How to Create a Collection Report from Google Analytics for Your Business

Creating a collection report from Google Analytics (GA4) is one of the most effective ways to understand your business performance through meaningful, structured, and organized data. Whether you run an e-commerce store, a service-based business, or an online content platform, having a customized report—or “collection”—helps you track user behavior, marketing performance, traffic sources, conversions, and revenue in a way that aligns with your business goals.

Table of Contents

This comprehensive guide will walk you through what a collection report is, why you need it, how to build one using GA4 Explorations, how to export it, how to automate reporting, and how to customize it for different business models such as e-commerce, SaaS, and service providers.

By the end of this article, you will understand both the technical steps and the strategic thinking behind building powerful collection reports in Google Analytics.

What Is a Collection Report from Google Analytics?

In Google Analytics (especially GA4), a collection report refers to a group of reports organized together to analyze a specific part of your business.

In GA4, you can create:

Collections → folders containing multiple reports
Topics → subcategories inside collections
Custom Reports → individual charts, tables, and metrics
Explorations → advanced custom reporting dashboards

Businesses often create collection reports to organize data such as:

Acquisition (traffic sources)
Engagement (pages and events)
Monetization (sales, revenue, products)
Conversion (key event performance)
User Journey (flows and paths)
Campaign tracking (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, email)

With collections, you can view everything in one place instead of jumping between multiple menu items.

Why Your Business Needs a Collection Report

1. Clarity and Organization

Instead of scrolling endlessly, you see all your important business metrics in neatly grouped categories.

2. Faster Decision-Making

Executives and marketers can access important data instantly.

3. Clear Focus on KPIs

Collections help track only what matters—no noise, no unnecessary metrics.

4. Helps Align Teams

Marketing, sales, product, and analytics teams can use the same reporting structure.

5. Helps Improve ROI

With accurate and organized insights, businesses can reduce wasteful spending and focus on profitable strategies.

Understanding the Key Components Before You Build a Collection Report

Before building a collection report, you need to understand GA4’s core structure:

1. Events

Everything in GA4 is an event:

Page views
Clicks
Add to cart
Purchases
Login
File downloads
Scroll events
Custom actions

Any meaningful report must be event-based.

2. Parameters & Dimensions

Each event can have additional data called parameters, such as:

page_location
session_source
item_name
device_category
transaction_id

Dimensions help categorize data into useful segments.

3. Metrics

These are numerical values such as:

Users
Sessions
Conversions
Revenue
Event count
Engagement time

4. Key Events (formerly Conversions)

GA4 allows you to mark any event as a “key event,” such as:

add_to_cart
purchase
generate_lead
sign_up

These will be the foundation of your collection report.

Step-by-Step: How to Create a Collection Report in Google Analytics (GA4)

Below is a complete walkthrough, from initial setup to final reporting.

Step 1: Log Into Google Analytics and Select Your Property

Go to analytics.google.com
Choose the correct account
Choose the correct GA4 property
Navigate to the Reports tab from the left menu

Make sure you have Editor or Administrator access to create collections.

Step 2: Go to the Library Section

The “Library” area is where all your custom reporting structure lives.

How to access it:

On the left menu → scroll to the bottom
Click Library

You will see:

Existing collections (Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, etc.)
Templates
Custom collections
Topics
All available reports

This is where you create and manage collections.

Step 3: Create a New Collection

At the top-right, click:

➤ Create new collection

GA4 will offer two options:

Start from scratch
Use a template

Select:

➤ Start from scratch (recommended)

This gives you full control over structuring your business data.

Step 4: Name Your Collection

Choose a name that matches your business needs.

Examples:

Business Performance Overview
Marketing Collection
E-Commerce Collection
Lead Generation Dashboard
Product Analytics Collection

Choose something your team will instantly understand.

Step 5: Create Topics Inside Your Collection

Topics are like subfolders. Example topics include:

For E-Commerce:

Traffic & Acquisition
Product Performance
Funnel & Checkout
Revenue & Profit

For Service Businesses:

Leads & Form Submissions
Contact Page Analysis
Content Performance
Location-Based Users

For SaaS Companies:

User Onboarding
Activation Events
Retention
Subscription Conversions

Create topics that fit your business.

Step 6: Add Reports to Each Topic

You can add:

Standard GA4 reports
Custom reports
Exploration reports

Examples of reports to include:

Acquisition Reports

Traffic Acquisition
User Acquisition
Google Ads reports
Session source/medium

Engagement Reports

Pages and screens
Events
User journey paths

Monetization Reports

E-commerce purchases
Checkout funnel
Item performance

Custom Reports

You can create custom charts such as:

Landing page performance
Campaign-specific conversions
Cost vs revenue (if Google Ads is connected)
Form submission insights
Scroll depth performance

Drag and drop these reports into your collection topics.

