[GA4] How to report on your lead generation form

This article continues from How to generate more leads on your website and shows how to use Google Analytics to report on activity in your lead generation form.

Report on the lead generation form

In the previous article, you learned how to measure each step in your funnel. The funnel looks something like this:

Once you add the small piece of JavaScript measurement code to each page on your site, you will begin to collect data about your lead generation form in Google Analytics.

The first thing you probably want to see is how effective the form is at generating leads. To see the effectiveness of the form, you can look at the percentage of potential customers who drop off at each step between visiting your site and submitting the form.

An exploration is a more customized way of investigating your data, beyond what is offered in the default reports. The following is an exploration we will build to measure the drop off at each stage between visiting the site and submitting the form.

Create a funnel exploration

You can visualize each step in the lead generation process (or the lead generation funnel) using a funnel exploration. To get started, click Explore on the left in Google Analytics and then Funnel exploration at the top of the page.

Google Analytics will open a prebuilt funnel exploration. On the left in the exploration, click Edit next to Steps and remove each of the default steps. Then, while the window is open, start adding the following steps to the funnel exploration.

Add website visitors and form viewers

The first data point in the lead generation funnel is the number of people who visited the home page on the site. To add the first data point:

1. In the Step 1 text box, enter "Website visits".
2. In the Add new condition drop down, choose Events and select the page_view event.
3. Next to the drop down, click + Add parameter, click Other, and then click page_location.
4. In the dialog, enter the full URL of the home page (e.g., "https://example.com/home.html").
5. Click Apply to add the condition.

The second data point is the number of people who visited the form page. To add the second data point:

1. Click Add step to add a new step in the funnel.
2. In the Step 2 text box, enter "Form views".
3. In the Add new condition drop down, choose Events and select the page_view event.
4. Next to the drop down, click + Add parameter, click Other, and then click page_location.
5. In the dialog, enter the full URL of the form page (e.g., "https://example.com/form.html").
6. Click Apply to add the condition.

Add the form interactions

The third data point is the number of people who started the form. Note that you may need to wait up to 24 hours to see the events in Explorations.

To add the third data point:

1. Click Add step to add a new step in the funnel.
2. In the Step 3 text box, enter "Form starts".
3. In the Add new condition drop down, choose Events and select the form_start event.
   Make sure you have a form on your website and the form has a submit action. Additionally, make sure the event has been triggered. Otherwise, you won't see the event.
4. Next to the drop down, click + Add parameter, click Other, and then click form_name.
5. In the Event parameter name field, enter "form_name"
6. Click Save.
7. In the dialog, enter the form name (e.g., "lead-form").
   This value comes from the HTML name attribute of the <form> DOM element.
8. Click Apply to add the condition.

The last data point is the number of people who fill out and submit the form. To add the last data point:

1. Click Add step to add a new step in the funnel.
2. In the Step 4 text box, enter "Form submits".
3. In the Add new condition drop down, choose Events and select the form_submit event.
4. Next to the drop down, click + Add parameter, click Custom, and then click form_name.
5. In the dialog, enter the form name (e.g., "lead-form").
6. Click Apply to add the condition.

When you're done, you should see the following configuration. Then, click Apply in the top right to add these steps to the funnel and start seeing data.

Adjust your lead form

After potential customers use your lead-generation form for a few weeks, you will notice that many customers drop off at two points: between visiting the home page and viewing the form, and between starting the form and submitting the form.

You decide to try out the form yourself. Based on your experience and what you see in Google Analytics, you come up with hypotheses about why you are seeing these drop offs.

Your first hypothesis is that website visitors aren't going to the form because the button text is unclear. Your second hypothesis is that website visitors aren't completing the form because the form has too many required fields.

To test the hypotheses, you make the following changes:

• Change the button text from "Submit a form" to "Subscribe"
• Change the button color from white to blue
• Change the form so it only captures the user's email, without their name and zip code

After a few more weeks, you compare the data for the past month with the data for the previous month. Using the funnel exploration you already created, you see that fewer users drop off between each step in the funnel.

Next: How to measure key events with Google Analytics