering deep insights into web traffic, user behaviour and marketing effectiveness, all free of charge.
With the expansion of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in 2024, those capabilities went a step further, delivering more detailed data than ever before, which in turn can help you turn website visitors into qualified leads. While it’s made the platform much more powerful, it can also be a daunting learning curve for new users.
That’s where this guide comes in. Whether you’re just starting out as a mortgage broker or have been in the field for a while, we’ve outlined the key features and setup steps to help you get the most out of GA4.
With GA4, you can dig deeper into your site’s analytics than you could with the sort of surface interactions that were captured in the platform’s earlier iterations.
It can help answer pressing questions like how many users are exploring your site, what sources they’re coming from (such as organic traffic, paid ads, or mortgage comparison platforms), at what point users drop off of the journey, and what devices people are visiting your site on.
But the most important question of all - i.e. which visits turn into real conversions - is no longer a mystery. All you need is the right setup.
Setting yourself up is much more streamlined than it once was. That said, GA4 has introduced a few changes, so we’ve given you a step-by-step walkthrough to help you get started.
GA4 can be set up in three easy steps:
Let’s go through them in more detail.
Getting started is simple. To create an account, you’ll need:
Next, create a GA4 property with your website name, time zone, and currency. In GA4, an ‘account’ represents your business as a whole, while a ‘property’ is typically your website or app where data is collected.
Once you’ve completed that, there will be a set of terms and conditions to review. After accepting them, you’ll be given a Measurement ID (starting with “G-”), instead of the old Tracking ID or tracking tag (which used to begin with “UA-”).
Top tip: You can also run Google’s Setup Assistant, which helps carry over some old settings from Universal Analytics and link up with Google Ads or Search Console.
You’ll need to paste your GA4 tracking tag - also known as a global site tag - into every page of your site. Simply copy the gtag.js code and paste it into the HTML header of your website, like below:
For smaller sites, this will be small and manageable, but if your site is larger, you have some alternatives. CMS platforms like Wordpress, Wix and HubSpot have plugins or extensions that enable you to change the header and footer of every page in one go.
You can also use Google Tag Manager to implement your GA4 tag with more control and flexibility. With GTM, you can centralise your tags in one place, set triggers and change your tags as and when needed.
Top tip: Set up a web data stream under Admin > Data Streams. Without this, GA4 won’t know where to collect your visitor data from, meaning no reports or insights. It’s hugely important for tracking what’s happening on your site.
If you're not familiar with GTM, you might want to stick with the manual method or ask for technical help.
Unlike Universal Analytics, which based conversions on ‘goals’, GA4 uses something called ‘events’ to track specific user actions like clicks, form submissions and page views, each of which can be marked as conversions.
While GA4 tracks many of these automatically, you may want to create some of your own. In this case, go to Admin > Events to view or make new events. Once it’s added, you can toggle all events as conversions going forward.
You might find it useful to make a list of the key actions or events you’re hoping to track, otherwise you may be overloaded with an influx of data.
For more insights into using Google Analytics, head to page 25 of The Broker’s Guide to all Things Marketing.
Getting used to GA4 takes some time, and the breadth of available information can lead to confusion if you’re not sure how to understand and utilise it. Below are the three types of reporting you can do within GA4 and a quick overview of each.
If you find that you need more information, there are many useful guides for GA4 for beginners, such as this one from Backlinko or this one from MailChimp.
User reports are where you’ll get information about people visiting your website, including their location and the devices they’re browsing from.
To find them, go to Reports > User and look through the Tech and Demographics sections to explore in more detail. These let you view user breakdowns by country, city, language, age group and device type.
With the active users metric, you can also see how many people have visited your website over a given time period, which is useful for spotting spikes or dips.
To view geographic reports, you’ll need to go to Reports > User > Demographics > Location. It shows you where your visitors are based - down to the country, region or city - and you can even see a map visual that highlights the areas generating the most traffic.
Acquisition reports show you how visitors found your site, whether it’s through a Google search, a paid ad, a referral link, or an email newsletter, etc.
In GA4, this is split into two views:
You’ll see familiar channels like organic, paid search, referral and email, along with source breakdowns that can reveal how users from different channels engage with your site, while evaluating the Return on Investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts.
Tip: If you’ve linked GA4 to Google Ads or Search Console, these reports will show you the full picture of how your campaigns are performing.
The engagement section tracks metrics like engaged sessions, engagement rate (which might refer to the amount of page views or conversion events ) and how long visitors are staying to help you understand what content resonates with readers and holds their interest. It shows you who’s actively interacting with your site, so you can adapt your strategy according to real-time user insights.
GA4 also now includes exploration tools like funnel exploration, which shows you how users move through a journey (for example, the homepage > calculator > contact form), and path exploration, which maps the routes users actually take across your site.
This is especially useful for brokers who want to see where users are dropping off in a quote process or contact journey.
For example, if you want to know where users drop off when applying for a remortgage quote, funnel exploration helps you track their steps and where they leave the process.
You’ll also find lots of other useful tools in GA4, including:
Ready to dig a little deeper? Google has a FREE course on GA4 for Beginners.
Now that you have your Google Analytics account up and running and you know how to use some of the popular tools, you’ll be able to use this platform to drive better decisions, as data-driven decision making is the key to succeeding in an increasingly digital world.
Read more: The importance of data analytics in improving sales performance
Added 13/11/25 - min read
Added 06/11/25 - min read
Added 03/11/25 - min read
Added 17/11/25 - 3 min read
Added 06/11/25 - 4 min read
Added 03/11/25 - 6 min read
