You know the feeling: your marketing campaigns are running at full speed, your website is generating tons of inquiries, but then… you hit a black hole. As soon as a potential customer fills out a form and disappears into your CRM system, it’s often a guessing game as to which marketing efforts are actually generating qualified leads and ultimately paying customers. That blind spot in your lead funnel is frustrating, because how do you optimize something you can’t fully see?
Great news! Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has launched a major update that changes all that: the Lead Acquisition Report. This report is designed to give you a complete picture of your lead funnel, from the very first interaction to the final conversion.
What’s new? More than just ‘Form Completed’
GA4 primarily measures website interactions, such as contact form submissions. This is often your lead measurement. The new Lead Acquisition Report goes a step further. It introduces a series of specific lead events that reflect the different stages of your lead process:
- generate_lead: This is your starting point. Think of it as the moment someone fills out a form on your website, requests a demo, or registers for a webinar. This event is usually triggered on your website via Google Tag Manager (GTM).
- qualify_lead: A lead has been qualified! This means your sales or marketing team has evaluated the lead and it meets your criteria for a potential customer.
- disqualify_lead: Unfortunately, this lead wasn’t suitable. It’s important to know so you can learn from what doesn’t work.
- working_lead: Your sales or service team is actively working on this lead. Contact has been made, and conversations are taking place.
- close_convert_lead: (converted lead) YES! The lead has become a customer. This is the end goal.
- close_unconvert_lead: The lead didn’t become a customer, for example because they dropped out or the deal fell through for reason x, y, z. This is also valuable information.
Benefits of the Lead Acquisition Report
With these new events, you can answer questions that previously required a lot of manual effort:
- Which channels generate real leads? See immediately whether your investment in Paid Search, Social, Organic, or email is actually generating qualified leads, not just form fillers.
- Measure the quality of your leads: The report shows not only how many leads you generate, but also how many of them are qualified and converted. This allows you to quickly see which channels are bringing in the “best” leads.
- Optimize your budget: Shift your marketing budget to the channels that deliver the highest ROI (Return on Investment), based on actual sales, not just website behavior.
- Identify bottlenecks in your funnel: Are you seeing a lot of generate_lead events, but few qualify_leads? Then there might be a problem with your lead follow-up or the quality of the leads you’re attracting.
- Improve collaboration between Marketing & Sales: Both teams now work from the same data and speak the same language about lead progress.
- Smart audiences for your campaigns: GA4 automatically creates new audiences based on these lead stages. Think of a “Qualified Leads” audience to retarget with specific offers, or “Converted Leads” to exclude from prospecting campaigns. This saves budget and increases the relevance of your ads!
How does it work? The role of your CRM and data integration
The generate_lead event typically occurs on your website and can be configured via Google Tag Manager (GTM). However, subsequent events (qualify_lead, close_convert_lead, etc.) occur after the lead leaves your website, often in your CRM system (such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) or another backend system. There are two ways to get these offline events into GA4.
Method 1: The Google Analytics Measurement Protocol (recommended for automation)
Imagine GA4 as a mailbox. Normally, your website automatically drops notes (data) into that mailbox. But with the Measurement Protocol, any other system (such as your CRM, a call center system, or an offline point of sale) can also drop notes directly into that same mailbox. It’s a direct line from your CRM to GA4.
When a lead’s status in your CRM changes (for example, from “New” to “Qualified”), your CRM sends a digital note to GA4 with the update via this “Measurement Protocol.” GA4 then adds this information to that specific lead’s profile, allowing you to track the entire journey. This is the most flexible and automated way to achieve real-time updates.
Method 2: Event Data Import (for periodic uploads)
If real-time updates via the Measurement Protocol aren’t (yet) feasible, you can also use Event Data Import. This allows you to periodically (e.g., daily or weekly) export a CSV file containing your lead events from your CRM and upload it manually or automatically to GA4. This is a good option for companies that require less frequent updates or want to avoid the technical complexity of the Measurement Protocol. Google even offers a dedicated CSV template for this purpose.
Want to know more about the Measurement Protocol?
My colleague Davey has written a detailed blog post about the technical ins and outs of the Measurement Protocol. If you’d like to delve deeper into how it works and what its capabilities are, read ” Measurement Protocol: The Missing Link in Your Digital Analytics Strategy . “
Getting started: what now?
To get the most out of the new Lead Acquisition Report, there are a few key steps:
- Define your lead stages: Work with your sales and marketing team to map out the stages a lead goes through in your organization.
- Implement generate_lead: Ensure all forms and lead generation points on your website correctly send the generate_lead event to GA4.
- Connect your CRM via the Measurement Protocol: This is the most important step. Your IT or development team can configure your CRM system to send subsequent lead events (qualify, convert, etc.) to GA4 via the Measurement Protocol.
- Analyze and optimize: Dive into the new Lead Acquisition Report in GA4 and use the insights to refine your marketing strategies and optimize your lead funnel.
Already have a Measurement Protocol implementation? Then make these changes.
If you’re already using the Measurement Protocol for other purposes, the foundation is already in place. Simply add the new event names and associated parameters to your existing setup.
Replace old ‘lead’ events: For example, if you were previously using a generic form_submit event for leads, it’s now time to replace it with generate_lead for all lead forms.
Add new lead events: Make sure your CRM or backend system sends specific events like qualify_lead, working_lead, close_convert_lead, etc. when a lead’s status changes.
Check the client_id: It’s crucial that the client_id (the unique ID of the website visitor) is sent correctly with each Measurement Protocol event. This ensures that offline events are linked to the correct online session. Without this link, GA4 can’t connect the entire lead journey.
Conclusion: from website visitor to valuable customer, fully in view
The new GA4 Lead Acquisition Report is ideal for B2B and lead generation companies. It bridges the gap between marketing activities and sales results, finally giving you a complete picture of the effectiveness of your efforts.
