Annotations in Google Analytics 4: 8 Ideas How to Use Them

Annotations in Google Analytics 4 are a welcome addition, considering this feature has been available in Universal Analytics for a long time. For those of you who appreciate the ability to add context to your data, this update is definitely a step in the right direction.

If you’ve ever found yourself analyzing a sudden spike or dip in your GA4 reports and wished you could add a note to remind yourself (or your team) of a specific event that might have influenced the data, then annotations are for you.

In this article, I’ll share various ideas for using annotations in Google Analytics 4 to improve your data analysis and reporting.

Table of Contents

Here’s what you will learn in this article

• What are Annotations in GA4?
• How to create annotations?
• Naming Convention for Annotations
• Ideas for Annotations
  • Website Updates
  • Marketing Campaign Launches
  • SEO changes, core algorithm updates
  • Configuration Changes
  • Technical Issues
  • Events
  • Documenting A/B Tests
  • Product Launches
• Admin panel
• Final Words

What are Annotations in Google Analytics 4?

Annotations in GA4 are notes that you can add to your reports to provide context to your data. They help you remember important events, changes, or observations directly within the GA4 interface.

There are two types of annotations in GA4:

• System-generated: These are created by Google to inform you of new features or changes in the platform that might affect your data. System-generated annotations are orange.
  
• Custom: These are created by you to add more context to the data. This guide will focus on custom annotations.

Annotations are visible to all users with access to that particular GA4 property. So, if you create an annotation, your colleagues will also see it. And this is helpful for team collaboration because more people will be on the same page.

Also, it can prevent duplicated efforts of troubleshooting data when two different people are investigating the same thing.

In this blog post, first, we’ll look at the general process of creating annotations. Then, I’ll share ideas on where/how to use them.

How to create annotations in Google Analytics 4?

Right now, when I am writing this guide, annotations are available in the “Reports” section. They are not available in Explorations. Will this change in the future? Who knows, time will tell.

Also, keep in mind that annotations are applied to all charts in the “Reports” section. You cannot add a note just to a particular report.

Anyway, go to “Reports” and look at the top right corner of the GA4 interface. There’s an icon of a sticky note. That’s for annotations (this is available in overview and detail reports).

So far, overview reports show only custom annotations, while detail reports will also show system-generated.

Let’s go to the Traffic Acquisition report. In the screenshot below, I have two system-generated notes (orange with an icon) and two custom notes (created by me). I can hover my mouse over them to see more details.

To create an annotation, you can either click one of the existing annotations in the chart or click the sticky note icon at the top right corner of the interface. They both will open the same sidebar with the list of annotations.

You can click on any custom annotation and change its content/color. At the bottom of the sidebar, you can click the gear icon and adjust which annotations should be visible. And finally, there’s a Create annotation button.

Click it and enter the following information:

• Title (required)
• Description
• Date or date range

Later in this article, I’ll share ideas for titles and my naming convention.

You can include some additional information in the description, e.g., a link to a support ticket, a link to a particular tutorial, a brief description of what was done, etc.

A good improvement (compared to the previous GA version) is a date. Now, you can select not just a single date but a range, too (e.g., if a marketing campaign is running for 2 weeks, you can set that range in the annotation). Annotations with ranges have a line of a similar color.

Once you enter all the necessary info, save the annotation and it will be displayed in the chart. Simple as that!

Naming Convention for Annotations

To keep your annotations organized and easy to find, I recommend using a consistent naming convention. Start each annotation’s title with the category name, for example:

• “Marketing -” for marketing campaign-related annotations.
• “Website -” for website updates.
• “Configuration -” for configuration changes.

Ideas for Annotations

Now, let’s take a look at ideas of what kind of things/topics you can mention in annotations.

Idea #1: Tracking Website Updates

Use annotations to document changes to your website’s design, functionality, or content.

Example for a title: “Website – New homepage layout launched”. 

This helps you correlate website updates with data fluctuations, such as user behavior or conversion rates (*cough* sorry, I mean “Key event rates”…. I will always hate Google for renaming “conversion rate”).

