How to Create a GA4 Path Exploration Report

What is a GA4 Path Exploration Report?

A GA4 path exploration report allows you to analyse user paths and the sequences of interactions they take across your website, mobile app, and other digital properties. This report helps you identify the different pages and events which users complete before and after they reach a specific page or event, and the different paths that they take.

The GA4 path exploration report can help you uncover insights such as:

User behaviour: You can analyse the paths users take to complete a particular action or conversion goal. This can help you understand user behaviour and optimize your website or app for better user experience.
Popular paths: You can identify the most common paths that users take on your website or app. This can help you optimize your website or app’s navigation, user flows, and content to improve engagement and retention.
Conversion paths: You can identify the paths that users take before they convert on your website or app. This can help you optimize your conversion funnel and increase conversions.
Exit points: You can identify the pages where users tend to drop off and exit your website or app. This can help you identify potential issues with these pages and improve their performance.
Channel performance: You can analyse the paths users take from different channels, such as organic search, paid search, or social media, and identify the most effective channels and touchpoints for driving conversions.

Overall, the GA4 path exploration report is a powerful tool that can help you understand user behaviour, optimize user flows, and improve conversions and engagement on your website or app.

To create a new GA4 path exploration report, watch my short video or follow the instructions below.

When you log into the GA4 console, click on “Explore” in the left-hand menu.

Then select “Path Exploration” from the template gallery.

You will now see the Path Exploration report. Here, you can explore the different paths that users take on your website. Before starting your analysis, consider the nature of the path you want to investigate and how you want to configure the analysis.

For example, the time frame, a segment to focus on (e.g. PPC campaign name or first time users), dimensions to breakdown the analysis by (e.g. device category or channel groups), and the metric (e.g. Total users or Event Count).

Once you have planned your analysis, click on “Start over” in the top right of the console. You can then choose to either begin at the start of the journey or the end of the user path.

Starting point:

This allows you to select the page or event where you want the analysis to begin. You can choose any page or event in your property, including custom events that you have set up.

Ending point:

This allows you to select the page or event where you want the analysis to end. You can choose any page or event in your property, including custom events that you have set up.

Filters:

This allows you to filter the data in the report based on specific criteria. You can filter by traffic source, device type, user demographics, and more.

Segment:

Use a default segment (.e.g. mobile traffic) or a custom segment you have created (e.g. campaign name) to limit your analysis to an important group of users.

Node type:

For each step in a user journey, you can choose between an event name, page title and screen name, page title and screen class and a page path and screen class.

Breakdown:

Use a selected dimension (e.g. device category) to show the absolute number of users accounted by each subgroup of the dimension.

Values:

Choose the appropriate metric for the user journey (e.g. Total users or event count).

Filter:

Exclude or include certain users by via a dimension or metric.

Node Filters:

Right click on a node to exclude it for the “Selected only” path or “From all paths”. Use this to exclude non-interactive events, such as page load speed or session replay tool events.

By adjusting these settings, you can customize your path exploration report to analyse the data that is most relevant to your business and your goals.

Overall, the GA4 path exploration report is a powerful tool that can help you understand user behaviour, optimize user flows, and improve conversions and engagement on your website or app.