Event Tracking and Analytics Implementation
Event tracking is the capture of user interactions in your application — beyond pageviews — to understand how users engage with specific features, content, and flows. Comprehensive event tracking is the foundation of behavioural analytics, funnel analysis, and conversion optimisation.
What to Track
Track events that correspond to meaningful user actions and progress through your key user journeys:
- Navigation: Menu interactions, search queries, filter usage
- Content engagement: Video plays, document downloads, scroll depth, time on page
- Form interactions: Form starts, field focus, validation errors, form submissions
- Conversion events: Sign-ups, purchases, bookings, quote requests — your primary conversion points
- Feature usage: Which features are used, in what order, how often
- Error events: API errors, validation failures, 404s — to identify friction
Event Taxonomy Design
Events should follow a consistent naming convention. A common pattern: category_action_label — e.g. checkout_click_continue, video_play_product_demo. Document your event taxonomy so it is consistently implemented and understood by the team.
Implementation Approach
- Direct SDK integration: Events fired directly from application code — most reliable, lowest latency
- Tag manager (GTM): Events configured in Google Tag Manager — flexible, allows non-developers to add tracking, but requires careful QA to avoid data quality issues
- Server-side tracking: Events fired from the server — bypasses ad blockers, more reliable consent management