Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has reshaped how colleges and universities track prospective student behaviour online. With the retirement of Universal Analytics (UA) in 2023, GA4 is now the default analytics platform, and for many higher ed marketers, the transition has been disorienting. Gone are the familiar sessions and pageviews; in their place is an event-based model, a redesigned interface, and new metrics that require a shift in thinking.
But while the learning curve is real, so are the opportunities. GA4 offers deeper insights into student intent, behaviour, and engagement, insights that, when used effectively, can support measurable enrollment growth.
This guide breaks down GA4 in a practical, approachable way. We’ll walk through how to use its core features at each stage of the student recruitment funnel: Discovery, Engagement, Decision-Making, and Enrollment. You’ll learn which reports matter, which metrics to ignore, and how to use GA4’s exploration tools to uncover new conversion opportunities. Throughout, we’ll also highlight how Higher Education Marketing (HEM) can help you make the most of GA4, from free audits to CRM integration support.
Let’s start by shifting our perspective on what analytics can do, and then dive into how GA4 can support every phase of your student journey.
GA4 unlocks powerful enrolment insights.
Turn student journey data into smarter recruitment decisions with HEM.
GA4’s Event-Based Mindset vs. Universal Analytics
The most significant shift from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the underlying measurement model. UA was centred on sessions and pageviews, essentially counting a sequence of “hits” during a user’s visit. GA4, by contrast, is entirely event-based. Every interaction, whether it’s a pageview, a button click, a form submission, or a video play, is captured as an event. This model allows for a more flexible, granular view of user behaviour across devices and platforms, reflecting the idea that “everything is an event that signals user intent.”
What makes GA4 different from Universal Analytics for higher ed marketers? Higher ed marketers accustomed to UA’s pageviews and sessions are now confronted with a new event-based model, a slew of unfamiliar reports, and an interface that looks nothing like the old Google Analytics. GA4 offers richer insights into student behaviour and intent, which can directly fuel enrollment growth.
Crucially, GA4 is built for today’s privacy-first, multi-device world. It can track a single user’s journey across devices using User IDs or Google Signals and relies less on cookies, instead using machine learning to fill in data gaps, helping you stay compliant with emerging privacy standards.
For higher ed marketers, this opens up richer insight into the prospective student journey. GA4 for student recruitment automatically tracks many common interactions (like scrolls and file downloads) and lets you define custom events aligned to your goals.
New metrics also reflect this shift. Engagement Rate replaces bounce rate, highlighting sessions that last 10+ seconds, include 2+ pageviews, or trigger a conversion. Other core metrics include Engaged Sessions per User and Average Engagement Time, which are helpful indicators of whether your content holds attention or needs refinement.
GA4 also brings predictive capabilities. With built-in machine learning, it can surface emerging trends or flag anomalies in student behaviour. While some advanced features like Predictive Metrics may feel out of reach initially, knowing they exist helps future-proof your analytics approach.
It’s true, GA4 isn’t just an upgrade, it’s an entirely new platform. Many familiar reports have been retired or redesigned, and the interface now favours customizable dashboards over static reports. But don’t let the overhaul overwhelm you.
The key is to focus on the metrics that support your enrollment goals. In the next section, we’ll show how GA4’s event-based model aligns with each stage of the student journey, from first visit to application.
If you need support getting started, HEM offers a free GA4 audit to help identify top-performing lead sources, evaluate your marketing ROI, and ensure your setup is recruitment-ready.
Mapping GA4 to the Student Journey Stages
Every prospective student moves through distinct phases on the path to enrollment. GA4 can provide actionable insights at each stage if you know where to look. Below, we break down how to use GA4 effectively across the four stages of the student journey: Discovery, Engagement, Decision-Making, and Enrollment. We’ll also highlight key metrics to prioritize and reports you can skip to avoid analysis paralysis.
Stage 1: Discovery: Awareness & Early Interest
What it is:
At this stage, prospective students are just beginning to explore postsecondary options. They may land on your site via a Google search, a digital ad, or a social post. They’re not ready to apply yet, but they’re starting to investigate. Your goal is to attract the right audiences and create a strong first impression.
