Google Analytics Can't Show You What Makes Money

I haven't opened Google Analytics in months.

Not because I'm lazy. Because it can't answer the one question that matters: which content is making me money?

GA4 will tell you that 2,341 people visited from YouTube. It won't tell you which of your 47 videos brought them. It definitely won't tell you which video led to actual course sales.

That's the problem.

TL;DR

Google Analytics is website analytics for marketing teams. It tracks sessions, pageviews, and bounce rates. It has no idea which YouTube video, tweet, or podcast episode grew your email list or made you money. For creators, it's tracking the wrong thing entirely.

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The $81k Problem

Back in December, I did an audit of where my best buyers came from.

I had roughly $81,000 in untracked revenue.

Why? Because people subscribe with one email and buy with another. GA4 sees two completely different people. The connection is lost forever.

No amount of "custom events" or "advanced segments" fixes this. GA4 tracks sessions. Your business runs on people.

"Referral: youtube.com" Tells You Nothing

I have a YouTube video with 156,000 views.

It brought in 200-300 email subscribers. Zero of them bought anything. Garbage subscribers.

I have another video with under 3,000 views that sells courses week after week.

GA4 would show both as "youtube.com referral." It has no idea one is worthless and the other prints money.

If you followed GA4's logic, you'd create more content like the 156k video. You'd optimize for views instead of revenue. And you'd wonder why nothing sells.

What GA4 Actually Shows You

• Pageviews
• Sessions
• Bounce rate
• Average session duration
• "Referral: twitter.com"
• "Referral: youtube.com"
• "(not set)" - super helpful

What You Actually Need

• Which YouTube video brought this subscriber
• Which tweet grew my list
• Which podcast appearance led to sales
• Which newsletter swap was worth it
• Revenue per content piece

GA4 gives you the first list. You need the second one.

The Journey GA4 Can't Track

Here's how creators actually make money:

Content → Website → Email Signup → (days/weeks/months) → Purchase

GA4 dies at "Website." It can tell you someone visited a page. It cannot tell you:

• They subscribed to your list
• They bought something 3 weeks later
• That purchase traces back to your Twitter thread from January

The connection breaks. $81k in untracked revenue happens.

"But You Can Set Up Custom Events"

Sure. If you want to become a developer.

You'll need to:

• Learn Google Tag Manager
• Write JavaScript
• Set up conversion events
• Build custom reports
• Configure data streams
• Hope nothing breaks on the next GA4 update

For what? To still not know which YouTube video made the sale?

Most creators give up after 2 hours of clicking through GA4's maze of menus. That's the right move.

"Use UTM Parameters"

You could tag every link with UTMs. But then you need:

1. A system to create and manage all those UTMs
2. Something to connect UTMs to email signups
3. Something to connect email signups to purchases
4. A way to handle the email mismatch problem

Congrats. You just described building your own attribution system. Or you could use one that already exists.

The Real Numbers

My YouTube channel gets 15,000 views a month. Sounds decent.

It accounts for less than 3% of my paying clients.

SEO and newsletter swaps crush it. But GA4 would tell me YouTube is "driving traffic." Traffic isn't the goal. Revenue is.

What GA4 Gets Wrong

GA4 thinks in sessions. You need to think in people.

Session: "Someone visited 3 pages and left."

Person: "This subscriber came from my Twitter thread, joined in January, and bought my course in March."

GA4 optimizes for engagement. You need to optimize for revenue.

High bounce rate on a landing page? Maybe everyone who stayed converted and you're doing great. GA4 has no idea.

GA4 is built for marketing teams. You're a solo creator.

All those features assume someone's job is "analytics person." That's not you. You create content. You need answers, not another full-time job learning a tool.

Creator Sources Are Invisible

Where you actually get subscribers:

• Newsletter swaps with other creators
• Podcast guest appearances
• Specific YouTube videos
• Specific Twitter threads
• Medium articles
• LinkedIn posts

What GA4 sees:

• "Referral"
• "Referral"
• "Referral"
• "Direct"
• "(not set)"

You did a swap with a creator who has 50k subscribers. GA4 says "referral." Which swap? No idea. From which partner? Unknown.

The Fundamental Mismatch

GA4 answers: "How is my website performing?"

You need: "Which content is making me money?"

Different questions. GA4 can't answer yours because:

1. It doesn't connect to your email list
2. It doesn't connect to your payment processor
3. It loses people when they use different emails
4. It can't trace purchases back to content

What to Track Instead

Stop chasing pageviews. Track these:

1. Subscribers by source - Which content grows your list
2. Subscriber quality - Which sources bring buyers vs. tire-kickers
3. Revenue by content - Which YouTube video, tweet, or article actually made money

Platform metrics are fake dopamine. They give you the illusion something's working when it's not.

The only metrics that matter are email subscribers and sales. Not views. Not likes. Not session duration.

The Bottom Line

Google Analytics is free. It's also showing you the wrong data.

Free + useless = still useless.

You don't need better website analytics. You need to know which content makes money so you can stop wasting time on what doesn't.

That's not what GA4 does.

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FAQ

Can Google Analytics track email subscribers?

Not natively. GA4 tracks website sessions, not email signups. You'd need custom event tracking, tag manager setup, and it still won't connect subscribers to purchases or original content sources.

Is GA4 good for content creators?

No. GA4 is built for websites and marketing teams. It tracks pageviews and sessions. Creators need to track content → subscriber → revenue. GA4 loses the connection at every step.

What should creators use instead of Google Analytics?

You need something that connects your content to your email list to your payment processor. That tracks people, not sessions. That shows you which YouTube video or tweet actually led to a sale, not just "referral: youtube.com."