Good analytics shouldn’t be difficult to understand. In this practical guide - based on our October webinar with ASP Head of Performance, Jon Monk - we’ll show event marketers how to turn the ever-confusing GA4 and Google Search Console into simple, decision-making machines that can help you boost registrations, improve conversion rates and prove ROI.

TL;DR: What you’ll take away

• Know which channels really drive registrations and engagement (not just traffic).

• Understand how simple dashboards can connect web visits to exhibitor/sponsorship leads.

• Tell clear ROI stories your stakeholders will understand.

• Make confident, data-backed tweaks to every campaign while it’s still live.
   

It's no secret that GA4 isn’t universally loved. The UI changed, names changed (hello, “Key events”), and useful bits are often buried. But the prize is still huge: when you can see what’s working and what isn’t, you stop guessing and start reallocating time and budget with confidence.

Tip: Fewer metrics, used often, beat dozens you rarely open.

The essential metrics (and what to do with them)

Start here and make sure you master these before diving into anything more fancy.

• Users vs. Sessions

  • Users = people. Sessions = visits.

  • Use it to judge stickiness (e.g., 500 users / 1,000 sessions ≈ 2 visits per user).
     

• Engagement rate & Avg. engagement time

  • Are visitors actually sticking around and interacting?

  • Use it to spot message-match issues (great ad, wrong landing page) or content gaps.
     

• Key events (GA4’s name for conversions)

  • Think: registration complete, ticket purchase, newsletter signup, exhibitor enquiry.

  • Use it to compare conversion rate across channels and campaigns—your #1 decision lever.
     

• Channel & campaign performance

  • Compare like-for-like via conversion rate, not just total conversions.

  • Use it when email shows 8% CVR and paid social shows 1%—now you’ve found an optimisation or a tracking issue to fix.
     

• By channel: Sessions → Key events → Conversion rate

• By campaign: UTMs grouped and comparable

• By content type: (optional but powerful) Reg forms, Speaker pages, Exhibitor listings, Blogs/News
   

Whether you build this in GA4 or use ASP’s built-in dashboard, the goal is the same: see patterns fast, then act.

GA4 tells you what people do on your site. GSC tells you how they found you in search.

What to monitor in GSC:

• Clicks & Impressions: Visibility rises first (impressions), then traffic (clicks).

• Average Position: A reality check that avoids “I Googled us once and didn’t see it.”

• Queries: Are you visible only on your brand name, or also on topic terms (e.g., “AI conference”, “sustainability expo”)? Non-brand growth = stronger year-round demand.

• Top pages: Optimise pages that already rank/convert somewhat—it’s the quickest win.

• Device & Country: Design and content priorities follow your actual audience, not assumptions.
   

Set just a few Key events that map to your commercial goals:

• registration_complete

• ticket_purchase

• newsletter_signup

• exhibitor_lead_submitted / sponsor_lead_submitted
   

Keep the list tight. During peak campaign periods, less noise = faster decisions.

Tip: If registrations happen on a third-party form, ensure Tag Manager (and consent signals) are installed there too, or GA4 won’t see the conversion.

UTMs are how you compare apples to apples.

Recommended scheme:

• utm_source = channel owner (linkedin, meta, email, google)

• utm_medium = distribution type (paid, organic, email)

• utm_campaign = name of the campaign (e.g., 2025_reg_push_phase1)

• utm_content = creative variant (speaker_1, earlybird_banner)

• utm_term = (optional) keyword for paid search
   

FAQ from the webinar: “Can I reuse the same UTM for multiple social posts?”
Yes - if they’re part of the same campaign with the same audience and message. If topics or audiences differ, split them. Keep a single spreadsheet as your source of truth.

Broken or duplicated tags = bad data and slower pages. Common culprits:

• Multiple GA4 snippets (or old Universal Analytics still lurking)

• Tag Manager installed twice

• Ad platform tags duplicated
   

How to check: Use the free Google Tag Assistant Chrome extension. Aim for one Tag Manager container in the <head>, and manage every tag (GA4, Google Ads, LinkedIn, etc.) inside that - each exactly once.

High “decline” rates on your cookie banner can starve GA4 and paid channels of info. If your numbers look suspiciously low, audit:

• Banner design & copy (is “accept” the easy path?)

• Region rules you’ve enabled

• Whether consent mode is properly configured in Tag Manager

We’re partnering with Cookiebot and will cover this in depth on an upcoming session soon.

Stakeholders don’t want dashboards - they want decisions. Try this structure:

• Goal: “Increase paid registrations 20% YoY.”

• What we tried: “Three-week email + paid social early-bird push.”

• What happened: “Email CVR 7.9% vs paid social 1.2%. Speaker pages drove 35% of assisted conversions.”

• What we learned: “Warm lists convert; speaker content accelerates intent.”

• What we’re doing next: “Shift 25% paid budget to remarketing; replicate best-performing email angle in paid creative; add speaker CTAs to top 10 bio pages.”

Short, visual, and tied to money.

• List your Key events and mark them in GA4.

• Audit tags with Tag Assistant and remove duplicates.

• Standardise UTMs (create the spreadsheet; lock it).

• Build a one-page view (channels, campaigns, content types, conversion rate)

• Connect GSC and review top queries/pages.

• Pick two actions (e.g., switch budget based on CVR; optimise a page already ranking for a target term).

• Review weekly during campaign flight; adjust while it counts.
   

If you’d prefer a ready-made, one-page view that combines GA4 + Search Console and highlights channel, campaign and page-type conversion rates inside your ASP site's back office, our Insights dashboard is built for exactly this. It’s designed for busy event teams who need answers at a glance.

If you'd like to know more drop Jon a note to get things started. 

Ask Jon to build your dashboard

You don’t need to be a data scientist. You just need clean tracking, consistent UTMs, and one page that tells you where to push and where to pause. Do that, and every campaign you run will get a little sharper—and your ROI stories will write themselves.

If you’d like, I can turn this into a downloadable checklist or plug your GA4/GSC into a starter dashboard for your next campaign.

Here's the full recording of Jon's webinar