Google Analytics 4 and Server-Side Events

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) gives you real-time information about your store’s traffic, sales channels and conversions, and is the foundation for measuring Google Ads campaigns.

Jumpseller sends events to Google Analytics in two ways:

• Browser events, sent from your visitor’s browser while they navigate your store.
• A server event, sent directly from Jumpseller’s servers using the Measurement Protocol to confirm the purchase conversion to Google Ads when an order is paid.

To receive browser events you only need your Measurement ID. To also receive the server-side conversion event, you must additionally create a Measurement Protocol API secret and add it to the Google Analytics API Key field in your Jumpseller Admin Panel. We strongly recommend completing both steps.

Benefits of the server-side conversion event

Browser events alone can miss purchases:

• Payment gateways with their own confirmation page: with payment methods such as Webpay, many customers pay the order, see the gateway’s own confirmation screen and close the window without ever returning to your store’s success page. In that case, a browser-side purchase event never fires. With the server-side event, Jumpseller confirms the conversion as soon as the order is marked as paid — whether or not the customer returns to your store.
• Ad blockers and privacy settings: visitors using ad blockers, blocking cookies or JavaScript are not registered by browser tracking. The server-side event is sent from our infrastructure and is unaffected.
• Better Google Ads optimization: a more complete conversion record improves the data available to your linked Google Ads campaigns.

For the server-side conversion event to be sent, all of the following must be configured in Settings > General: the Google Analytics Tracker (Measurement ID), the Google Analytics API Key (API secret), the Google Ads Conversion ID and the Google Ads Purchase Event Conversion label (see connecting your store with Google Ads).

Setting up Google Analytics 4

First, connect your store to your Google Analytics account using your Measurement ID:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics (create an account first if you don’t have one).

2. Click Admin (gear icon at the bottom left of the screen).

   

3. If you don’t have one yet, create a Google Analytics 4 property for your store, and inside it a Web data stream with your store’s URL.

4. In the Property column, go to Data collection and modification > Data streams and click on your web stream.

   

5. Copy the Measurement ID (it starts with G-).

   

6. In your Jumpseller Admin Panel, go to Settings > General, paste the Measurement ID into the Google Analytics Tracker field and Save.

   

Setting up the Google Analytics API Key

To enable server-side events, create a Measurement Protocol API secret in Google Analytics and add it to your store:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics and click Admin (gear icon at the bottom left of the screen).

2. In the Property column, go to Data collection and modification > Data streams.

   

3. Click on the web data stream of your store.

4. Scroll down and click Measurement Protocol API secrets.
5. Click Create, enter a nickname for the key (the name is only for your reference and does not affect the configuration) and click Create again.
6. Copy the Secret value.
7. In your Jumpseller Admin Panel, go to Settings > General, paste the secret into the Google Analytics API Key field and Save.

Some menu names may vary slightly if your Google Analytics account is set to another language, but the screenshots should help you locate each section.

Jumpseller Events

Once connected, Jumpseller automatically sends the default GA4 events (such as page_view) plus the following e-commerce events:

The conversion event is sent from our servers only when the Google Analytics API Key is configured (together with your Google Ads Conversion ID and label). If the API Key is not configured, it is sent from the browser instead, on the Success page — which is exactly what fails when customers don’t return to your store after paying.

Event Parameters

In the payloads below, each entry of items has this structure:

{
  item_id: 'product.sku (or product id if no SKU)',
  item_name: 'product.name',
  discount: product.discount,
  item_brand: 'product.brand',
  item_variant: 'product.name_with_options',
  price: product.price,
  currency: 'order.currency',
  quantity: product.quantity
}

page_view

Default GA4 behaviour. No extra parameters sent.

view_item_list

{
  item_list_name: 'category.name'
}

view_item

{
  currency: 'store.currency',
  value: product.price,
  items: [{ item_id: 'product.sku', item_name: 'product.name', discount: product.discount, item_brand: 'product.brand', price: product.price, currency: 'store.currency' }]
}

search

{
  search_term: searchTerm
}

add_to_cart

{
  currency: 'store.currency',
  value: product.price,
  items: [items]
}

view_cart, begin_checkout, add_shipping_info, add_payment_info

{
  currency: 'store.currency',
  value: order.total,
  items: [items]
}

purchase

{
  currency: 'store.currency',
  value: order.total,
  transaction_id: 'order.number',
  shipping: order.shipping,
  tax: order.tax,
  items: [items]
}

Additionally, for enhanced conversions, the customer’s email and phone are sent as hashed (SHA-256) user_data.

conversion (server)

{
  client_id: 'the GA client id captured in the buyer's browser',
  events: [{
    name: 'conversion',
    params: {
      transaction_id: order.id,
      value: order.total,
      currency: 'order.currency',
      shipping: order.shipping_cost,
      items: [items]
    }
  }],
  send_to: 'GoogleAdsConversionID/ConversionLabel'
}

For more information about events and parameters, please review Google’s documentation:

• GA4 recommended events
• Measurement Protocol (GA4)

Verifying your setup

• Open your store in a new tab and navigate a few pages, then check Reports > Realtime in Google Analytics. Your visit should appear within a few seconds.
• Detailed event data can take 24 to 48 hours to appear in standard reports.
• For event-by-event debugging, use DebugView.

FAQs

• Why are the numbers in Google Analytics different from my Jumpseller Dashboard?

  The number of visits on your Jumpseller Dashboard will usually be higher than in Google Analytics. Our internal system counts every session, while Google Analytics can be blocked by ad blockers, declined cookie consents or disabled JavaScript. Privacy features such as Apple’s iOS App Tracking Transparency also reduce the data Google Analytics can collect. Definitions also differ: Google Analytics counts “users” and “sessions” using its own rules, which don’t map one-to-one to our “visits”.

• Why are my Google Ads purchase conversions missing even though I receive orders?

  If your payment gateway shows its own confirmation page (for example Webpay), customers may never return to your store’s success page, so a browser-side conversion event is never sent. Make sure you have configured the Google Analytics API Key as described above, together with your Google Ads Conversion ID and Conversion label — the conversion will then be sent from our servers when the order is marked as paid, independently of the customer’s browser. Note that conversions can only be attributed for visitors whose browser loaded Google Analytics during their visit (visitors who block all tracking cannot be attributed in Google Ads).

• Can I build a sales funnel report in GA4?

  Yes. GA4 replaced Universal Analytics “Goals” and “Funnel Visualization” with Explorations. Go to Explore > Funnel exploration and add steps using the events listed above (for example view_item → add_to_cart → begin_checkout → purchase). See Google’s funnel explorations guide.

• What products are my customers searching for?

  See how to create a search report in Google Analytics.

Other Google tools

Google Analytics works best combined with the rest of Google’s ecosystem:

• Connect your store with Google Ads to measure ad campaign conversions.
• Google Tag Manager to manage additional tags without editing code.
• Google Commerce to sync your products with Google Merchant Center and Google Shopping.
• Google Search Console to monitor your presence in Google Search results.
• Verify a domain for Google services.
• Google Workspace for corporate email on your own domain.

If you still have questions, please contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.