Goal tracking, called "key events" in GA4, tells you whether your website is actually generating business. Without it, you have traffic data and no way of knowing whether any of that traffic turns into enquiries.

Setting up conversion tracking is the single most important configuration step after installing GA4. Traffic numbers on their own are almost meaningless for an accounting firm. What matters is whether visitors contact you, request a callback, download a guide, or take another action that moves them towards becoming a client. Key events measure that.

What counts as a conversion for an accounting firm

Before configuring anything, be clear about which actions on your website are genuinely valuable. For most accounting practices, the meaningful conversions are:

  • Contact form submission: a visitor completes and submits your enquiry or contact form. This is the primary conversion event for most firms and should be tracked without exception.
  • Phone number click: a visitor clicks a tel: link on your website, indicating intent to call. On mobile this is particularly significant because it represents near-certain intent to make contact.
  • Email link click: a visitor clicks a mailto: link on your website. Lower-intent than a form submission but still worth recording.
  • Callback request: if you have a specific callback form separate from your main contact form, track this as its own event.
  • Brochure or guide download: if you offer downloadable content such as a tax guide or services brochure, file downloads represent engagement and lead generation intent.
  • Appointment booking: if your site links to a booking system or calendar tool, clicks on that link (or completions of the booking) are high-value events.

You do not need to track all of these on day one. Start with the one or two that matter most to your firm: almost certainly form submissions and phone clicks. Then add others over time.

How GA4 measures conversions

GA4 uses an event-based tracking model. Everything that happens on your site is an event: a page view is an event, a scroll is an event, a button click is an event. A "key event" is simply an event you have told GA4 is commercially significant.

In Universal Analytics, these were called "Goals" and required setting up separately in the Admin interface. GA4 takes a different approach: you first ensure the relevant event is being recorded, then mark it as a key event. This two-step process is slightly more involved but more flexible.

Some events are recorded automatically through GA4's Enhanced Measurement. Others require additional configuration via Google Tag Manager or custom code.

Method 1: Google Tag Manager (recommended for most firms)

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tool that sits between your website and any tracking tools you use. It lets you add and modify tracking without touching your site's code directly.

Setting up a form submission trigger in GTM:

  1. Open your GTM container. In the left navigation, go to Triggers > New.
  2. Name it "Form Submission — Contact Form" and select "Form Submission" as the trigger type.
  3. If you want to limit it to a specific form (recommended), select "Some Forms" and configure a condition. You can match on the form's ID attribute or on the page URL where the form appears.
  4. Save the trigger.

Next, create a tag to send this event to GA4:

  1. Go to Tags > New. Name it "GA4 Event — Contact Form Submission."
  2. Select "Google Analytics: GA4 Event" as the tag type.
  3. Connect it to your GA4 Configuration tag.
  4. Set the Event Name to "generate_lead" or a custom name like "contact_form_submit." Use a consistent, descriptive name.
  5. Set the trigger to the form submission trigger you just created.
  6. Save and publish the container.

Test this by visiting your site's contact form in GTM Preview mode. Submit the form. You should see the event fire in the GTM debug panel. Confirm it also appears in GA4's Realtime report under "Events." Once confirmed, mark the event as a key event in GA4.

Setting up a phone number click trigger:

  1. In GTM, create a new trigger. Select "Click — Just Links" as the type.
  2. Set it to fire on "Some Link Clicks" where the "Click URL" starts with "tel:".
  3. Create a corresponding GA4 Event tag with Event Name "phone_click" or "click_phone."
  4. Publish and test.

Method 2: GA4 Enhanced Measurement for simpler setups

Enhanced Measurement is a GA4 setting that automatically records a set of common events without requiring any GTM configuration. To check and configure it:

  1. In GA4, go to Admin > Data Streams > your web stream.
  2. Toggle "Enhanced Measurement" on if it is not already.
  3. Click the gear icon to see individual settings.

Enhanced Measurement automatically records outbound clicks (which captures phone and email link clicks), file downloads, form interactions, scroll depth, and video engagement. However, form submission tracking does not work reliably on all form implementations. If your contact form uses JavaScript to submit without a page reload, Enhanced Measurement may miss it. Verify this by checking GA4's Realtime > Events report after submitting a test form.

Marking an event as a key event

Once an event is being recorded in GA4, you mark it as a key event (conversion) so it appears in conversion reports.