Idea #2: Documenting Marketing Campaign Launches

Use this to annotate the start and end dates of your marketing campaigns.

Example for a title: “Marketing – Black Friday sale”.

This lets you easily see how campaign periods correlate with website traffic, user engagement, and sales. Seeing a sudden spike in sales? Maybe it was the last day of the sale. In this case, I would recommend setting the date range in the annotation. Often, spikes in revenue happen not only on the first date of a sale but also on the last.

Idea #3: SEO changes, core algorithm updates

If your website/company heavily relies on Google organic search traffic, you are probably monitoring core algorithm updates. If there’s a sudden drop or spike in organic traffic, it will be helpful for others to see that there was an update launched by Google.

Example for a title: “SEO – Google Core Update”.

The “SEO” category could be used for your company’s SEO updates/changes, too (for example, modified Page Title structure, schema.org changes, etc.). Even though, technically, these updates could be included in the “Website” category (because those updates are applied to the website), it makes more sense for SEO stuff to have its own category.

Idea #4: Configuration Changes

If you make any changes to the configuration or your measurement/analytics setup, document them, no matter how minor. Updated the referral exclusion list? Create an annotation. Created a new Key Event? Add an annotation.

Example for the title: “Config – New event tag – form_submission”.

These changes should include not only GA4. Modifying something in Google Tag Manager (web or server-side) and creating a note for it can also be important in the future.

Configuration-related annotations are essential for troubleshooting and ensuring data integrity. While GTM and GA4 have dedicated sections in their interface with a history of configuration changes, seeing that information in charts is more convenient.

Idea #5: Technical Issues

Create annotations for technical issues or website outages that could impact data collection. Other examples of situations that would fall under this category: Google Analytics downtime or some processing errors happening on Google’s end.

Example for the title: “Technical – Website downtime due to server maintenance”.

I didn’t mention/suggest colors for previous categories, but this one, I think, should get a red color 🙂

Idea #6: Events

Annotate significant external events that might influence website traffic, such as holidays, industry events, or PR mentions.

Example for the title: “Events – Product X featured in TechCrunch”.

This will help provide context for any unusual spikes in traffic, user engagement, or conversions resulting from increased visibility.

Idea #7: Documenting A/B Tests

If your organization runs A/B tests, that’s another valuable thing to annotate.

Example for the title: “A/B – XYZ test on the checkout page”

Tip: If you are documenting tests somewhere in your internal system, then the description of this annotation could also include a link where other colleagues can learn more about it.

However, remember that if your company is doing many tests, you might hit the limit sooner (1000 annotations per property).

Idea #8: Product Launches

If a company frequently launches new products, this is worth its own category. Product launches typically have a significant impact on website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates. Analyzing the effects of these launches in detail is crucial, and having a dedicated annotation category deserves consideration.

Example for the title: “Product launch – XYZ product”

Admin panel

Annotations can also be accessed in the admin panel. Go to Admin > Annotations. Here, you will find the central hub of all notes you (or your colleagues) have created.

In this section, you can use search (that’s one more reason why naming convention with categories is helpful), delete, export to CSV, and edit.

At the top right corner, there’s a Quota information button. Click it to see if you are close to reaching the limit. Currently, you can create up to 1000 annotations per property.

Annotations in Google Analytics 4: Final Words

Annotations in Google Analytics 4 is a welcome update for data analysis and reporting in the GA4 interface.

“But nobody uses the interface of GA4” – No, there are still plenty of people using the interface (even though many of use prefer Looker Studio and/or BigQuery). Otherwise, there would be no buzz on social media when this feature was released.

Annotations help users and their teams better understand the story behind the data. Whether it’s tracking website updates, documenting marketing campaigns, or noting technical issues, annotations can conveniently provide more context.

While the 1,000-annotation limit per property might seem generous, use them responsibly and follow a consistent naming convention. This will help maintain organization and prevent you from hitting that limit sooner than you expect.