Custom Reports in GA4: A Practical Guide

The Two Ways to Customize Reports

GA4 gives you two distinct paths:

Library reports (formerly Customization): Modify the standard reporting interface — add or remove metrics, save custom report views. These appear in the left navigation.

Explorations: Flexible, powerful ad-hoc reports with drag-and-drop. Funnels, Path analysis, Segment overlap — all built here.

Building a Custom Library Report

• In GA4, go to Reports → Library (bottom of left nav)
• Click Create new report → Create detail report
• Choose a template or start from scratch

For a channel performance report:

• Dimensions: Session default channel group, Session medium
• Metrics: Sessions, Engaged sessions, Conversions, Total revenue
• Save as "Channel Performance"

Publishing Custom Reports to Your Team

Custom reports in the Library are only visible to the creator by default. To share:

• In Library → find your report → click the three dots → Add to collection
• Select an existing collection or create "Marketing Reports"
• Publish the collection — it appears for all users with that access level

Explorations: The Powerful Path

Create a new exploration for each analytical question. Examples:

Conversion by landing page:

• Type: Free form
• Rows: Landing page
• Columns: Date
• Metrics: Sessions, Conversions, Conversion rate, Total revenue
• Filter: Sessions > 50 (remove noise)

User path after sign-up:

• Type: Path exploration
• Start event: sign_up
• Forward or backward path: see where users go after signing up

High-value segment overlap:

• Type: Segment overlap
• Segment 1: Paid traffic
• Segment 2: Mobile users
• Segment 3: Users who added to cart
• Shows how these segments overlap and their conversion rates

Saving and Sharing Explorations

Explorations are saved per user — they don't appear in the main navigation. To share:

• Export as PDF or CSV for a one-time share
• Share the exploration link from the share icon (recipient needs GA4 access)

For recurring reports, Looker Studio connected to GA4 is more appropriate than Exploration.