GA4 eCommerce Tracking

Google Analytics 4, or GA4, is Google's tool for seeing what people do on your website. The GA4 eCommerce Tracking add-on connects your WP Travel Engine booking activity to GA4, so you can see when someone views a trip, starts checkout, and completes a booking.

That means you can follow the booking journey instead of only looking at page visits. For example, if lots of travelers view your Everest Base Camp trek but very few start checkout, you know where to take a closer look.

Features

• Use your current GA4 setup if it is already connected to your site, or add a new connection if you have not set it up yet.
• Track the key booking moments automatically, including trip views, checkout starts, and completed bookings.
• Import a ready-made GTM container file that already includes the booking events you need.

What you'll need before you start

A few things need to be ready before you begin. Once these are in place, the setup is much smoother.

How to install

Verifying installation

Check this first so you know the add-on is properly turned on before you start setting anything up.

Once this page opens correctly, you are ready to connect GA4.

Connecting GA4 to your site

You only need to set this up once. After that, the add-on sends booking activity from all your trips through the same connection.

GA4 Connection

This setting asks one simple question. Is GA4 already connected to your website, or do you need to connect it now?

• Use Existing Connection - Pick this if GA4 is already connected to your site through another plugin. A plugin is a tool you install in WordPress to add features. One common example is Site Kit by Google.
• Set Up New Connection - Pick this if GA4 is not connected yet. This opens the Connection Type and Tracked Events settings, where you add your details.

Say you already installed Site Kit by Google to see your website traffic. That means GA4 is already connected. Pick Use Existing Connection and you're done.

Connection Type

If you choose Set Up New Connection, you need to choose how your site will send data to GA4. You can connect with a Measurement ID or a GTM Container.

Measurement ID

This option works well if you want the most direct setup. A Measurement ID is the tracking ID that tells your website where to send the booking data inside Google Analytics.

Don't have a GA4 property yet?

If you have not used Google Analytics before, create the property first. Once that is done, you can come back and paste in the Measurement ID.

Your Measurement ID appears at the top of the stream details page. Copy it from there and paste it into the Measurement ID field above.

GTM Container

Choose this if you already use Google Tag Manager to manage tracking on your site. Google Tag Manager, or GTM, is a Google tool that helps you manage tracking codes from one place without editing your site files.

Don't have a GTM container yet?

If this is your first time using Google Tag Manager, set up the account and container first. After that, you can come back and paste the Container ID here.

Once your container is ready, copy its Container ID and paste it into the GTM Container ID field above.

Tracked Events

These events are the three moments in the booking process that your website automatically reports to Google Analytics.

Click Save Settings after you finish the connection setup.

Confirming data is flowing

Run this check now so you know the connection is working before you wait for data to build up.

Using GA4 Realtime

Using GTM Preview

If these checks work, your setup is in place and you can move on to reading the reports.

What gets tracked

The add-on tracks three points in the booking journey, and it does that in the background while travelers use your site.

• Traveler views a trip: This is tracked when someone opens a trip detail page. Use this to spot trips that get attention but do not lead to many bookings. For example, if your Annapurna Circuit page gets lots of views but few checkouts, you may want to review the price, dates, or trip details.
• Traveler starts checkout: This is tracked when someone moves from the booking window to the checkout page after choosing dates, traveler count, and add-ons. If people reach this point but do not finish, check your checkout flow, payment options, or add-on pricing such as gear rental or airport pickup.
• Traveler completes a booking: This is tracked when payment goes through and the booking is confirmed. This is your main conversion event in GA4. The amount recorded is what the traveler actually paid after discount codes are applied.

A few payment situations are worth knowing before you compare numbers.

Say a traveler books your 5-day Himalayan trek and pays a 20% deposit online. The purchase event fires once, right after that deposit payment. Their later installments will not trigger another purchase event.

Viewing your data in GA4

Once the connection is live, your booking data appears in GA4 under Reports > Drive Sales > Ecommerce purchases.

If you want to see the full path from trip view to purchase, use Explore > Funnel exploration in GA4. Funnel exploration is a report that shows how many people move from one step to the next, such as viewing a trip, starting checkout, and completing a booking.

Troubleshooting

I don't see the GA4 settings page

The add-on may not be activated. Go to Plugins in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard and check whether the GA4 add-on is active. If it is there but the settings page still does not show, deactivate it and activate it again.

Nothing is showing up in Google Analytics

First, check that you clicked Save Settings after entering your Measurement ID or GTM Container ID. Then remember that GA4 can take 24 to 48 hours to show new data. If it has been longer than that, go back to Confirming data is flowing and run through those checks.

I'm using Site Kit by Google - which option do I pick?

Pick Use Existing Connection. Site Kit already connects your site to GA4, so the add-on sends booking events through that existing connection. You do not need to set up anything new.

My booking numbers in GA4 don't match my actual bookings

GA4 only tracks online payments. If a traveler booked with Pay Later, bank transfer, or another offline method, that booking will not appear as a purchase event in GA4. For deposits or installments, the purchase event fires once after the first payment.

The settings page loads but looks blank or broken

A caching plugin may be showing an older version of the page. Clear your cache if you use a caching plugin, then refresh the page. If that does not help, try a different browser or check whether another plugin may be conflicting.

Frequently asked questions