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.
Before turning on the enhanced measurement feature, be sure you understand each option and what enhanced data will be collected. You can also turn off specific measurement options in settings.
Enable or disable enhanced measurement events
- In Admin, under Data collection and modification, click Data streams.
Note: The previous link opens to the last Analytics property you accessed. You can change the property using the property selector. You must be an Editor or above at the property level to enable or disable enhanced measurement events.
- Click the name of your data stream.
- Under Enhanced measurement, slide the switch On to enable all options.
Click to edit individual options as needed.
If you use the Google tag on your website, you also need to make sure that each event is enabled for automatic event detection for your Google tag. By default, all event types are enabled. Learn more about your Google tag settings
Events measurement and parameters
The following table explains when events are triggered, and which parameters are collected for each event. You can find enhanced data about each triggered event in the Events report within the Engagement topic. Click the event name in the report for more information on the event.
To understand each event parameter listed below and how each parameter updates a dimension or metric in Google Analytics, see Google Analytics event parameters.
Measurement option / event | Triggered... | Parameters |
---|---|---|
Page views page_view |
each time the page loads or the browser history state is changed by the active site The event populates the Views metric. The parameters populate the following dimensions:
|
page_location (page URL), page_referrer (previous page URL) |
Scrolls scroll |
the first time a user reaches the bottom of each page (i.e., when a 90% vertical depth becomes visible) The event populates the Percent scrolled dimension. |
engagement_time_msec |
Outbound clicks click |
each time a user clicks a link that leads away from the current domain By default, outbound click events will occur for all links leading away from the current domain. Links to domains configured for cross-domain measurement will not trigger outbound click events. The parameters populate the following dimensions:
|
link_classes, link_domain, link_id, link_url, outbound (boolean) |
Site search view_search_results |
each time a user is presented with a search results page, as indicated by the presence of a URL query parameter By default, the event is triggered based on the presence of one of the following 5 query parameters in the URL:
You can optionally configure this event to look for other URL query parameters. The search_term parameter populates the Search term dimension. |
search_term, optionally ‘q_<additional key="">’ (where <additional key=""> matches an additional query parameter you specify to be collected under advanced settings). Note: This event only sends the unique_search_term parameter when it has a value of 1 (i.e. when the string is unique to that session). |
Video engagement video_start video_progress video_complete |
For YouTube embedded videos that have JS API support enabled, the following events are triggered:
The parameters populate the following dimensions:
|
video_current_time, video_duration, video_percent, video_provider, video_title, video_url, visible (boolean) |
File downloads file_download |
when a user clicks a link leading to a file (with a common file extension) of the following types:
File extensions that match the following regex will trigger the event: pdf|xlsx?|docx?|txt|rtf|csv|exe|key|pp(s|t|tx)| The parameters populate the following dimensions:
|
file_extension, file_name, link_classes, link_id, link_text, link_url |
Form interactions form_start form_submit |
'form_start': the first time a user interacts with a form in a session 'form_submit': when the user submits a form You can use these two events to see how many users started to fill out a form and compare the information to users who submitted the form. Note: You can only use the parameters in your reports if you create custom dimensions for them. |
form_start
form_submit
|