What to use in GA4:
Focus on the Acquisition reports under Life cycle > Acquisition:
- User Acquisition Report
Shows how new users first arrive, by channel, campaign, or source. This answers, “Where are our new prospects coming from?” and helps assess brand awareness performance. - Traffic Acquisition Report
Tracks sessions from all users (new and returning). Use it to evaluate which traffic sources deliver engaged sessions and prompt interaction.
Key metrics to monitor:
- Engaged Sessions per User: Are visitors exploring more than one page?
- Engagement Rate: What percentage of sessions include meaningful interaction?
- Event Count per Session: Are users watching videos, downloading brochures, or clicking calls-to-action?
These metrics reflect traffic quality, not just quantity. For example, if organic search traffic has a 75% engagement rate while paid social sits at 25%, that’s a clear sign of where to invest.
Landing Pages: Your Digital First Impression
Check Engagement > Pages and Screens to see which pages users land on most. Are your program or admissions pages pulling in traffic? Are they generating long engagement times? That’s a signal they’re working. If top landing pages show low engagement, it’s time to refine content, CTAs, or UX.
What to skip:
- Demographics and Tech Reports: Too broad to act on for now.
- Real-time Report: Interesting, but not useful for strategic planning.
Pro tip:
HEM’s free GA4 assessment can help you identify your highest-quality channels and flag low-performing ones so you can optimize marketing spend and attract better-fit prospects.
Stage 2: Engagement & Consideration: Mid-Funnel Interest
Once prospective students are aware of your institution and begin browsing your site in earnest, they enter the engagement or consideration stage. Here, they’re comparing programs, evaluating fit, and building interest, but may not yet be ready to contact you. Your goal is to nurture their intent by providing relevant content, encouraging micro-conversions, and guiding them toward decision-making.
GA4 Focus: Engagement & Behaviour Reports
In GA4, shift your attention to the Engagement reports under Life cycle > Engagement. These include:
- Pages and Screens
- Events
- Conversions
- Landing Pages
As HEM notes, “Engagement reports are all about what prospects do after landing on your site”, whether they go deeper or drop off.
1. Pages and Screens Report
This is your new “Top Pages” view. Use it to identify high-interest pages such as:
- Program descriptions
- Tuition and aid
- Admissions criteria
- Campus life
Key metrics:
- Average Engagement Time
- Conversions per Page
- User Navigation Paths (Where users go next)
If your BBA program page has high engagement and links to “Schedule a Tour,” make sure the CTA is prominent and functional. If engagement is low, revise the content or layout.
2. Events Report
GA4 automatically tracks events like:
- Scroll depth (90%)
- File downloads
- Outbound clicks
- Video plays
You should also configure custom events for micro-conversions, such as:
- “Request Info” form submissions
- Brochure downloads
- “Schedule a Visit” or “Start Application” clicks
These are the mid-funnel signals that indicate increasing interest. Mark them as Conversions in GA4 to elevate their importance in reporting.
Pro tip: Track 3–5 key events that correlate strongly with application intent.
3. Conversions Report
Once key events are marked as conversions, the report will show:
- Total conversions by event type
- Event frequency over time
- Value (if assigned)
This helps determine which micro-conversions are driving engagement and which campaigns or pages are most effective.
4. Path Exploration
GA4’s Explorations > Path Analysis lets you visualize what users do after key pages or events. For example, if many students visit the “Admissions FAQ” after reading a program page, that suggests rising intent. Use this to improve internal linking and user flow.
What to Skip
Avoid advanced GA4 reports like:
- Cohort Analysis
- User Lifetime
- User Explorer
These are often too detailed or irrelevant for short-term funnel optimization. Also, don’t feel obligated to use every Exploration template; build your own around your specific enrollment steps instead.
HEM Insight: Unsure if your GA4 is tracking these mid-funnel behaviours correctly? HEM offers audits, event configuration, and CRM integration support, ensuring that when a student requests info, that action is tracked, stored, and acted upon.
Ready for the next stage? Let’s move on to how GA4 supports Decision-Making.
Stage 3: Decision-Making: High Intent & Lead Conversion
In the decision-making stage, prospective students move from casual interest to serious consideration. They’re comparing programs, costs, outcomes, and culture. By now, they’ve likely returned to your site several times. The goal here is clear: convert an engaged visitor into a lead or applicant.
