How to Set Up Google Analytics (GA4) For Your Beehiiv Publication

Now that you’ve set up your Beehiiv publication and newsletter, it’s time to begin tracking analytics in Google. You may want to see how visitors are actually using your website and how many of them are making their way over to read your content (Google Analytics) instead of just tracking how Google views you (Google Search Console). 

Setting up Google Analytics for your Beehiiv publication can help you gain a more comprehensive understanding of your viewership, their triggers, their likes and dislikes, and how they engage with your website (or business). This ultimately allows you to deliver a more seamless experience to viewers and achieve results (whatever they happen to be - traffic, monetary, etc…). 

Here is a simple, fast, and concise guide on how to set up Google Analytics (GA4) for your Beehiiv publication, so that you can begin tracking website traffic and user behavior ASAP. 

8 Simple Steps to Set Up Google Analytics For a Beehiiv Publication

Follow these X easy steps to set up Google Analytics for your publication and you will be a data-driven wizard in no time. 

Pale Ale Travel Tip: If you want to be able to track how Google views your website (and potentially expedite the indexing process for your blog posts/publication posts), make sure to check out my article explaining ‘How to Add your Beehiiv Subdomain to Google Search Console’.

Step 1: Navigate to Google Analytics & ‘Get Started’

Create a Google account (if you don’t already have one), log in to your account, and navigate to https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/. It’s now time to create a property.

Step 2: Click Admin & Create an Account

Click ‘Admin’ in the bottom left corner (the blue and white wheel/gear).

Select ‘Create’ in the top left corner and then ‘Account’. 

Step3: Enter Your Account Details

First, enter your ‘Account Name’. I typically just title this the name of my publication. In my case, the account name would be ‘Beehiiv Pale Ale Travel’, as I have a non-Beehiiv website set up for Pale Ale Travel as well. 

Once entered, scroll down and click ‘Next’. 

Step 4: Enter Your Property Details

Now, enter your property details. I simply name this the same as the ‘Account Name’. So the ‘Property Name’ for me would be ‘Beehiiv Pale Ale Travel’.

 I select my reporting time zone and currency and click ‘Next’. 

Step 5: Enter Your Business Details & Choose Business Objectives

It’s time to select your industry category. I run a travel blog, so I select ‘Travel’. And, because I’m the only person who runs my publication, I select ‘Small’ for my business size. 

Click ‘Next’. 

Select the type of reports you’d like to see in your dashboard. I personally enjoy comprehensive reports and audits of my users, so I select ‘Get baseline reports’. 

Don’t worry about if you select something different as this doesn’t have any tangible impact on anything as you can customize your dashboard once complete. 

Click ‘Create’ and accept the Google Analytics Terms of Service Agreement and Google Measurement Controller Terms. 

Step 6: Choose a Platform to Start Collecting Data

As you are a Beehiiv publication that is on the internet/web, choose ‘Web’ as the platform that you would like to set up data collection for. 

Copy your Beehiiv publication URL and paste it into the ‘Website URL’ text box. Make sure to remove the ‘https://’ as that is already accounted for. 

You can enter anything you want under ‘Stream name’. I also name this after my publication, so in my case, it would be ‘Beehiiv Pale Ale Travel’. 

Select ‘Create & continue’ in the upper right-hand corner.

Step 7: Start Collecting Data: Copy Measurement ID & Paste in Beehiiv

You’re not done yet as it’s time to grab your unique Google Analytics measurement ID to paste into Beehiiv so that it relays the data to Google Analytics. 

Your ‘Web stream details’ will pop up on the screen. Simply copy the ‘Measurement ID’ - this will look something like ‘G-YourUniqueMeasurementID’. 

Navigate to your Beehiiv publication and select ‘Design’ → ‘Website Builder’ → ‘Settings’. 

Paste your ‘Measurement ID’ in the box that reads ‘Google Analytics (GA4) Pixel ID’ and click off. It will automatically save. 

Step 8: Check That It Was a Success

Back in Google Analytics, under ‘Web stream details’, where you copied your ‘Measurement ID’, scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘View tag instructions’. You’ll notice to its right it will say ‘no data received’. 

Click ‘Install manually’ and you will see your Beehiiv publication’s URL under ‘Test your website’. Click ‘Test’ and it will show a green checkmark to confirm this is complete. 

After setting up my Google Analytics account on a Tuesday, I was receiving data as quickly as the next day (Wednesday). However, it does take some time for more data to come in so when you are logged into the Google Analytics dashboard, it will look somewhat bare at first. 

Pale Ale Travel Tip: You might be wondering why I’ve almost entirely switched over to Beehiiv instead of my main travel blog. Check out my post explaining why I’m going heavy on Beehiiv for travel blogging. 

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I don’t just do destination write-ups for Pale Ale Travel, I also show you what it takes to create and scale a travel blog. You can expect behind-the-scenes insight into how to properly set up your travel blog and get it running, along with insights into earnings, traffic, and more. 

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Finally, if you have any questions about setting up Google Analytics for your Beehiiv publication (or any other questions about travel blogging), please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. 

SERP well everyone,

Big Body