GA4 Tracking Secrets for End-of-Year Donation Campaigns

Your nonprofit’s year-end fundraising success depends on one critical question: Do you actually know which ads are working?

Too often, organizations pour money into Facebook, Google, and other channels without the data to see what’s driving results. That’s where Emily Patterson, founder of B Measure, comes in. In this recent session hosted by the Center for Digital Strategy, Emily breaks down how to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to track, target, and optimize your online fundraising ads—just in time for year-end campaigns.

Emily has trained hundreds of nonprofit practitioners on digital advertising and analytics. Her teaching style is consistently praised for turning “GA4 jargon” into clear, actionable steps. This webinar is a sneak peek into her fall Ad Tracking & Analytics course—but also a practical, standalone session full of insights you can use immediately.

Key Takeaways

1. Conversion Tracking Comes First

If your ad platforms (Meta, Google Ads, etc.) don’t have your conversion data, they can’t optimize. Emily shows why broken tracking means wasted spend—and how fixing it can instantly bring campaigns back to life.

2. Smarter Retargeting with GA4

Set up GA4 “audiences” to follow up with people who started but didn’t complete a donation. You can target one-time donors with a monthly ask, or re-engage supporters tied to a specific campaign.

3. Get Granular with UTM Codes

Stop letting traffic show up as “direct” or “unassigned.” By adding UTM parameters to email links, social ads, SMS campaigns, and even QR codes, you’ll finally see which channels (and people) are driving donations.

4. Don’t Forget Peer-to-Peer and Influencers

Board members, partners, or influencers promoting your campaign? Give them unique tagged URLs so you can track who really drives donations.

5. Cross-Channel Attribution Matters

Most nonprofits default to “last click” attribution—giving all the credit to the final channel. GA4’s new modeling tools help you see the full donor journey, from first touch to conversion, so you know where to invest next year.

Why This Matters

With Giving Tuesday and year-end around the corner, nonprofits can’t afford to “fly blind.” GA4 gives you the power to:

• Send better data to ad platforms so algorithms actually work for you.

• Compare the real impact of email, ads, and organic outreach.

• Optimize limited budgets for maximum fundraising return.

As Emily emphasizes: Good data is your best fundraising tool.

Watch the Webinar + Go Deeper

📺 Watch the full webinar replay below to hear Emily walk through GA4 tricks step by step.

👉 Ready to master tracking and analytics for your organization? Join Emily’s Ad Tracking & Analytics course, starting September 30. This five-session course dives deeper into GA4, conversion tracking, UTM codes, and attribution—so you can finally take control of your ad data.

Learn more & register for the course here »