How to Mark an Event as a Key Event
Turn an existing GA4 event, like a form submission or purchase, into a tracked key event.
Before GA4 can report on something like "form submissions" or "purchases" as a headline metric, that event needs to be marked as a key event. This doesn't create new tracking — it just flags an event GA4 is already collecting as one worth measuring against.
Steps
- In GA4, go to Admin, then Events, under your property's Data display section.
- Find the event you want to promote (it must already be firing and visible in your events list).
- Toggle "Mark as key event" next to that event.
- Confirm it appears in your Key events list going forward.
- Give it a day or two of data before judging the numbers, since it won't backfill history from before you marked it.
Standard GA4 properties allow up to 30 key events per property, so it's worth reserving the label for actions that genuinely matter to your business rather than marking everything.
ask datanephew
Which of my events should I mark as key events?
Ask datanephew what events it sees firing on your site — it can help you decide which ones actually represent a meaningful action worth tracking as a key event.
Will marking something as a key event show me historical data too?
No — it only counts going forward from when you mark it, so ask datanephew to flag anything worth promoting sooner rather than later.