  1. In GA4, go to Admin > Events (under the Property column).
  2. Find the event you want to mark. You may need to wait 24 to 48 hours after the event fires for it to appear in this list.
  3. Toggle the "Mark as key event" switch next to the event name.

From this point, that event counts as a conversion in all GA4 reports. It appears in the Conversions report under Advertising, in Traffic Acquisition as a conversion column, and in Explore reports.

Using a thank-you page redirect as a conversion trigger

If your contact form redirects the visitor to a /thank-you/ page after successful submission, this is the simplest way to track conversions without GTM.

  1. In GA4, go to Admin > Events > Create Event.
  2. Name it "contact_form_complete."
  3. Set the matching condition: "event_name" equals "page_view," AND "page_location" contains "/thank-you/."
  4. Save.
  5. Mark this new event as a key event.

This approach is simple and reliable, provided your thank-you page is only reachable via the form submission (not directly navigable). If someone can reach /thank-you/ without submitting the form, your conversion data will be inflated.

Verifying your tracking setup

Do not assume tracking is working: verify it explicitly before relying on the data.

GA4 Realtime report: visit your site and take the action you want to track (submit the form, click the phone number). Open GA4 > Realtime. Under "Event count by event name" you should see your event appear within a minute or two.

GA4 DebugView: in GA4, go to Admin > DebugView. This shows a live stream of events firing from a device or browser that has the GA4 debug mode active. DebugView is more granular than Realtime and shows all parameters associated with each event.

Common problems to watch for: forms that use AJAX or JavaScript submission (where the standard Form Submission trigger in GTM may not fire), thank-you pages that are accessible directly (inflating conversions), and GTM changes that are saved but not published.

How to report on conversions in GA4

Once key events are configured, conversion data appears in several places:

  • Reports > Advertising > Conversions: a straightforward report showing how many key events occurred in the date range, broken down by event name.
  • Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition: add the "Conversions" or "Key Events" column to see which traffic channels (organic search, direct, referral) are generating the most conversions.
  • Explore > Funnel Exploration: build a custom funnel showing the steps from landing page through to form submission, so you can see where in the journey visitors are dropping off.

For most accounting firms, the Traffic Acquisition report with the conversions column added is the most useful weekly check: it tells you whether organic search is generating enquiries and how it compares to other channels.

Key takeaways

  • Conversion tracking (key events) is the most important GA4 setup step after basic installation: without it, your data tells you nothing about whether your website generates business.
  • The most important conversions for accounting firms are contact form submissions and phone number clicks.
  • Google Tag Manager is the recommended approach for tracking form submissions reliably, especially if your forms use JavaScript.
  • Enhanced Measurement captures some actions (outbound clicks, file downloads) automatically, but form submission tracking requires verification that it is actually firing.
  • A thank-you page redirect is the simplest conversion trigger, provided the page is only accessible after a genuine form submission.
  • Always verify tracking in Realtime and DebugView before relying on the data in your reports.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for key events to appear in GA4 reports after I mark them?

New key events appear in GA4's standard reports with a 24 to 72 hour delay, though they appear in the Realtime report immediately. If you mark an event as a key event today, you will see it in Traffic Acquisition and Advertising reports within a couple of days. Historical events from before you marked them as key events do not retroactively count as conversions.

Can I track multiple different form submissions separately?

Yes. If your site has a contact form, a callback form, and a newsletter signup form, you can create separate events for each and mark the commercially important ones (contact and callback) as key events. Use distinct event names for each form so the data remains separate in reports.

What if my contact form doesn't redirect to a thank-you page?

If your form shows a success message on the same page without redirecting, the thank-you page approach will not work. Use GTM with a Form Submission trigger or a specific button click trigger instead. If the form submits via AJAX, you may need a developer to add a custom dataLayer.push() call to the form's success callback, which GTM can then listen for.

Should I count a phone number click as a full conversion or a micro-conversion?

A phone click is strong purchase intent, particularly on mobile, and is worth treating as a key event. Whether you count it at the same weight as a form submission in your reporting is a judgement call. Some firms track form submissions as their primary key event and phone clicks separately as a secondary metric. Both approaches are valid.

How do I set up conversion tracking if I use a third-party form tool like Typeform or Jotform?

Third-party form tools embedded in iframes are harder to track with GTM's standard form triggers because GTM cannot see inside the iframe. Most major form tools have their own GA4 integrations or webhook options. Typeform and Jotform both support redirect to a custom thank-you URL after submission, which is the simplest approach: redirect to /thank-you/ and track the page view as described above.

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