The GA4 Conversion Paths Report: How to Read Key Event Paths
GA4's paths report shows the order of channels people came through before they triggered a key event, such as a form submission or a purchase. This guide covers where to find it, what a touchpoint is, how early, mid and late touchpoints are split, and how to read the data table.
This guide is built from Google's Analytics Help article on the Key events attribution paths report, plus the Help pages on getting started with attribution and attribution settings. The models themselves, the retired ones and the lookback windows are covered in our GA4 attribution models guide, and choosing and marking key events is covered in our key events guide. This page is only about the paths report: how to open it and what each part tells you.
What the report is (and its old name)
Google describes it as a report that "helps you understand the different paths users take to complete key events, such as purchases or form submissions, and how credit is assigned to each touchpoint along those paths." It has two parts: a chart that shows "which channels initiate, assist, and close key events", and a table of the paths themselves.
Many people still search for the "GA4 conversion paths report". That is the same report under an older name. GA4 now calls its own conversions "key events" (our key events guide explains the change), and the Help pages call the report "Key event attribution paths", "Attribution paths" or "Key event paths" in different places.
The report answers a question the normal acquisition reports cannot: did people find you through one channel and come back through another before they enquired or bought? A Traffic acquisition table shows each session's channel on its own. The paths report shows the sequence.
Where to find it
The report sits in the Advertising section. Google's two Help pages describe the menu a little differently, so look for either label:
- The paths report article says: click Advertising on the left, then "Key event attribution paths under Key events dropdown".
- The getting started article says: click Advertising, then under Attribution, click Attribution paths.
Once it is open:
- Pick key events. Use the drop-down at the top left. By default all key events are selected "and they're aggregated together in the report", so a newsletter signup and a quote request are mixed until you pick one.
- Add a filter if you need one. Google's example is an Include filter on Browser = Chrome. Any filter limits the paths to the users who match it.
- Choose the dimension. The chart and the table start with Primary channel group. Drop-downs switch them to Source, Medium or Campaign.
Google notes the report includes data "from June 14, 2021 onwards", so a date range before that will not show paths.
What counts as a touchpoint
Google defines touchpoints as "instances of user interactions that occur within a specified timeframe leading up to a key event." Its list includes "site visits, impressions, engaged views, emails, downloads, and usage". The first touchpoint might be a click that leads to a site visit, or a YouTube engaged view that later led to a visit and a key event.
The most important rule: "Without a key event, there is no path to show." Google gives two examples:
- YouTube engaged view > Paid Search > Social Media > Affiliate > Direct > Direct > Purchase: this user is in the report.
- YouTube engaged view > Paid Search > Social Media > Affiliate > Direct, with no purchase: this user "won't be included".
So the report only ever shows journeys that ended in a key event. It cannot tell you how many people took the same route and did not convert. For drop-off between steps on the site, a funnel or path exploration in our explorations guide is the better tool; those explore pages and events, while this report explores channels.
Early, mid and late touchpoints
The chart at the top splits each path into three parts and shows "how much credit each segment of the attribution path receives using the selected attribution model." Google's definitions:
| Segment | Which touchpoints | Special cases |
|---|---|---|
| Early touchpoints | "The first 25% of touchpoints in the path rounded to the nearest whole number" | Empty if the path has only one touchpoint |
| Mid touchpoints | "The middle 50% of touchpoints in the path" | Empty if the path has fewer than 3 touchpoints |
| Late touchpoints | "The last 25% of touchpoints in the path rounded to the nearest whole number" | Gets all the credit if the path has just one touchpoint |
Under each segment, bar charts show how much credit each channel, source, medium or campaign gets in that part of the path. Hovering over a bar shows the numbers.
In practice this is how you spot channels that start journeys versus channels that finish them. A channel that is strong in early touchpoints and weak in late ones is introducing people who convert later through something else. Judged only on last-click numbers, it would look weaker than it is.
The attribution model drop-down
The chart can be recalculated with a different model from the drop-down. The models on offer are the three GA4 has today: data-driven, paid and organic last click, and Google paid channels last click. First click, linear, time decay and position-based "are no longer available as of November 2023". Our attribution models guide explains how each one shares out credit.
Google's pages disagree on the default. The paths report article says the chart "displays data as calculated by the Paid and organic channels last click attribution model". Google's tutorial on attributing credit for key events says "By default, the report uses the data-driven attribution model". Check which model the drop-down shows before you read the chart or compare screenshots.
Two points from Google's getting started page help when reading the chart:
- "All attribution models exclude direct visits from receiving attribution credit, unless the path to key event consists entirely of direct visits." Direct touchpoints can appear in a path and still get no credit.
- With data-driven attribution, "Conversions can be reattributed for up to 7 days after the conversion", so recent days can still shift.
Google says the drop-down lets you "view the data visualization using a different attribution model". The property's reporting attribution model is a separate setting in Admin (see below).
