How to report on Evolv AI data in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

This article explains how to use your Evolv AI data when reporting in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

Reporting in GA4 requires Evolv AI's GA4 integration.

You can use Evolv AI events in GA4 to create segments to report on your existing business metrics.

Your business metrics are how you report on the success of your website.

The Evolv AI Manager records data for the project conversion metric used to optimize your project. You don’t need to report on this metric in GA4 because the metric used may not represent your true goal. For example, you might use a cart page event in your project because it's easy to instrument, but your true north is a purchase.

On this page:

• About Evolv events
• Custom dimensions
• Conversion events (optional)
• Custom events
• Reporting
  • Create an Explore report
  • Create a custom report

About Evolv events

All events triggered by your project are sent to GA4 via the installed integration. These events include confirmation, contamination, and custom events.

In GA4, all events from Evolv AI have the event name: "evolv"

The event details are stored as parameters on the event.

Custom Evolv AI events are not project-specific. Therefore, they only include the type parameter.

Custom dimensions

Custom dimensions let you use event data to create audience segments.

1. Create a custom dimension for each event parameter you want to use in a reporting segment.
2. Set the scope to Event.
3. Select the appropriate parameter name from the list above.

Create the custom dimensions as early as possible. If you don’t create dimensions ahead of time, you can do so when creating reports.

Custom dimensions are not retroactive. You will only see data for custom dimensions after they get created.

Conversion events (optional)

There are no goals in GA4. Instead, GA4 uses conversion events.

Conversion events in GA4 are not the same as the optimization metric in your Evolv AI project. You can define custom events based on your project’s optimization metric or filter by the event parameter “type” in a report and select the required event key.

The built-in GA4 metric Conversion Rate is based on all conversion events.

Creating a new conversion event based on the evolv event's parameters will impact the Conversion Rate for existing reports. We recommend against creating conversion events for this reason.

Custom events

GA4 lets you create new events based on other events and their parameters.

A custom event is triggered when its conditions are met by other events that occur.

You can create events to match specific conditions to make it easier to report on those events. For example, create a custom event for any metrics you report on in the Evolv AI Manager.

1. Parameter: event_name
   • Operator: equals
   • Value: evolv
2. Parameter: type
   • Operator: equals
   • Value: [use the same experiment key that your project uses in the Manager]

Custom events are not retroactive.

Reporting

There are two good places to create reports in GA4.

1. Explore
2. As a custom report

Create an Explore report

1. Click on the Explore option in the navigation.
2. Select "Blank" or one of the template options if you know what you’re doing.
3. Add a new Segment.
   • Select the Session or User segment type.
     • We recommend using a session-based segment for more accurate reporting, especially if you’re running a session-based project.
   • Select the "evolv" event from the Events option in the segment builder.
   • Add parameters from the Custom option.
     • This is where your custom dimensions live.
     • System parameters can be used via the Other option.
     • Use "group_id" or "eid" to select your project version or experiment phase.
       • A new group_id is required for each project version
     • Use the event type "confirmed."
   • Remember to add an excluded group where the event type is "contaminated."
     • This will exclude sessions where people received a contaminated event.
   • Give the segment a name and save it.
4. Add dimensions and metrics to the report.
   • Use the custom dimension for ordinal/combination ID to see values per combination.
   • Add a filter using the group_id dimension to limit sessions to those that saw an event for the project you’re reporting on.
5. You now have a report that shows the total number of sessions per combination for a single project.
   
6. [Optional] Add another segment that includes the “type” parameter that matches your project’s optimization metric if you want to reconcile data between GA4 and Evolv AI.
   • As mentioned above, using your existing business metrics is the preferred way to report project success.
   • Reconciling against Evolv events is an excellent way to validate your integration before you begin optimizing.

Create a custom report

You can create custom reports that are more interactive and permanent.

1. Click on the Reports option in the navigation.
2. Click “Library” down the bottom.
3. Create a new report.
   • Configure the report as required.
4. Create a new collection.
5. Add your report to the collection and publish it.
6. Your custom report/s now appears in the list of report sections under the Reports option.