Send data to Google Analytics from a workflow
Send workflow events—such as a form submission, a user opt-in, or a support call—to Google Analytics so actions beyond a page visit appear in your reports. This article covers the legacy Universal Analytics workflow, which uses the tracking ID and Category, Action, and Label fields; the Google Analytics 4 (GA4) workflow uses different fields and is covered separately.
What you can track
A workflow can record events that go beyond a page visit, so you can measure the actions that matter to your organization. Typical events include form submissions, user opt-ins, support calls, and other defined actions.
Add the Google Analytics fields to a workflow
When a trigger or action is set to add data to Google Analytics, the workflow exposes these fields for each event:
Tracking id/property id
Event Category
Event Action
Event label
Event value
Fill these fields with static values or populate them dynamically using the small icon tags. For example, a form submission could use Event Category Form Submission, Event Action Exit Form Opt in, and Event Label Back Friday form submission.
Find your property ID
The legacy Universal Analytics workflow uses the tracking ID of your Universal Analytics property. To find it, open Google Analytics, select Admin, and in the left column select Tracking Info, then Tracking Code; the tracking code appears there. Universal Analytics codes begin with UA.
For a GA4 property, an older documented path is to open Google Analytics, select Admin, and in the left column select Property Settings, then Property ID. GA4 codes are described as numbers.
The fields above are the legacy Universal Analytics workflow. The GA4 workflow instead uses the Measurement ID, Event Name, optional Event Value, and an API Secret, and is covered in the Google Analytics 4 tracking article.
How traffic sources are classified
When a hit arrives without complete tracking parameters, Google Analytics classifies the traffic source using these rules. If both utm_medium and utm_source are present, they are used; if either is missing, the source falls back to its classification rules. The gclid parameter is passed to recognize each unique click.
Attribute | Rule | utm_medium | utm_source |
|---|---|---|---|
Google Organic | Referring domain is Google search | organic | |
Paid Search | utm_source is Google and referring domain is google.com | CPC | |
Referring domain is facebook.com | referral | ||
Paid Social | utm_medium contains cpc and source is Facebook | CPC | |
Direct Traffic or Bookmarked | No referring domain or tracking URL | none | direct |
Referral | Example referring domain example.com | referral | example.com |
Social Media | Referring domain is a social site such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Naver, or Pinterest | social | Social Referring Site |
Display Traffic | Example referring domain example.com | cmp/banner/display | example.com |
How GA4 reports events differently
Universal Analytics events use Category, Action, and Label. GA4 treats every hit as an event and does not distinguish hit types: a page view triggers a page_view event, and GA4 reports do not use or display the Universal Analytics Category, Action, and Label model.
Verify events in Google Analytics
Confirm your workflow events appear by opening the GA4 property in Google Analytics, going to Reporting > Acquisition Reports, and adding filters for source and medium.