Onboarding · Playbook

GA4 property setup

Set up a fresh Google Analytics 4 property for a new client, from empty account to handoff-ready.

Time

~30 min

Sections

8

Owner

Elle

Updated

3 days ago

We set up a fresh GA4 property for every new client, even when they already have one. Reusing an existing property means inheriting undocumented event names, questionable conversion definitions and configuration nobody on the team understands. Starting fresh takes an extra thirty minutes and saves months of ambiguity down the line.

Your progress is saved on this device — .

Section 1 of 8

Before you start

Confirm you have everything you need. Missing something? Pause and clarify — GA4 is hard to unwind cleanly once conversions have started firing.

Admin access to the client's Google Analytics account

Not property-level — account-level. If they haven't granted it, use the Access matrix template to request it.
Primary website URL and any staging URLs

Confirm from the client's onboarding intake, not from a Google search.
Reporting timezone and currency

The intake sheet is authoritative here, not the client's Google Workspace default.
Conversion events that matter to this business

Standard ones (form submits, phone clicks) apply to everyone. Anything custom (bookings, checkouts) needs client confirmation.

Section 2 of 8

Create the property

Open GA4 admin and create a fresh property with our naming convention.

Sign in to analytics.google.com

Use your @haeeum.com account. Never use a personal Google account, and never use the client's account — we lose access records the moment you leave.
In the admin panel, click Create → Property
Enter the property name using our convention

[ClientName] — Web

Example: Ferndale Legal — Web. The em-dash matters — our internal dashboards search by this exact format.
Set the reporting timezone and currency

Match the intake sheet, not the client's Google Workspace default.
Choose the industry category

If uncertain, use "Other Business & Industrial" — a wrong specific choice is harder to explain later than a generic one.

Screenshot GA4 property creation — Admin → Create → Property

The Create Property button lives under the property column, not the account column.

Section 3 of 8

Configure the data stream

Connect the property to the client's website.

Under Choose a platform, select Web
Enter the primary domain

No protocol, no trailing slash. Not https://example.com/ and not www.example.com unless the site actually canonicalises with www.

example.com
Name the stream using our convention

[ClientName] — Primary
Enable Enhanced Measurement — keep the default toggles

We may adjust these later based on the client's specific needs, but the defaults are correct for setup.
Copy the Measurement ID and save it to the project record

Looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX. You'll need this in the GTM setup walkthrough next.

Section 4 of 8

Set up conversions

Mark the standard conversion events for every client, plus any custom ones from the intake.

Standard conversions

Event	Fires when	Setup
`form_submit`	Any form is submitted	Automatic
`phone_click`	`tel:` link is clicked	Needs GTM
`email_click`	`mailto:` link is clicked	Needs GTM
`book_appointment`	Only if the client has a booking flow	Custom event

Navigate to Admin → Events
Toggle Mark as conversion next to each event above
If an event doesn't appear, note it for post-launch

It hasn't fired yet — the site needs live traffic first. Add it to the handoff and come back after go-live. Don't try to force events during setup.

Section 5 of 8

Data retention

Default is 2 months, which is useless for year-over-year analysis. Change it before you leave the setup screen — it's easy to forget.

Go to Admin → Property Settings → Data Retention
Change Event data retention to 14 months
Toggle Reset user data on new activity ON

Section 6 of 8

Cross-domain tracking

Only needed when the client operates multiple domains. Skip if a single domain.

If unsure whether cross-domain applies, ask before configuring. Misconfigured cross-domain silently double-counts sessions and there's no clean way to backfill correct data.

Confirm the client has multiple domains that should share a session

For example: main site on example.com, booking on book.example.com or a separate domain like example-booking.com. Skip this section if not.
Go to Admin → Data Streams → your stream → Configure tag settings → Configure your domains
Add every domain that should share a session
Verify by opening any linked page and checking that the client ID persists

Section 7 of 8

Handoff

Record the setup in the client's project record so the next person doesn't have to reconstruct it.

Add the Property ID to the project record

Numeric, format like 123456789.
Add the Measurement ID to the project record

Starts with G-.
Attach a screenshot of the property overview page
Note which conversion events are firing (and which are deferred)
Mark the "GA4 setup" task complete in the onboarding project

If anything is deferred (conversions waiting on traffic, cross-domain pending confirmation), leave a comment explaining what's still needed and roughly when to check back.

Section 8 of 8

Common issues

Not every setup goes cleanly. Here's what to do when it doesn't.

"Access denied" when creating a property

The client hasn't granted account-level admin — property-level isn't enough for creation. Send the Access matrix template and pause setup until it's resolved. Don't try to work around this by using a different account.

Enhanced Measurement events aren't showing

These take 24–48 hours to populate on a fresh property. Don't debug this on day one. Check back after the site has real traffic; if events are still missing after 72 hours, then it's worth debugging.

Client already has a GA4 property

Note it in the handoff so we have a record. We typically don't delete the old property — the client may have historical data they care about — but we don't rely on it for our reporting either. Our fresh property is the source of truth going forward, and we make that explicit in the client-facing report.

GA4 property setup complete

Property created, data stream configured, conversions marked, retention set, handoff recorded.

Next in onboarding

GTM setup

Configure Google Tag Manager and the standard event triggers.

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