GA4 Explorations: 8 Reports Worth Building Today

Why Explorations Matter

GA4 Explorations are the advanced analysis section — separate from the standard reports, they let you build custom analyses using raw event data within your retention window. The standard reports show you what happened; Explorations help you understand why and who.

1. Checkout Funnel Exploration

Type: Funnel exploration

Steps: view_item → add_to_cart → begin_checkout → purchase

What it shows: where users drop off in the purchase funnel. If 80% of add-to-cart users abandon at checkout, that is a different problem than if 80% abandon between view_item and add_to_cart.

How to build: Explorations then + then Funnel Exploration. Add each step event. Add "Breakdowns" by device category to see if mobile has a worse checkout completion rate.

2. Lead Generation Path Analysis

Type: Path exploration

Starting point: page_view on your contact or pricing page

What it shows: what users do after viewing your high-intent pages. Do they visit case studies? Check pricing? Leave? This reveals the actual consideration path.

3. Landing Page Performance by Channel

Type: Free-form exploration

Rows: Landing page + source/medium

Metrics: Sessions, Engaged sessions, Key events

What it shows: which landing pages perform best for which channels. This is not easily visible in standard reports and is essential for paid search landing page optimisation.

4. New vs Returning User Behaviour

Type: Free-form exploration

Segments: New users vs Returning users

Metrics: Engagement rate, Conversion rate, Average session duration

What it shows: how first-time visitors behave compared to repeat visitors. Often reveals that returning visitors convert at dramatically higher rates, arguing for remarketing investment.

5. Content Performance Cohort

Type: Cohort exploration

Cohort dimension: First visit date

Metric: Conversion rate by cohort week

What it shows: how users acquired in different weeks convert over time. Cohorts from weeks with specific content or campaigns show whether those drove higher-converting users.

6. Blog Traffic to Conversion Path

Type: Path exploration

Starting point: page_view where page_location contains "/blog/"

What it shows: what blog readers do after reading an article. Do they visit service pages? Fill out a form? Leave? This shows content marketing ROI in a way session-level reports cannot.

7. Device and Browser Segment Analysis

Type: Free-form exploration

Rows: Device category + Browser

Metrics: Conversion rate, Engagement rate

What it shows: whether Safari mobile users convert at lower rates (ITP cookie issue), whether desktop converts much better than mobile (UX issue), or whether a specific browser has abnormally high exit rates (JS compatibility issue).

8. High-Value User Segment

Type: Free-form exploration with segment

Segment: Users who triggered purchase event with value > £200 (or your high-value threshold)

Rows: Source/Medium, Landing page

What it shows: where your highest-value customers actually come from. Often different from where your most customers come from.

Summary

GA4 Explorations unlock analysis that no standard report provides. The eight explorations above cover funnel analysis, path discovery, cohort comparison, and segment-based insight. Build them over a 14-month data window (change your data retention first) and schedule monthly reviews to track changes over time.

See our GA4 Setup & Audit service for Explorations setup and training.

Need help building GA4 Explorations? Contact Adslytics.