What events should I actually track?

When you’re setting up event tracking in a platform like Scout, one of the first questions you’ll run into is:
“What events should I actually track?”

It’s a good question — and getting it right is important.
Tracking the right events gives you the insight you need to understand how users interact with your product, find growth opportunities, fix issues, and ultimately build a better experience.

To begin with we should look at the different types of analytics, and how we collect data.

1. Web analytics – is the process of collecting, measuring, and analyzing website data to understand and improve user behavior and site performance.
2. Product analytics – is the process of tracking and analyzing user interactions within a product to understand behavior, improve user experience, and drive product decisions.

Commonly with web analytics you can use a tracking script (javascript) that attaches to every page and will listen for things like page views, or clicking on a link etc. It’s fairly straightforward to track and measure these,

Here’s a simple framework to help you define what to track.

1. Start with Your Product’s Goals

Before you define a single event, step back and ask:
“What is the core purpose of my product?”

Your goals might be things like:

• Getting users to sign up

• Encouraging users to upload a file

• Having users complete a purchase

• Getting users to share content

Every event you track should ultimately tie back to one of your product’s goals.
Think of events as breadcrumbs that tell the story of how users move toward (or away from) the outcomes you care about.

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2. Map the Key User Actions

Once you’ve identified your goals, list the key actions a user would take along the way.
Ask yourself:

• What steps are essential to achieving the goal?

• What actions indicate a user is engaged?

• Where might users get stuck or drop off?

For example, if your goal is “users completing a purchase”, you might want to track:

• Product Viewed

• Added to Cart

• Started Checkout

• Payment Info Entered

• Order Completed

Each of these actions forms a part of the journey — and tracking them helps you understand where users succeed or fall away.

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3. Keep It Focused

It’s tempting to track everything.
But too much data can create noise and make it harder to find real insights.

Instead, aim to:

• Focus on the critical events tied to your goals.

• Avoid tracking low-value clicks or generic interactions unless they’re truly meaningful.

• Group similar events when possible (e.g., Button Clicked with a button_name property rather than separate events for each button).

Scout is designed to make it easy to search and filter your events — but the cleaner your event structure, the easier your analysis will be.

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4. Capture Useful Properties

Events are even more powerful when you attach extra context.

For example:

• A Signed Up event might include plan_type: "Pro".

• A File Uploaded event might include file_size and file_type.

• A Purchase Completed event might include order_value and product_category.

Properties help you slice, filter, and understand your data in deeper ways — without cluttering your event names.

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5. Revisit and Adjust Over Time

Your product will evolve.
Your event tracking should too.

Regularly revisit:

• Are we still tracking the right goals?

• Are there new user actions we should capture?

• Are any events no longer relevant?

Keeping your event schema aligned with your product ensures your insights stay fresh and actionable.

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A Quick Note on Funnels

You might be wondering:
“Is this where funnels come in?”

Funnels are a way of visualizing how users move through a series of events toward a goal (like signing up or making a purchase).
They help you spot where users drop off and where the biggest improvements could be made.

While Scout doesn’t currently offer built-in funnel visualization, you can still use event data to manually construct funnels — for example, by tracking the number of users who triggered each key event and comparing them over time.
(And yes, better support for funnels is something we’re thinking about for the future!)

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Summary

Choosing the right events to track starts with understanding your product’s goals and mapping the critical actions that lead users there.

✅ Start with your goals
✅ Map key user actions
✅ Keep your tracking focused
✅ Add useful properties
✅ Revisit and adjust as you grow

With thoughtful event tracking, you’ll be able to unlock the full power of Scout — and make smarter, faster decisions for your product.