Customise GA4 Reports

August 10, 2025

The standard reports in Google Analytics 4 can be a mixed bag.

Sometimes they give you exactly what you need with a single click.

Other times, you’re left hunting for the right dimension or metric, feeling like the data you really want is just out of reach.

The good news? You’re not stuck with the defaults.

GA4 has a powerful, and perhaps underused, feature that lets you tailor its detail reports to your exact specifications. You can change the data, swap out the charts, and create a view that makes sense for your team and your targets. 

When I provide training it’s one of those ‘oh wow’ moments when people start to understand the potential of GA4. I often use the idea of creating an SEO report in GA4 to demonstrate this.

Before we get started, there are just two things to keep in mind:

  1. You’ll need to be an Editor or Administrator on the GA4 property to make these changes.

  2. Each property can have up to 150 custom reports, which should be more than enough for most businesses.

Right, let’s get into it.

Table of Contents

For this walkthrough, we’ll start with the standard Traffic acquisition report, but you can apply these steps to almost any detail report in GA4.

First, navigate to the report you want to change. In the top-right corner, you’ll see a little pencil icon for ‘Customise report’. It’s definitely a pencil, but I also think it looks like a cigarette. Click on it.

This opens up the customisation panel. From here, you can tweak everything from the charts at the top to the data in the table below.

Customise Report Button

Swapping Out Dimensions and Metrics

This is where the magic really happens. You’re no longer limited to the default view.

1. Changing Dimensions: The Dimensions section controls the primary breakdown of your data (the first column in the table). In the standard traffic report, this defaults to Session primary channel group.

But what if your team talks in terms of source and medium? Simple.

  • Click on Dimensions.

  • You can select a new default from the list. We’ll choose Session source / medium.

  • You can also drag and drop the other available dimensions into an order that makes the most sense to you, making them easier to access from the dropdown menu on the main report.

2. Adjusting Metrics: The Metrics section controls the data points associated with each dimension. The process is the same as for dimensions, but it’s a brilliant way to declutter your reports.

  • If you’re not an e-commerce site, the ‘Revenue’ metric is just noise. Click the ‘x’ to remove it.

  • Perhaps your team isn’t sold on Engagement rate and still prefers Bounce rate. You can remove the former and use the dropdown to search for and add the latter.

  • Just like with dimensions, you can drag and drop your metrics to get the most important ones to the front of the queue.

Once you’re happy, click Apply. The report will refresh to show your new default view.

dimensions and metrics section

But What About the Charts?

The visualisations at the top of the report are also fully customisable.

By default, you often get a line chart and a bar chart.

You can change the chart type (for example, swapping the bar chart for a scatter chart) or reorder them with the drag-and-drop function.

If you find the charts distracting and just want the data table, you can hide them completely. Simply click the little ‘eye’ icon next to each chart. If you hide both, you’ll be left with a clean, simple table.

Charts in Customisation Sections

Displaying your custom reports

Once you’ve tailored the report to your liking, you have two choices when you click Save:

  1. Save changes to current report: This will permanently alter the original report you started with.

  2. Save as a new report: This creates a brand new, separate report, leaving the original untouched.

For this example, we’ll choose ‘Save as a new report’ and call it Session Source Medium Report.

Now, here’s the crucial next step that catches everyone out. After saving a new report, you won’t immediately see it in your left-hand navigation menu. To make it appear, you need to add it from the Library.

Here’s how to do that:

  1. From the Reports tab, click on Library at the very bottom of the left-hand menu.

  2. Find the collection you want to add the report to (e.g., Life cycle) and click Edit collection.

  3. Find your newly named report in the list on the right.

  4. Drag and drop your report into the collection on the left.

  5. Click Save, and then Save changes to current collection.

Done! Your custom report will now be accessible directly from the main navigation menu.

Deleting a Custom Report

If you want to get rid of a report you’ve made, just go back to the Library, find the report in the list, click the three-dot menu on the right, and select Delete.

Conclusion

By taking just a few minutes to set up reports that reflect your goals, you can make your day-to-day analysis in GA4 quicker, cleaner, and far more effective.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How many custom reports can I have in GA4?

A: You can have up to 150 custom reports per Google Analytics property.

Q: What permissions do I need to customise reports in GA4?

A: You need to have either ‘Editor’ or ‘Administrator’ permissions for the property.

Q: I saved my new custom report, but where did it go?

A: It’s waiting for you in the ‘Library’. You need to go to Reports > Library and add it to one of your report collections to make it appear in the main navigation menu.

Q: What’s the difference between saving to the current report and saving as a new report?

A: Saving to the current report overwrites the GA4 default. Saving as a new report creates a separate, new report and leaves the original template untouched. We generally recommend saving as a new report.

Kyle

Author

Hello, I'm Kyle Rushton McGregor!

I’m an experienced GA4 Specialist with a demonstrated history of working with Google Tag Manager and Looker Studio. I’m an international speaker who has trained 1000s of people on all things analytics.

Find out more About me
Scroll to Top