How to Use Your GA4 Dashboard the Right Way

A GA4 dashboard is the default view you see when you log into your Google Analytics 4 property. It can show you a summary of your site or app performance using an event-based data model, which is a shift from the session-based model used in Universal Analytics (UA).

Instead of focusing on sessions and pageviews alone, GA4 tracks everything as an event. This includes things like clicks, scrolls, video plays, and more. Each of those actions is captured as a separate data point. The dashboard is built around this model, so the metrics you see reflect user behavior at a more granular level.

You’ll typically find the following in a GA4 dashboard:

• Users and New Users – The number of people visiting your site.
• Average Engagement Time – How long users actively engage with your content.
• Engaged Sessions – Sessions that include either a conversion event, 2+ pageviews, or last more than 10 seconds.
• Top Pages and Screens – The most viewed content.
• Top Events – Which actions are happening most often.
• Conversions – Specific outcomes you define as meaningful (like form fills or purchases).
• Traffic Sources – Where users are coming from (organic search, direct, social, referral, etc.).

It’s a high-level starting point, but it's meant to be adjusted, not relied on as-is for deep insights.

Why Does the GA4 Dashboard Look So Different?

Google Analytics 4 replaces Universal Analytics’ session-based approach with an event-based model. That foundational change affects what you see on the dashboard and how metrics are calculated.

These changes are designed to give you a better sense of actual user engagement. That said, it’s easy to feel disoriented at first. You’re not imagining the difference, GA4 is measuring behavior using a different structure, which means you need to learn how to interpret the data in context.

What Happened to Bounce Rate in GA4?

Bounce rate isn’t part of the default GA4 dashboard. Instead, GA4 introduces Engagement Rate, which measures the percentage of sessions where users:

• Stayed on your site for at least 10 seconds,
• Viewed 2 or more pages/screens,
• OR triggered a conversion event.

In Google Analytics 4, bounce rate still technically exists, but it’s calculated as the inverse of engagement rate. For example, if your engagement rate is 70%, your bounce rate is 30%. However, it’s not front and center anymore. You’ll need to use custom reports or the Explorations tool to access it.

Why the change?

The focus is shifting from whether someone immediately left your site, to whether they interacted with it in any way. That gives you more useful insights into how people are behaving and which content keeps them engaged.

How Do GA4 Dashboards Work Behind the Scenes?

GA4 dashboards are built using modular “cards” that display data from your underlying events and parameters. These cards pull from your site or app’s event data and organize it into visual summaries.

Here’s how the GA4 dashboard is structured:

Predefined cards 

Show general traffic, user engagement, and content performance.

Each card pulls from tracked events

Includes everything from pageviews to button clicks.

You can’t edit the default dashboard

You can create custom dashboards using the Library or Explorations features.

If you need to report on KPIs that aren’t shown in the default dashboard: like form completions, eBook downloads, or webinar signups—you’ll want to set up custom GA4 events and configure your own reports.

This flexibility is a core feature of GA4. Instead of forcing one-size-fits-all views, it lets you define what matters to your organization and track those outcomes directly.

What Are GA4 Dashboards Useful For?

While the default GA4 dashboard gives you a general overview, the real value comes from using dashboards to answer specific questions:

• What’s working across our marketing channels?Use acquisition data and conversions to see which sources drive the most engaged users.
• Are people interacting with our content?Track scrolls, video plays, or downloads as custom events to understand engagement.
• Where are users dropping off in a journey?Build custom funnels to see how many users complete each step in a multi-step process.
• Is this campaign improving engagement or conversions?Use comparisons and custom dimensions to evaluate campaign-specific behavior.

With these capabilities, GA4 dashboards become tools for decision-making with reports you can check at the end of the month. Whether you’re a content strategist, digital marketer, or product lead, you can tailor the dashboard to support your specific goals.

What Should I Ignore in the GA4 Dashboard?

GA4 gives you more flexibility, but that also means it’s easy to get distracted by data that isn’t meaningful. Here are a few things it’s okay to ignore while you're getting comfortable with the new system:

• Trying to recreate the UA layout exactly – GA4 is structured differently. Focus on setting up what you need, not replicating what’s gone.
• Every automatically collected event – GA4 tracks many things by default, but not all of them are useful for your business. Prioritize events tied to actual business goals.
• Default conversions that aren’t relevant – You can mark any event as a conversion in GA4. Just make sure the ones you select reflect actual success metrics.
• Over-reliance on “average engagement time” – This is a useful directional metric, but it excludes idle time and background tabs, which can skew comparisons.
• Panic over bounce rate not being front-and-center – Engagement rate is more actionable. You can still find bounce rate if you need it, but it’s no longer the best benchmark.

The goal isn’t to track everything, it’s to track what matters most. GA4 makes it easier to focus on outcomes instead of just activity.

Can I Customize GA4 Dashboards for My Team?

Yes—and that’s where GA4 becomes especially powerful.

You can use the Library section to create Collections of customized reports for different teams, and the Explore tool to build ad hoc dashboards tailored to specific questions.

Examples of useful custom GA4 dashboards:

• Marketing Campaign Performance Dashboard: Track user acquisition, engagement, and conversion for campaigns across multiple channels.
• Content Engagement Dashboard: Monitor scroll depth, video plays, and page interactions to identify top-performing articles or resources.
• Lead Generation Funnel Dashboard: Visualize how users move from landing pages to forms to confirmation screens.
• Audience Behavior Dashboard: Segment users by region, device, or returning status to uncover behavioral trends.

You can also apply filters, comparisons, and segments to these dashboards so they reflect your target audiences or conversion goals.

GA4 Key Takeaways 

GA4 dashboards are designed to be more flexible and meaningful, but that also means you need to take time to set them up based on your goals. Once you do, they offer clearer visibility into what your users are doing, how your content performs, and where you can optimize.

Rather than comparing it to the old system, it’s more useful to treat GA4 as a new tool built for a different kind of marketing environment: one where engagement, behavior, and outcomes take priority over simple pageview counts.

If you start by answering clear questions —What do we want to track? What defines success? What behaviors matter most?—your GA4 dashboard becomes more than a data snapshot. It becomes a daily tool for insight.

Need Help Making GA4 More Useful?

FMK Agency helps marketing teams cut through the complexity of GA4 and build dashboards that actually reflect business goals. Whether you need custom GA4 reports, campaign tracking setup, or a done-for-you analytics strategy, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s turn your analytics into action.

Learn More: Read What You Need to Know About GA4 Before You Panic