GA4 key events vs leads: what to count on apartment websites

A GA4 key event is any event a property's Google Analytics settings mark as important, and GA4 counts it every time it fires. A lead on an apartment website is a renter who asked for a tour, tapped the phone number or sent a message. Key event counts include arrivals, browsing and duplicates, so a key event count can run far higher than the lead count, and reporting it as leads misleads owners and trains Google Ads to buy the wrong thing.

What a GA4 key event measures

Google's definition is honest about it: a key event is "an event that measures an action that's particularly important to the success of your business". Someone with edit access decides which events those are, and GA4 counts every time one fires. In 2024 Google renamed GA4 conversions to key events, so an older property's "conversions" are the same list under a new name.

So a key event count is a count of settings decisions. On apartment websites, three kinds of decision pull it away from leads:

• Arrivals. first_visit fires once for every new visitor, automatically, with no setup. Mark it as a key event and every new visitor becomes a "conversion".
• Browsing. A floor plan click, a photo gallery view or a visit to the contact page shows interest. None of them is a request.
• Doubles. The same phone tap can reach GA4 under two or three names: a tag's event, a second tag's event, and a "Create event" copy of one of them. Mark each one and a single tap counts three times.

None of this is a bug. GA4 is doing what it was told. The trouble is that "what it was told" differs from property to property and changes over the years, so the count can't be compared across communities or across months.

What counts as a lead on an apartment website

A lead is a renter who did one of three things on purpose:

A renter...	GA4 sees	Counted as
asked for a tour	the tour form's thank-you page	Tour request
tapped the phone number	the phone-tap event	Phone call
sent a message	the contact form's thank-you page	Contact form

Nothing else counts. Not a floor plan click, not a chat window opening, not a visit to the contact page, not a form that was started and abandoned. A tap that arrives under two names counts once. An event that a "Create event" rule copied from a counted one is left out, and so is a rule that fires on page views. Application starts are listed on their own and not counted: an application is the leasing system's record, not the website's.

That's the definition Leasestory uses in every monthly report, for every community, every month, and in every answer your assistant gives through it. It is deliberately boring. Boring is what makes September comparable with August, one community comparable with the next, and the monthly report comparable with the answer you got on a Tuesday.

Why key events overstate apartment leads

• The owner's number. The report says "leads". If it means key events, the owner is comparing a settings artifact with their leasing pipeline.
• Bidding. GA4 key events can be imported into Google Ads as conversions, where, in Google's words, they "optimize your bidding strategy through Google Ads Smart Bidding." Import a page view as a conversion and the campaign learns to buy page views.
• Trends. Mark one more event in March and the "lead" count jumps in April. Nothing happened at the community.

How to audit GA4 key events in five steps

1. In GA4, open Admin, then Data display, then Key events. That's the property's list.
2. For each one, ask a single question: did a renter do this on purpose to reach us?
3. Anything that fires on arrival or on a page view is not a lead. Unmark it by deselecting its star, or at least stop reporting it as one.
4. Look for the same action under two names, and keep one.
5. Open the "Create event" rules and look for copies of the events you kept.

Do it for every community in the portfolio, and write the three lead types down where the whole team can see them. The same definition everywhere is what makes the numbers comparable.

Or ask your assistant

With Leasestory connected to your AI assistant through MCP, which comes with the paid plan, the audit is one question:

Which of my GA4 key events count as leads, and which don't?

Your assistant reads the property's key events and its "Create event" rules through your own Google access and says what lead counting does with each one. Nothing in GA4 changes; the connector only reads. Today that's Claude on the web, the desktop app and Claude Code. Follow up with "How many leads did each community get last month, by type?" and you have the number the report will show, before the report exists. The free report is the quickest way to see the definition applied to one of your own communities.

FAQ: GA4 key events and apartment leads

Are GA4 key events the same as conversions?

They are the old GA4 conversions under the name Google gave them in 2024. A Google Ads conversion is different: it is a key event imported into Google Ads, which models and counts it its own way. Neither one is a lead unless the event behind it is a renter's own request.

What is a lead in apartment marketing?

On a community website, a lead is a renter who asked for a tour, tapped the phone number or sent a message through the contact form. Floor plan clicks, gallery views, chat windows and page views are interest, not leads. Applications belong to the leasing system and are reported on their own.

Does a phone tap mean a phone call?

No. GA4 sees the tap on the number, not whether the call connected or how long it lasted. Phone call leads in a GA4-based report are taps, counted once each. Call tracking, or the leasing office's phone log, is what tells you what happened after the tap.

Does checking key events change anything in GA4?

Not when your assistant does it through Leasestory: the connector reads the property's settings and never writes to them. Changing a key event, or unmarking one, is done in GA4's Admin by someone with edit access.

The rule

Count what a renter did on purpose. Count it once. Use the same definition for every community and every month, in the report and in the question.