GA4 tracked page views and nothing else — six funnel events were missing

The situation

An HR Tech SaaS had GA4 installed via a basic snippet. Their GA4 dashboard showed traffic data but zero conversion events. The product team was making roadmap decisions based on traffic, not engagement or conversions.

The problem

The GA4 snippet was firing page_view only. No custom events were configured: no sign_up, no trial_start, no upgrade, no feature_used, no churned events. The entire SaaS conversion funnel — acquisition to activation to revenue — was a black box in GA4.

What we did

1. Mapped the full SaaS conversion funnel: visitor → signup → email verify → trial start → feature activation → paid upgrade → expansion
2. Implemented 6 custom GA4 events via GTM: sign_up, trial_start, onboarding_complete, feature_activated, subscription_started, plan_upgraded
3. Added user properties: plan_type, signup_source, company_size to all events for segmentation
4. Built GA4 funnel exploration report showing drop-off at each stage — onboarding_complete was 34%, far below industry benchmark

Why it worked

Basic GA4 installation tracks page views and sessions. For SaaS, page views are nearly meaningless — what matters is activation, trial conversion, and upgrade. The product team had been running experiments and making roadmap calls with zero behavioral data. The onboarding drop-off discovery alone justified the entire engagement.