Engaged sessions, engagement rate and bounce rate in GA4
GA4 counts a visit as engaged if it lasts over 10 seconds, has a key event or views 2+ pages. Engagement rate and bounce rate follow from that.
An engaged session is a visit that lasted longer than 10 seconds, had a key event, or viewed at least two pages. Engagement rate is the share of sessions that were engaged, and GA4's bounce rate is simply the opposite: the share that weren't.
The rule for an engaged session
A session is engaged if any of these is true:
- it lasted longer than 10 seconds (with the page in view), or
- it had a key event, or
- it had two or more page or screen views.
You can raise the 10 seconds (up to 60) in your data stream's tag settings (Adjust timer for engaged sessions).
Engagement rate and bounce rate
- Engagement rate = engaged sessions ÷ all sessions.
- Bounce rate = 100% − engagement rate.
So if 60% of sessions were engaged, the bounce rate is 40%.
Why GA4's bounce rate isn't the old one
In Universal Analytics, a bounce was a single-page visit, even if someone read for five minutes. In GA4, that same visit counts as engaged (over 10 seconds), so it's not a bounce. GA4 bounce rates are usually lower, and more meaningful, than the old ones.
Is my bounce rate good?
Compare it with itself over time and between your own pages, not with numbers from other sites. A blog post that answers a question in one page can have a high bounce rate and still do its job.
In SimpleDash
SimpleDash shows Avg. time rather than bounce rate, because "how long people stayed with the page in view" is easier to read. Average engagement time.
Sources
- Google: Engagement rate and bounce rate
Last updated
Sessions
A session is one visit to your site. When GA4 starts and ends a session, how it differs from Universal Analytics, and how sessions relate to users.
Engagement time
Average engagement time is how long your site was open and in view, on average. How GA4 measures it, how it differs from session duration, and where to see it.