How to find commonly-used metrics and reports in GA4
A one-stop guide for the key numbers
Written by Benji Weiser
Updated at August 14th, 2023
Common Reports
This is a collection of the most common reports used by customers on Pugpig Bolt. This is designed to be a document you can keep handy and circulate with anybody For each report there will be instructions on how to create them, or if they are standard reports, how to find them within the interface.
The table of contents should provide an easy way to find the specific metrics you're looking for. We've included screenshots where necessary, as well as links out to Google's own documentation. As always, with any further questions on this please get in touch with us at support@pugpig.com
Standard Reports
Standard reports are those that are included by default in Google Analytics, an explanation of where to find them will be given if they are a common report.
Google are continuously updating this interface which means some of the names can change but there shouldn't be much changing in terms of the actual data that is available. Below is the screenshot of the "Reports Snapshot" which is an overview of your site/app performance over the last 7 days and where much of the data you look at regularly sits.
Total users of your app
Read more about Googles' definitions about Users vs New Users
Users by Platform
This is viewable under Users > Tech > Tech overview. There are firebase-provided dimensions to allow you to apply this to different views, these are
- Device category
- Operating system
New Users
Total sessions
Google Analytics -> Reports Snapshot
Googles' session definition
Session duration and Screens per session
The level of engagement of your users is readily available in Engagement > Overview
Google Analytics / Reports Snapshot
Total screen views
Google Analytics / Reports Snapshot
This section includes the card below which is a snapshot of the most popular pages and the number of views they have received. To see a total click on "view pages and screens" where you will see a total and more detail of this data.
Total subscribers/logged-in users
To segment your data by the type of subscriber use the custom dimension KGSubscriberStatus which – as of Bolt version 3.16 – is a user-scoped event. The values for this dimension are as follows
| None or (not set) | The user has not signed in or made any purchases |
| Existing Subscriber | A user has signed in via your authentication system |
| Inactive Subscriber | A user who is signed in via your authentication but does not have access, usually through their subscription expiring |
| iTunes/Google Play Subscriber | The user has purchased a subscription via in-app purchase |
| iTunes/Google Play Single Issue Purchase | The user has purchases one or more issues via in-app purchase |
Most popular screens
To identify the most popular screens in your app you'll need to utilise some of our custom dimensions. This is because names in Bolt are derived from differing sources, namely the app code itself for certain screens, the CMS for Timeline and editions, and your content feed for article pages. Below is a quick reference for which dimensions apply to which screens.
| Screen Type | KGPageName | KGEditionName | Screen Name |
| App screens (Onboarding, settings, sign in, subscribe etc) | No | No | Yes, as described in the spec |
| Articles or other content | Yes | Yes | No |
| Editions or timelines | No | Yes | No |
Page Types
The KGPageType dimension will tell you what type of content a page was, the most common being article, but advert, video, audio will all be separate out as their own content type. Note that custom page types added as part of project work may influence these values, most commonly to [Customer Name]Article/Audio/Video etc.
Engagement events
There are several events that can be used to identify the most popular articles [KGPageName], editions [KGEditionName] and tabs. All these events can be found under Engagement / Events and then for each event you will find the metrics for the custom dimensions.
| Custom Dimension | Report Type | Event Name |
|---|---|---|
| Article [KGPageName] | Most Shared | BoltShare |
| Article [KGPageName] | Most Saved | BoltSave |
| Editions [KGEditionName] | Most Screenviews | screen_view |
| Editions [KGEditionName] | Most Screenviews | screen_view |
| Tabs | Most Tapped | BoltTabTapped |
Acquisition
GA4 has a whole tab dedicated to acquisition, which should show you every source that users have installed your app from. Note that in many cases additional work will need to be carried out by your marketing teams to pass the necessary information to the app. This will vary by source (i.e Facebook vs Google vs the App Store)
Most shared
- Most popular tabs: Reports / Engagement / Events / “BoltTabTapped”
- Timelines [Reports / Engagement / Events / Pages and Screens / Change to Page Title and screen name / and filter out “/t/”]
- Audio [Reports / Engagement / Events / “BoltTabTapped”]
- Videos [Reports / Engagement / Events / “BoltVideoPlay”]
-
How many users:
- Read x many articles
- Watch videos
- Listen to audio
- Open push notifications [Reports / Engagement / Events / “notification_open”]
- Which notifications were tapped on the most
Useful Links
Definitions and FAQ's for Pugpig and Google
[GA4] Find your way around Analytics
Pugpig Bolt Analytics Starter Guide
FAQ's
Q. Why do I see (not set) values?
A. This is an issue with firebase itself, whereby all dimensions are recorded for all events. However, certain dimensions don't/can't apply to these events. For example, KGOrientation doesn't apply to BoltAudioFinishedPlaying but will still send as (not set). You can safely ignore these when viewing your reports.
Q. How to check if a custom dimension has been added?
A. [GA4] Custom dimensions and metrics