GA4 Focus: Conversion Tracking & Funnel Analysis
This is where your earlier GA4 setup pays off. With key conversion events (e.g., “Request Info,” “Submit Application”) defined, you can now analyze how and where those conversions happen. GA4’s Traffic Acquisition, Explorations, and Conversions tools are central at this stage.
Conversions by Source/Medium
To understand which marketing channels drive high-intent actions, use the Traffic Acquisition report and add columns for specific conversions (e.g., “Request Info count” and conversion rate). Alternatively, build an Exploration with source/medium as the dimension and conversion events as metrics.
HEM’s webinar emphasizes looking beyond raw volume: ask “Which sources deliver my highest-intent leads?” For example:
- Organic Search: 30 info requests, 10 applications
- Paid Social: 5 info requests, 0 applications
This data helps optimize channel strategy. If certain channels underperform in lead quality, revisit targeting, messaging, or landing pages.
Funnel Exploration
GA4’s Funnel Exploration is ideal for visualizing conversion paths. You can define steps like:
- View Program Page
- Click “Request Info”
- Submit RFI Form
- Start Application
- Submit Application
Example funnel insight:
- 1,000 users view program pages
- 200 click “Inquire” (20%)
- 50 submit forms (25% of clicks)
- 30 start applications
- 20 submit applications (67% of starters)
This highlights where friction occurs, perhaps a clunky form (25% completion) or weak CTAs (20% inquiry rate). Use this to improve form UX, reinforce CTAs, or add nurturing touchpoints.
You can also segment student recruitment funnels by device or user type (e.g., international vs. domestic). If drop-off is worse on mobile, consider layout changes; if international students abandon applications, address barriers like unclear visa info.
Path Exploration
GA4’s Path Exploration can show common user journeys leading to conversion. Start with “Application Submitted” and trace backward. If scholarship pages, FAQs, or department overviews frequently appear in these paths, you’ve identified key conversion content.
Conversely, if users loop across pages without converting, that may signal confusion. Use these insights to surface critical info sooner or rework unclear sections.
User Explorer: Qualitative Insights
While not scalable, inspecting User Explorer for select journeys (e.g., converters vs. non-converters) can offer qualitative insight. One user might watch webinars and return five times before applying, proving content value. Others bounce after one visit, highlighting the need for nurturing.
Metrics That Matter
Focus on:
- Conversion counts and rates per channel and funnel stage
- Engaged sessions per user
- Average engagement time for converters
Example: applicants average 5 sessions and 10 engagement minutes; non-converters average 1 session and 2 minutes. Clearly, repeat engagement correlates with conversion, and nurturing campaigns (email, retargeting) are essential.
What to Skip
Avoid getting distracted by:
- Cohort Analysis or User Lifetime
- Attribution modelling (unless you’re running major ad campaigns)
- Default GA4 templates that don’t fit your student recruitment funnel
Stick with the custom funnel and path reports that reflect your application process.
Pro Tip: Not confident in GA4 setup? HEM’s experts can build your funnels, configure conversion tracking, and connect GA4 to your CRM, giving you clear, enrollment-focused dashboards and team training to act on the insights confidently.
Stage 4: Enrollment: Application to Enrollment (Bottom of Funnel)
The enrollment stage is the final stretch, transforming applicants into enrolled students. While much of this process shifts to admissions and offline workflows (e.g., application review, acceptance, deposit), digital analytics still play a critical role. GA4 helps marketing teams identify friction points, evaluate channel performance, and inform efforts that influence yield. It also closes the loop on campaign effectiveness, especially if tied to downstream outcomes.
GA4 Focus: Funnel Completion, Attribution, and Post-Application Insights
Application Funnel Completion
Using Funnel Exploration, ensure your funnel captures key milestones like “Apply Clicked” and “Application Submitted.” If many click “Apply” but few complete the form, GA4 highlights a clear drop-off. For instance, if desktop converts at 30% but mobile only 10%, there may be UX issues on mobile or a third-party form that isn’t optimized. This insight can guide IT discussions or quick fixes (e.g., warning banners or responsive design improvements).
