Setting up conversion tracking
I am working on setting up conversion tracking for some lead generation events.
I followed the help file: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12966437 but after I created the
generate_leadevents (3 with the same name) I find that they don’t show up in my list of existing events.
The short answer is:
generate_lead’ event showing in Google Analytics 4? The most robust and reliable solution for ensuring your generate_lead events register correctly in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and appear as conversion events is to implement server-side tracking using the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol.
This method bypasses client-side issues like ad blockers or browser restrictions that prevent your browser-sent events from being reliably collected.
You’ll set up a GTM Server Container, potentially hosted on a cost-effective platform like Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), to receive the lead data from your CRM or website’s backend via a webhook or direct API call.
You would then use the Measurement Protocol to forward a single, properly formatted generate_lead event to GA4, ensuring event name consistency and immediate processing, leading to reliable conversion reporting and subsequent analysis in tools like Looker Studio or BigQuery.
The long answer is:
The core problem is likely due to the unreliability of client-side tracking, where three separate attempts to send a generate_lead event could be conflicting or blocked before reaching Google Analytics 4’s servers, which is why they aren’t appearing in your events list even after following the guide.
The fact that you created three with the same name strongly suggests a client-side execution or naming issue that GA4’s data processing pipeline is rejecting, even if the intention was to track different lead types.
A single, consistent event name is critical.
The professional solution is to decouple the tracking from the user’s browser environment by moving the event collection to a server-side environment.
This is achieved by implementing the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol.
The process involves configuring a Google Tag Manager (GTM) Server Container, which can be easily provisioned and scaled using a service like Stape or hosted on a cloud environment like Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
When a lead generation action is completed on your website, instead of trying to send the event from the user’s browser, your website’s backend system (e.g., your CRM or form submission handler) will send a reliable server-to-server request.
This request contains all necessary data – like the client_id (obtained from the GA4 client-side cookie), user properties, and lead details – to the GTM Server Container’s endpoint.
In the GTM Server Container, a server-side GA4 tag is configured to receive the incoming data and use the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol to construct and dispatch a perfectly clean, single, and correctly named generate_lead event directly to the GA4 API endpoint.
Because this event comes from a controlled server environment, it is not subject to client-side limitations, resulting in near-perfect data collection and immediate appearance in your GA4 event reports for marking as a conversion.
This server-side approach is highly cost-effective because it drastically reduces data loss, ensures marketing spend is attributed accurately, and centralizes your data layer for future integrations.
Furthermore, a robust GA4 implementation using the Measurement Protocol seamlessly enables integration with tools like BigQuery for raw data warehousing and advanced analysis, or Looker Studio for real-time reporting and visualization, leveraging the BigQuery API and the Looker Studio API for powerful data synchronization and dashboarding.
This shift to server-side tracking via the Measurement Protocol provides the technical foundation for a truly reliable MarTech stack.
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