Are long sales pages really worth it?
Some people swear by them. Others hate them. As a buyer, scrolling forever just to find out the price can feel like torture. As a business owner, you are told they convert better because they reassure people, add proof, and answer objections.
So who is right?
Instead of choosing a side, we can measure it. Google Analytics 4 can tell us how people really use your sales page. Not just how many people land on it, but how many scroll, how many see your pricing, how many reach your testimonials, and whether any of that actually leads to more sales or bookings.
That means you can stop guessing and start making decisions based on data from your own website instead of what someone on YouTube told you.
Before we jump into the tutorial, let’s look at the big problem most people run into when they try to track this.
Why scroll tracking isn’t enough
Most marketers use scroll depth events. For example, you track when someone reaches 50% of the page and assume they have reached the pricing section. That might be true on desktop. But on mobile, the layout shifts. What sits halfway down the page on a laptop could be nowhere near the pricing section on a phone.
Someone might hit 50% and still be reading the intro. Meanwhile, the part you care about most, like your guarantee or your booking button, could be much further down.
One of the people on my Analytics Ace course spotted this when I showed a demo of a scroll tracking setup. It was firing, but not at the right point. That is a problem if you want reliable data to decide whether long sales pages actually convert.
Luckily, there is a better way. Instead of tracking how far someone scrolls, we track when they actually see a specific element on the page. That is called an Element Visibility trigger in Google Tag Manager and it sends a clean event to GA4 when the right part of the page appears on screen.
That means you can track visibility of pricing, testimonials, FAQs, calls to action, guarantees, banners, videos and anything else that may affect the conversion rate.
So now that we know what the better method is, let’s walk through how to set it up.
How to Track Sales Page Element Views in GA4 (Tutorial)
I’m using my WordPress site as an example here. The element ID may vary depending on the website builder you are using.
Let’s go.
Step 1: Add a HTML Anchor to your page in WordPress
Open your sales page in block edit mode on WordPress.
Scroll down to the part of your page you want to measure.
In the example, I’m using my pricing module.
Click on the block.
On the right-hand side, make sure Block is selected.
Click Advanced.
In the box under HTML Anchor, give your element a name.
Save.
Step 2: Check the Anchor appears in your website code
View your published page.
Right-click on the element you want to check.
Choose Inspect from the drop-down menu.
Check that the element has an id= that matches the Anchor you added.
Now you’re ready to create your custom event.
Step 3: Create an Element Visibility trigger in Tag Manager
Open Tag Manager and click Trigger on the left-hand side menu.
Click New
Give your trigger a name.
Click Trigger Configuration and select the Element Visibility option.
Under Element ID type in the HTML Anchor you created earlier.
Choose Some Visibility Events at the bottom.
Add the Page Path variable in the first box, Contains in the second box, and then paste in the page path for your sales page.
For example, the full link to my sales page is:
https://spiderworking.com/done-for-you-google-analytics-4-set-up/
The page path is: /done-for-you-google-analytics-4-set-up/
Click Save.
Step 3: Create a Tag to connect the trigger to Google Analytics
Click Tags on the left-hand sidebar.
Click New to start building your tag.
Give your tag a name.
Click Tag Configuration and then Google Analytics.
You will have 2 options to choose from here:
- Google Tag
- Google Analytics – GA4 Event
It’s the GA4 Event that you want.
Add your Measurement ID. If you don’t already have this saved as a Variable, you will find it in your Google Analytics account by typing Measurement ID into the search bar.
Give your event a name. This should include only lowercase letters and underscores (no spaces).
In the example I’m using, view_dfy_pricing
Add the trigger you created earlier and save.
Next, let’s see if it works.
Step 4: Test to see if it works
You need to make sure everything is working OK before you publish your new tag to your website and Google Analytics.
In Tag Manager, click the Preview button at the top right-hand side of the screen.
This opens a new tab in your browser. We’ll call this the Tag Assistant tab.
Add the full link to your sales page to the window and click Connect.
Yet another browser tab opens, this will show your web page. We’ll call this the Webpage Tab. If everything is connected, you’ll see a Tag Assistant window at the bottom of the screen.
Click into the Tag Assistant tab. This shows you all the tags that triggered when you opened that page.
Click into Google Analytics at the top of the tab and make sure that your new tag isn’t showing.
In the example below you can see that just the page view event has triggered.
Now go back into your Webpage Tab and scroll down until you reach the element you want to measure.
Check back into the Tag Assistant Tab. Your new tag should have appeared. In the example below you can see the Google Analytics event view_dfy_pricing has appeared.
That means it worked, yay!
You’ve just one more step to complete to get this info into Google Analytics.
Step 5: Publish
In your first Tag Manager tab click Submit. Give your update a name and publish.
Now your website will send this event to Google Analytics when someone views the pricing element on your page.
What to do with the data once it is in GA4?
Once the event is being captured, you can find it in your standard GA4 reports, or you can build an Explore report to compare users who saw the element with users who did not. That is where you start seeing whether a long sales page is helping or getting in the way.
If people who view the pricing section convert at a higher rate, great. If people scroll but never reach it, that tells you there is friction before they get to the point where they can decide. You might need a shorter page, a jump link, or a mid-page CTA.
If users view your testimonials but do not convert, you may need stronger social proof or a clearer offer. If people reach the bottom of the page and still don’t buy, the issue is not length, it is messaging.
That is the kind of insight you only get when you track behaviour instead of guessing.
So, are long sales pages worth it?
Now you can find out on your own site. You do not need to rely on what a guru said, or what worked for someone else in a different niche. You will know how many people reach the key elements, how many convert, and whether the extra copy is helping or getting ignored.
That is how you stop arguing about page length and start improving real conversion performance.
Want this set up for you?
If you want this kind of tracking added to your site but you do not have time to wrestle with Tag Manager, anchors, events and reports, I can do it for you. My Done-For-You GA4 Setup service includes custom event tracking, conversion setup, Tag Manager configuration, and the reports you need to understand what is working.
If you want cleaner data, better insights and a setup that actually tells you what is happening on your website, you can book it here.