The data table
Below the chart, each row is a path, such as Organic Search > Email > Direct. The top row totals the selected key events. The columns:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Key events | How many key events followed that path. With data-driven attribution the credit can be fractional (see below). |
| Purchase revenue | Revenue from purchases on that path. It stays empty without ecommerce purchase events. |
| Days to key event | How long people took to trigger the key event. Google's overview mentions insights such as "the amount of time between when a customer interacted with an ad and then triggered a key event". |
| Touchpoints to key event | How many touchpoints came before the key event |
Google says the table is "sorted by paths with the highest number of conversions" by default, and the arrow next to another metric sorts by it. "The credit displayed in each row is an average across the individual paths included in that row." Hover over a touchpoint to see its credit and number of key events.
Path length. The report "displays all paths up to 20 touchpoints long." In Customize report, the Path length filter takes an operator (equal to, not equal to, greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, less than or equal to) and a number of touchpoints. Filtering to "greater than 1" hides the one-touch paths and shows only multi-step journeys.
Fractional credit. Google's example: with the data-driven model, a user follows keyword1 > keyword2 and then completes a key event. Each keyword shows fractional credit, "which sums to 1.0 in the Key events column." Decimals in the table are normal under data-driven attribution.
Use Share this report at the top right to share, download or export what is on screen.
Settings that change the paths
Three property settings in Admin > Data display > Events > Attribution settings shape what the paths report can show. Google says you must be "a Marketer or above at the property level" to change them. We cover them in full in the attribution settings section of the models guide; for this report the short version is:
- Key event lookback window. It "determines how far back in time a touchpoint is eligible for attribution credit." Google's example: with a 30-day window, January 30 key events are attributed only to touchpoints from January 1-30. The default is 30 days for first_open and first_visit and 90 days for other key events. Changes "apply going forward". A shorter window can mean fewer touchpoints per path.
- Channels that can receive credit. Paid and organic channels or Google paid channels. Google notes "Paid and organic channels only applies to web conversions; app conversions always use Google paid channels."
- Reporting attribution model. It applies to key event reports and explorations that use event-scoped traffic dimensions such as Source, Medium and Campaign, and Google's page on traffic-source dimension scopes names the Key event paths report as one of the places event-scoped dimensions appear. "Changing the reporting attribution model applies to historical and future data."
Google also lists start dates: "Paid and organic channels data-driven attribution: November 1, 2021" and "Paid and organic channels rules-based models: June 14, 2021". Date ranges that start earlier show partial data.
(not set), Unassigned and other odd values
When a value is missing, the report still shows a row "to keep the metric totals accurate". Google's list:
| Value | Google's meaning, in short |
|---|---|
| (not set) | No information was received for the dimension, for example a manually tagged URL missing campaign, source or medium |
| Unassigned | No channel rule matches the event data |
| Direct | There is no path data to credit, for example with data import |
| Unattributable | Credit could not be assigned for the selected dimension |
| (Other) | An aggregated row because of cardinality limits |
Lots of (not set) and Unassigned rows usually point to campaign tagging. Our guides to UTM tracking links, channel groups and (not set) values cover the fixes.
How we read the report
This is our own practice, not Google guidance:
- We select one key event at a time, usually the main lead form or purchase. Mixing a newsletter signup with a quote request hides both.
- We look at the share of one-touch paths first. If most paths have a single touchpoint, the last-click view in Traffic acquisition tells nearly the same story, and the paths report adds little.
- For multi-touch paths, we filter Path length to greater than 1 and compare the early and late bars, to see which channels open journeys that others close.
- We use Days to key event to set expectations for a new campaign: if leads usually take weeks, judging a campaign after a few days is too early.
- When channel names look wrong, we fix tagging first, then reread the report.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the conversion paths report in GA4?
In the Advertising section. Google's pages name it Key event attribution paths (under the Key events drop-down) or Attribution paths (under Attribution). "Conversion paths" is the older name.
Why are some users missing from the paths report?
Only users who triggered a selected key event appear. Google says that without a key event "there is no path to show", so journeys that did not convert are not in the report.
What are early, mid and late touchpoints?
Early is the first 25% of a path's touchpoints, mid is the middle 50% and late is the last 25%. A one-touch path puts all credit in late touchpoints, and paths with fewer than 3 touchpoints have no mid segment.
How long a path can the report show?
Up to 20 touchpoints. The Path length filter in Customize report narrows that range, for example to paths with more than one touchpoint.
Why do I see decimals in the Key events column?
Data-driven attribution splits the credit for one key event across the touchpoints on its path, so each one gets a fraction. The fractions for one key event add up to 1.0.
For more on measurement, see our guides to GA4 basics, the Landing page report, users vs sessions, Google Ads conversion tracking and monthly website reporting.