Step 7: Create Custom Reports (Optional but Highly Recommended)

To make your collection uniquely useful:

Go to Library → Create new report
Choose Create detail report
Select the metrics and dimensions you care about
Save your report
Add it to your collection

Examples of powerful custom reports:

1. Landing Page Engagement Report

Dimension: page_path
Metrics: users, average engagement time, key event count

2. Social Media Performance Report

Dimension: session_source
Filter: includes “facebook”, “instagram”, “tiktok”
Metrics: sessions, conversions, revenue

3. Product Performance Report

Dimension: item_name
Metrics: add_to_cart, purchases, revenue

4. Lead Quality Report

Dimensions: page_referrer
Metrics: event count, generate_lead key events

Creating these will help you organize data specific to your business goals.

Step 8: Publish the Collection

Once you organize your topics and reports:

Click Publish
The new collection will now appear in your main Reports navigation
Your team can access it anytime

This makes GA4 far easier to navigate.

Step 9: Add Explorations for Advanced Reporting

Explorations are mini-dashboards for deep analysis. You can include:

1. Free Form Exploration

Use rows and columns to build tables with any metrics.

2. Funnel Exploration

Perfect for:

E-commerce checkout
Lead form submission
Subscription flow

3. Path Exploration

Shows user journey paths.

4. Segment Overlap

Helps compare:

Paid vs organic users
Returning vs new users
High-value vs low-value customers

After creating explorations, save them and link them in your collection structure.

Step 10: Automate Your Collection Report

Once your collection report is ready, you can automate reporting using:

1. Data Export

Export to:

Google Sheets
BigQuery
Looker Studio

2. Dashboard Automation in Looker Studio

You can build a full dashboard using:

Scorecards
Time-series charts
Tables
Funnels
Geo maps

Then automate:

Daily emails
Weekly reports
Monthly summaries

This keeps your business updated without manually checking GA4 every day.

Step 11: Share the Collection with Your Team

You can give access to:

Marketing teams
Sales teams
Business owners
Paid ads teams
Content writers
Developers
Product managers

This keeps everyone aligned with transparent data.

How to Customize Collection Reports for Different Business Types

Below is a guide on tailoring your collection reports to your business model.

E-Commerce Businesses

Include the following:

1. Product Performance

Item views
Add to cart
Purchase
Revenue
Average order value

2. Checkout Funnel

Steps like:

View item
Add to cart
Begin checkout
Add payment info
Purchase

3. Traffic Acquisition

Segment by:

Google Ads
Organic search
Social media
Influencer marketing
Email campaigns

4. Coupon & Promotion Performance

See which coupons drive revenue.

5. Device Performance

Mobile vs desktop conversion rates.

Service-Based Businesses

Include:

Form submissions
Phone call clicks
Contact page views
Location-based traffic
Top-converting landing pages
Local search performance
Google Business Profile traffic

This helps measure lead quality and service demand.

SaaS Businesses

Track:

New sign-ups
Onboarding events
Activation metrics
Feature usage
Churn indicators
Monthly recurring revenue (via BigQuery or custom events)
User retention cohorts

These reports help understand customer lifecycle and product health.

Key Metrics to Include in Any Collection Report

Regardless of business type, these metrics matter:

1. Users

Total visitors.

2. Sessions

Visits to your site.

3. Engagement Time

Time spent actively browsing.

4. Key Events

Your main business goals.

5. Conversion Rate

Conversions ÷ sessions.

6. Revenue (if applicable)

Total sales.

7. Traffic Source

Where visitors came from.

Best Practices for Building Effective Collection Reports

1. Start Simple

Don’t build 50 reports at once. Start with essentials.

2. Avoid Data Overload

Include only what your business needs, not everything GA4 offers.

3. Create reports for actions, not just views

Always measure:

Conversions
Revenue
Engagement

4. Make your reports scannable

Your team should understand them within seconds.

5. Use filters

Examples:

Mobile only
Organic only
USA only
Returning users only

6. Review your collection every quarter

Your business evolves—so should your reports.

Common Problems When Creating Collection Reports (and How to Solve Them)

1. Missing data

If your report shows no data, check:

Incorrect property
Events not firing
Tracking code not installed correctly

2. Metrics won’t load

Usually caused by:

Missing event parameters
Wrong dimensions
Incompatible metrics

3. Conversion events not showing

Make sure:

Event is marked as key event
Parameter names follow Google standards
You’ve waited at least 24 hours

4. Duplicate events

Fix via:

Tag Manager audit
Removing redundant tags
Checking hardcoded scripts

Create a Collection Report from Google Analytics

How to Export Your Collection Reports

Once your collection is ready, export data using:

1. CSV

Good for offline analysis.

2. PDF

Good for team presentations.

3. Google Sheets

Great for real-time sharing and automation.

4. Looker Studio

Best for creating dashboards.

How Often Should You Update Your Collection Report?

Weekly → Ad performance, sales, traffic
Monthly → Strategic decisions
Quarterly → Deep business analysis
Yearly → Annual performance review

Conclusion

Creating a collection report in Google Analytics is one of the most powerful ways to organize your business data, improve decision-making, and enhance performance. By structuring your reports into meaningful topics, creating custom dashboards, and aligning your metrics with business goals, you create a data system that works for you—not the other way around.

Whether you run an e-commerce store, a service-based business, or a SaaS company, the steps in this guide will help you:

Build customized reporting
Improve business clarity
Track meaningful KPIs
Enhance marketing ROI
Understand customer behavior
Automate your analytical workflow