Google Analytics 4 is technically free and technically capable of tracking purchase attribution. It's also technically possible to assemble furniture without instructions. Both experiences leave you questioning your life choices.
GA4 replaced Universal Analytics in 2023 and brought a completely new data model, a different interface, and a learning curve steep enough to qualify as a wall. For small e-commerce brands, the gap between "GA4 can do this" and "I can actually make GA4 do this" is enormous.
If all you want to know is which marketing channel drove a purchase, there are simpler ways to get there.
Why GA4 makes attribution harder than it needs to be
The old version of Google Analytics had a straightforward acquisition report. You could see where your traffic came from and, with e-commerce tracking set up, which sources led to purchases. It wasn't perfect, but it was understandable.
GA4 replaced that with an event-based model. Everything is an event. A page view is an event. A purchase is an event. Scrolling is an event. You have to configure conversions, set up data streams, mark certain events as "key events" (they renamed conversions, twice), and build custom reports to see anything useful.
Then there's the sampling issue. GA4 samples data when your traffic exceeds certain thresholds. Your attribution numbers might be estimates, not actuals. For a small brand making 200 sales a month, being told "approximately 180-220 sales came from these sources" isn't helpful.
Cookie consent compounds the problem. Depending on your consent banner setup and your audience's browser choices, GA4 might miss 30-50% of your traffic entirely. It fills the gaps with modelling, which is Google's polite way of saying "educated guessing."
None of this means GA4 is bad. It's powerful for large operations with dedicated analysts. But if you're running a small online store and you just want to know whether TikTok or Instagram is driving your sales, it's the wrong tool.
What you actually need from attribution
Strip away the jargon and dashboards. For most small e-commerce brands, attribution needs to answer three questions:
Which marketing channel drove this sale? Was it the Instagram post, the TikTok video, the email newsletter, or the Google ad? You need a clear answer, not a probability model.
Which specific campaign or creator drove it? Not just "social media" but which post, which influencer, which email. Channel-level data is too broad to make decisions with.
Is my marketing spend profitable? If you're paying a creator or running ads, you need to compare cost against attributed revenue. Simple maths, but only possible with accurate data.
GA4 can technically answer all three, but getting there requires custom event setup, UTM discipline, conversion configuration, and enough patience to learn a tool that was designed for enterprise marketing teams.
The tracked link approach
The simplest alternative is tracked links. Instead of relying on a complex analytics platform to piece together the journey, you create a unique link for each marketing source and track clicks and purchases directly.
Instagram bio link? Tracked link. TikTok post with a link? Different tracked link. Email newsletter CTA? Another tracked link. Each one points to the same destination on your site, but the tracking layer knows where the click came from.
When someone clicks a tracked link and later makes a purchase, you know exactly which source drove it. No cookies to consent to, no sampling, no data modelling. The attribution is direct because you built it into the link itself.
This approach has limitations. It doesn't track people who see a post, don't click the link, then Google your brand name later. That's called view-through attribution, and you'd need a pixel-based system for it. But for direct response marketing — where you're posting content with links and measuring who clicks and buys — tracked links give you cleaner data than GA4 with a fraction of the setup.
Practical setup for a small store
Here's what this looks like day to day.
Create a tracked link for each marketing channel or campaign. If you're working with three influencers, each gets their own link. If you're posting on TikTok and Instagram, each platform gets its own link. If you're running a seasonal promotion, create a link for that too.
Put these links everywhere you'd normally put your store URL. Bio links, post captions, email buttons, QR codes on packaging. Anywhere a customer might click.
Check your attribution dashboard weekly. See which sources are driving purchases. Compare the cost of each channel against the revenue it generated. Double down on what works, cut what doesn't.
That's the entire workflow. No tag managers, no event configuration, no custom dimensions.
When you do need GA4
This isn't an argument against analytics entirely. GA4 is worth using for understanding site behaviour — which pages people visit, where they drop off in your checkout, how long they spend browsing. That's useful information for improving your site.
But site behaviour and purchase attribution are different problems. GA4 is good at the first one. For the second, especially at small scale, a dedicated attribution tool will give you cleaner answers with less work.
Some brands run both. GA4 for site analytics, tracked links for marketing attribution. They serve different purposes and don't conflict with each other.
Setting this up with LinkOwl
LinkOwl does one thing: tracks which marketing link drove a purchase. Create a link, share it, and see clicks and purchases in your dashboard. No tag manager setup, no JavaScript snippets, no cookie consent complications.
If you're selling through an app with RevenueCat or Superwall, LinkOwl connects via webhooks. Purchases get attributed automatically without touching your codebase.
The pricing is 5p per attributed purchase. No monthly fee, no minimum spend. A store doing 300 attributed sales a month pays £15 for attribution. Compare that to the time cost of configuring and maintaining GA4 e-commerce tracking, and the maths is pretty clear.
You can keep GA4 for site analytics. Use LinkOwl for knowing which marketing channels actually make you money. The two complement each other without overlapping.
The honest trade-off
Tracked links won't replace a full analytics suite. You won't get heatmaps, funnel analysis, audience demographics, or cross-device tracking. If you need those things, you need a proper analytics platform.
But if your main question is "which of my marketing activities is actually driving sales" — and for most small e-commerce brands, that is the main question — tracked links answer it more clearly than GA4, with less setup, and without depending on cookies that half your visitors reject.
Start with the question that matters most. Get a clean answer to that. Add complexity later if you need it.