GA4 renamed “conversions” to “key events,” but the more important change is how they get created: any event GA4 already tracks (including custom ones) can be marked as a key event with one toggle, rather than requiring a separate goal-configuration step the way Universal Analytics did. This guide covers choosing the right events and setting them up correctly for organic-focused reporting.
What Actually Changed From Conversions
The rename to “key events” reflects GA4’s event-first architecture: every interaction, from a pageview to a form submit, is already an event, and marking one as “key” simply flags it for conversion-style reporting rather than creating a separate object the way UA goals did. Practically, this means any event already firing on your site — including automatically collected ones like scroll depth or file downloads — can become a key event without new tracking code, just a settings change in the GA4 admin.
Choosing Which Events to Mark as Key
Mark events as key only if they represent a genuine business outcome — a form submission, a newsletter signup, a specific high-value page reached — not vanity events like scroll depth or outbound clicks, which dilute the signal when they’re mixed into conversion-rate reporting. For content and publisher sites without ecommerce, newsletter signups and contact-form submissions are usually the strongest candidates; this site’s own GA4 setup marks a validated contact-form submit event as a key event, gated on the browser’s native form validity check so accidental partial submissions don’t get counted.
Setup: From Event to Key Event
Go to Admin > Events, find the event in the list (it must have fired at least once to appear), and toggle “Mark as key event” — no code change required if the event is already being sent. For a form-submission event specifically, fire it via a JavaScript listener gated on the form’s actual validity state, not just a generic “submit” listener, since the latter also fires on invalid or abandoned submissions and inflates the count.
- Key events replaced conversions in name, but the bigger change is that any existing event can be marked as key with one toggle — no separate goal object required.
- Choose events representing real business outcomes; avoid marking vanity events (scroll depth, generic clicks) as key.
- An event must fire at least once before it appears in Admin > Events to be marked as key.
- Gate form-submission events on actual form validity, not a generic submit listener, to avoid inflated counts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a key event the same thing as a conversion?
Conceptually yes — GA4 renamed the term, and key events serve the same reporting role conversions did in Universal Analytics.
Do I need to write new tracking code to create a key event?
No, if the underlying event is already firing. Marking it as key is a settings toggle in Admin > Events, not a code change.
How many key events should a content site track?
Usually a handful — form submissions, newsletter signups, and maybe one or two high-value page-reach events. More than that tends to dilute the signal rather than add insight.
Why would a submit event over-count form submissions?
A generic “submit” listener fires even on invalid submissions the browser blocks from actually sending. Gating the event on the form’s validity check avoids counting those as real conversions.
The Bottom Line
Key events are easier to set up than UA goals ever were, which makes it tempting to mark too many events as key. Stay disciplined: only the events tied to a real business outcome belong in conversion-rate reporting.
Further reading & sources
- Key events documentation — Google Analytics Help
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