If you open your Google Analytics 4 interfaces hoping to find the bounce rate efficiently and seamlessly, you may be slightly disappointed. In the new version of this analytical combo, this all-important factor is hidden under the mysterious name of engagement rate. Want to know more about it? Keep reading!
Can you track bounce rate in GA4?
Yes, you can. But the sad news is that’s no longer called a bounce rate. Bounce rate is single-page sessions divided by all sessions or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server.
What replaces bounce rate in GA4?
Bounce rate Universal Analytics vs engagement rate GA4
In Google Analytics 4, Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that weren’t engaged sessions. In other words, Bounce rate is the inverse of Engagement rate. In Universal Analytics, Bounce rate is the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only one page and triggered only one request to the Analytics server. Let’s take a look at the difference between them.
Both metrics are defined in terms of engaged sessions, so what exactly does it mean?
- A session is a period during which a user is engaged with your website or app.
- An engaged session is a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key events, or has at least 2 pageviews or screenviews.
The engagement rate is the percentage of engaged sessions on your website or mobile app. The bounce rate is the opposite of the engagement rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged.
How do I show bounce rate in Google Analytics?
Add bounce rate to your report
- Sign in to Google Analytics.
- From the left menu, select Reports.
- Report -> Pages and screens report.
- Click Customize report in the upper-right corner the report.
- Report data -> Metrics.
- Add metric.
- Type “Engagement rate” (hint: don’t worry if you cannot see it, that means it is already in your report).
- Type “Bounce rate” (hint: see at point above).
- Click Apply.
How to increase your engagement rate?
If your engagement rate is low, then consider using reports and explorations in Analytics to dig deeper to see whether it’s uniformly low or whether it’s the result of certain channels, source/medium pairs, pages or screens, or something else.
The question that will ensure sleepless nights is: what bounce rate is the right one? There is no single answer to this, and less is not always better. Sample values from Semrush help to estimate the effectiveness of actions, but remember that much depends on the analysis of individual cases.
Summary
Bounce rate is one of the more interesting metrics that we had to wait a very long time for in Google Analytics 4. Nowadays, this indicator is a measure of user engagement on our site and is definitely an indication of which way we should develop our site. And how does your score indicate your website?