Introduction:

The Report Snapshot in GA4 gives you a quick overview of your website and app performance in one easy-to-read dashboard. It highlights key metrics like traffic, user behavior, and conversions, helping marketers spot trends at a glance. In this guide, we’ll explain how the GA4 Report Snapshot works and how you can customize it for smarter decision-making using Report Snapshot Templates.

How the GA4 report snapshot works

The Google Analytics 4 (GA4) report snapshot provides a customizable, high-level overview of your property’s performance by consolidating key metrics and data from various detailed reports into summary “cards.”

Instead of digging into multiple detailed reports, you can see your most important metrics at a glance through cards (mini reports).

You can personalize your snapshot by adding, removing, or rearranging these cards, selecting from different templates like user behavior or marketing performance, and drilling down into the linked detailed reports for more in-depth analysis.

How does it work?

Default View:

When you open the reports section, you’ll see the default Report Snapshot, which includes a set of pre-selected summary cards.

Customization:

Click the pencil icon in the top-right corner to enter edit mode.

Then click “Customization” to customize your cards.

You can add metrics and cards (up to 16 cards) and rearrange cards.

Deeplinks

Most cards in the snapshot act as “deeplinks.” Clicking on a card will take you directly to the detailed report that the summary card is based on, allowing for deeper analysis.

Each card will display the detailed report

Templates

Choose from different templates to get a starting point for your overview.

Templates for report snapshot

Google Analytics recently introduced pre-built snapshot templates in the GA4 interface that let you quickly access key insights without manual setup.

User behaviour

Sales and revenue

Marketing performance

Dimensions:

These are descriptive attributes of your data. They tell you “what” or “who” something is.

E.g.—country, device type, page title, source/medium.

Metrics:

These are quantitative measurements. They tell you “how” or “how many.”

E.g.—activeUsers, sessions, conversions, engagementTime.

1. User Behaviour Template

This template provides an overview of how users are interacting with your site or app.

Focusing on how users engage, including metrics like active users, engaged sessions, page views, and average engagement time.

Metrics in the user behavior template:

Active users

Metric Name—activeUsers

An active user is defined as a user who has engaged with your site or app within a selected date range.

An active user in GA4 meets at least one of the following criteria within a given date range:

The user’s session lasted 10 seconds or longer.

The user viewed two or more pages or screens.

The user triggered a conversion event.

New users

Metric Name—newUsers

A new user is a unique individual who visits your website or app for the first time within a specific date range.

The first-time visit is recorded with a “first_visit” (for web) event or “first_open” (for apps) event.

Average engagement time per active user

This metric is valid in GA4, but it’s not available as a direct metric with that exact name.

Instead, you can calculate it manually using these two valid GA4 metrics.

Metric Names—userEngagementDuration, activeUsers.

averageEngagementTiemPerUser = userEngagementDuration / activeUsers

Event count

Metric Name—eventCount

Event count is the total number of times a specific user action (an event) occurred on your website or app within a given time period. GA4 treats everything as an event.

Views

Metric Name—pageViews

Views refer to the metric for the total number of times a web page or screen was viewed (including repeats).

Bounce rate

Metric Name—bounceRate

Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged; that means visitors left your site or app without meeting specific criteria for an engaged session.

Key events

Metric Name—keyEvents

A key event is an event that measures an action that’s particularly important to the success of your business.

When someone triggers the event by acting, the key event is recorded.

Total revenue

Metric Name—totalRevenue

Total revenue shows the total amount of revenue per day generated from e-commerce purchases, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and advertisements, minus any refunds given.

totalRevenu = e-commerce purchases + in-app purchases + subscriptions + adveertisements - refund

Sessions

Metric Name—sessions

A session is a period of a user’s active engagement with your website or app.

A new session begins when a user first opens the app in the foreground or views a page/screen, and it continues until there’s no activity for a set period or until a new campaign parameter is detected.

Dimensions in the user behaviour template

Page title and screen class—pageTitle

First user source/medium —firstUserSourceMedium

Session source/medium —sessionSourceMedium

2. Sales and revenue template

This template is used to track, analyze, and forecast a company’s sales and performance and incoming revenue over a specific period.

It highlights performance related to conversions, purchase value, and revenue trends for e-commerce.

Metrics in the sales and revenue template

Add to Basket

Metric Name—add_to_cart (Event)

The add-to-basket metric (sometimes referred to as add_to_cart) tracks the number of times users add items to their shopping cart (basket) on your website or app.

This event is triggered when a user adds a product to their shopping cart.

Purchase

Metric Name—purchase

The purchase metric tracks the number of times a purchase occurs on your website or app.

It’s different from just ”add to cart” or “begin checkout”—this metric only counts successful purchases.

Purchase revenue

Metric Name—purchaseRevenue

The sum of revenue from purchases minus refunded transaction revenue made in your app or site.

Purchase revenue sums the revenue for these events:

purchase

ecommerce_purchase

in_app_purchase

app_store_subscription_convert

app_store_subscription_renew

Average purchase revenue per paying user

Metric Name—averagePurchaseRevenuePerPayingUser

Average purchase revenue per paying user (ARPPU) is the total purchase revenue per active user that logged a purchase event.

Items added to cart

Metric Name—itemsAddedToCart

The number of units added to the cart for a single item.

This metric counts the quantity of items in add_to_cart events.

Items purchased

Metric Name—itemsPurchased

The number of units for a single item included in purchase events.

This metric counts the quantity of items in purchase events.

Item revenue

Metric Name—itemRevenue

The total revenue from purchases minus refunded transaction revenue from items only.

Item revenue is the product of its price and quantity.

Session key event rate

Metric Name—sessionKeyEventRate

The percentage of sessions in which any key event was triggered.

Average purchase revenue per active user

This is valid, but GA4 doesn’t have an exact metric with this name.

This shows how much purchase revenue (from e-commerce transactions) you’re generating per active user over a selected date range.

averagePurchaseRevenuePerActiveUser = purchaseRevenue / activeUsers

Dimensions in the sales and revenue template:

Item name—itemName

first user source/medium —firstUserSourceMedium

session source/medium —sessionSourceMedium

3. Marketing performance template

This template in GA4 is designed to give marketers a quick overview of how different acquisition channels and campaigns are driving traffic, engagement, and conversions.

It helps marketers quickly compare which channels perform best.

Metrics in the marketing and performance template

Active users—activeUsers

New users—newUsers

Average engagement time per active user—activeUsers, userEngagementDuration

Sessions—sessions

Key events—keyEvents

Total revenue—totalRevenue

Dimensions in the marketing performance template

Session source/medium —sessionSourceMedium

First user source/medium —firstUserSourceMedium

Session google Ads campaign —sessionGoogleAdsCampaign

Session google Ads Ad group name —sessionGoogleAdsAdGroupName

Session google Ads keyword text—sessionGoogelAdsKeywordText

Session google Ads query—sessionGoogleAdsQuery

Session google Ads ad network type—sessionGoogleAdsAdNetworkType

session google Ads account name—sessionGoogleAdsAccountName

GA4 Report Snapshot Explained: How to View Key Insights in One Dashboard