Attribution Paths
GA4’s Advertising > Attribution > Conversion Paths report reveals the sequence of marketing touches that lead to applications. Common patterns in higher ed include:
- Organic Search → Direct → Conversion
- Paid Search → Organic → Direct → Conversion
- Email → Direct → Conversion
These paths underscore that enrollment isn’t a single-touch journey. For instance, Organic Search may start the process, while Direct or Email closes it. If you frequently see Email leading to conversions, it validates your nurture sequences. Also, keep an eye on new referral sources, like “Chat” or “Perplexity”, which may signal traffic from AI tools, as teased in HEM’s presentation.
Post-Application Engagement
Some schools track events beyond submission (e.g., clicking an admitted student portal link, viewing housing or financial aid info). While GA4 may not capture yield or melt directly, it can show post-application interest signals. Continued engagement, like visiting tuition or residence life pages, suggests intent to enroll or lingering questions that marketing content can address.
Benchmarking and Outcomes
Use GA4 to evaluate ROI by channel. For example, if Paid Search generates 10 applications at $5,000, while Organic Search drives 30 at no direct ad cost, that’s a critical insight. While GA4 doesn’t include media spend (unless connected to Google Ads), you can overlay cost data offline to calculate rough efficiency.
You can also segment Applicants vs. Non-Applicants using GA4’s Explorations. Let’s say applicants averaged 8 sessions while non-applicants averaged 2. That suggests high engagement correlates with conversion, reinforcing the value of remarketing, email campaigns, and sticky content.
Research supports this: EAB found that highly engaged users (multiple sessions, longer duration) were significantly more likely to apply.
What to Skip
Once a student applies, most enrollment decisions move to CRM or SIS platforms, not GA4. Don’t expect GA4 to tell you who enrolled, who melted, or who was denied. Similarly, ignore reports like Predictive Metrics, User Lifetime, and Cohort Analysis, which are less actionable for enrollment marketing. Focus instead on your core funnel, attribution, and engagement data.
Final Takeaway
By now, your GA4 setup should illuminate your recruitment funnel: how students find you, how they behave, when they convert, and where they fall off. This data is crucial for optimizing spend, improving user experience, and shaping strategic decisions.
Priority GA4 Reports:
- Traffic & User Acquisition (channel quality)
- Pages and Screens (top content, engagement)
- Events & Conversions (key actions)
- Funnel & Path Explorations (journey analysis)
- Attribution Paths (multi-touch influence)
Reports to Skip:
- Demographics & Tech (unless troubleshooting)
- Realtime (not strategic)
- Cohorts, LTV, Default Templates (too advanced or unfocused)
Pro tip: HEM can help you build enrollment-specific GA4 funnels, connect data to your CRM, and surface dashboards that show “visits → inquiries → apps → yield” at a glance, so you can finally act on your data with confidence.
Real-World Examples: GA4 Insights Driving Enrollment in Higher Ed (from various colleges & universities)
Clemson University (College of Business) Clemson’s Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business leveraged targeted digital campaigns and GA4 event tracking to dramatically increase prospective student engagement.
The college saw a 207% increase in page engagement and a 222% growth in program page views for a key graduate program after the campaign. In just a two-month push, GA4 recorded 498 users requesting information and 44 clicking “Apply” to begin their applications.
University College Dublin (UCD). This university fully transitioned to GA4 and implemented a unified analytics dashboard via a data warehouse for all its websites. The new GA4-powered reporting interface, featuring Overview, Page Performance, and User Engagement reports, loads much faster and retains up to two years of data.
This enables UCD’s faculties and departments to easily track user behaviour across the university’s web presence, gaining insights into what content is engaging visitors and where improvements can be made.
Source: University College Dublin
Boise State University. Boise State created a centralized GA4 “Comprehensive Dashboard” accessible to campus stakeholders and paired it with training tutorials on common GA4 tasks. Their web team produced self-paced video guides on how to filter GA4 data to answer specific questions (such as finding top pages, viewing traffic sources, or seeing visitor geolocation).
This approach empowers individual departments to slice the raw GA4 data for their own needs and quickly get answers about user behaviour, for example, identifying the most popular pages or where visitors are coming from, without needing advanced technical skills.
Source: Boise State University
UC Riverside. UC Riverside moved all its many departmental and unit websites to GA4 under a centralized analytics structure. The university’s web team built a curated “Web Analytics for Campus Partners” GA4 dashboard with custom reports, including a Broken Links report and a Top Landing Pages report.
These tailored GA4 dashboards help site owners across campus quickly spot issues (e.g. finding and fixing 404 error pages) and identify content that attracts new traffic. By giving each department actionable insights, such as which pages are bringing in the most new visitors, UCR has improved user experience and informed content strategy across dozens of sites in its domain.
Source: UC Riverside
Texas A&M University. Texas A&M established an Analytics Community of Practice that meets monthly, bringing together marketers and communicators from different colleges and units to share GA4 insights and techniques.
In these sessions, participants discuss recent findings (for example, which pages on their sites show unusually high engagement rates, or how referral traffic patterns are shifting) in a collaborative forum. This ongoing knowledge exchange ensures continuous learning and helps cultivate a data-informed culture campus-wide.
Source: Texas A&M University
Turning GA4 Insights into Enrollment Growth
Embracing GA4’s event-based, student-centric model can reshape how your team drives recruitment outcomes. By moving beyond vanity metrics like pageviews, GA4 prompts higher ed marketers to focus on real indicators of student intent, such as engaged sessions, application clicks, and program page sequences. Across each funnel stage, GA4 reveals which channels attract interest, what content sustains it, and which actions convert it.
This clarity empowers you to refine campaign targeting, improve website performance, and simplify the inquiry or application path. GA4 also bridges the long-standing gap between marketing and admissions by giving both teams shared metrics and a common funnel narrative. Instead of saying, “We got 10,000 visits,” marketing can report: “We drove 300 info requests and 50 applications, and here’s what influenced them.”
It’s true, GA4 can feel overwhelming at first. But by focusing on core engagement metrics, key conversion events, and simple funnel analyses, you can avoid the noise and surface what truly matters. Start small, then grow into more advanced insights as you gain confidence. What should higher ed marketers avoid focusing on in GA4? Don’t worry if GA4 isn’t tracking beyond the application.
Also, avoid misattributing things to GA4 that it can’t measure – e.g., GA4 won’t tell you ‘admitted vs. denied’ or ‘enrolled vs. melt’ – that’s outside its scope. Focus on what GA4 can concretely tell you about the marketing funnel leading up to enrollment.
Above all, GA4 is most powerful when used collaboratively. Share funnel data with admissions. Highlight high-performing content to your copy team. Use insights to inform international recruitment or retargeting campaigns. And if needed, partner with specialists. At HEM, we help institutions build clear, actionable GA4 setups, from audits and event tracking to CRM integrations, so your analytics directly support enrollment.
GA4 isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a strategic advantage. When aligned with your funnel, it can become your most effective tool for enrollment growth.
GA4 unlocks powerful enrolment insights.
Turn student journey data into smarter recruitment decisions with HEM.
FAQs
What makes GA4 different from Universal Analytics for higher ed marketers?
Higher ed marketers accustomed to UA’s pageviews and sessions are now confronted with a new event-based model, a slew of unfamiliar reports, and an interface that looks nothing like the old Google Analytics. GA4 offers richer insights into student behaviour and intent, which can directly fuel enrollment growth.
What should higher ed marketers avoid focusing on in GA4?
Don’t worry if GA4 isn’t tracking beyond the application. Also, avoid misattributing things to GA4 that it can’t measure, e.g., GA4 won’t tell you ‘admitted vs. denied’ or ‘enrolled vs. melt’, that’s outside its scope. Focus on what GA4 can concretely tell you about the marketing funnel leading up to enrollment.
Which GA4 reports should we prioritize for enrollment marketing?
Focus on the critical reports:
- Traffic Acquisition & User Acquisition (for awareness channel quality)
- Engagement > Pages and Screens (for top content and engagement per page)
- Engagement > Events & Conversions (for tracking micro and macro conversions)
- Explorations: Funnel Analysis (for visualizing the enrollment funnel and drop-offs)
- Explorations: Path Analysis (for seeing common user journeys and sequences)
- Advertising > Attribution Paths (for understanding multi-touch conversion paths)”
