Event Tracking Best Practices: A Complete Guide for Product Teams

Understanding how users interact with your product is crucial for making informed decisions. Event tracking is the foundation of product analytics, but doing it well requires thoughtful planning and consistent execution. This guide covers everything you need to know to implement effective event tracking.

Why Event Tracking Matters

Product decisions should be driven by data, not assumptions. Event tracking helps you:

Understand user behavior: See how users actually use your product
Measure feature adoption: Know which features are used and which are ignored
Identify friction points: Find where users struggle or drop off
Validate hypotheses: Test your assumptions with real data
Track business metrics: Monitor KPIs like conversion rates and engagement

Without proper event tracking, you’re flying blind.

Designing Your Event Schema

The Anatomy of a Good Event

Every event should capture:

Event name: What happened (e.g., button_clicked, purchase_completed)
Timestamp: When it happened
User identifier: Who did it
Properties: Additional context about the event

import { Kitbase } from '@kitbase/analytics';

const kitbase = new Kitbase({ token: 'your-api-key' });

await kitbase.track({
  channel: 'payments',
  event: 'purchase_completed',
  user_id: 'user_123',
  tags: {
    orderId: 'ord_123456',
    amount: 99.99,
    currency: 'USD',
  },
});

Naming Conventions

Consistent naming is crucial for maintainable analytics. Choose a convention and stick to it:

Object-Action Pattern (Recommended)

product_viewed
cart_updated
checkout_started
order_completed

Action-Object Pattern

viewed_product
updated_cart
started_checkout
completed_order

Avoid These Mistakes

// Inconsistent casing
Product_Viewed
productViewed
PRODUCT_VIEWED

// Vague names
click
event
action

// Implementation details
onClick
handleSubmit

What to Track (And What Not To)

Essential Events

User Lifecycle

user_signed_up
user_logged_in
user_logged_out
user_profile_updated

Core Actions

Key feature interactions
Conversion events
Error occurrences

Navigation

Page views
Feature discovery
Search queries

Properties to Include

Always include context that helps you segment and analyze:

// Good: Rich context
await kitbase.track({
  channel: 'features',
  event: 'feature_used',
  user_id: 'user_123',
  tags: {
    featureName: 'export_dashboard',
    exportFormat: 'pdf',
    dataRange: '30_days',
    userPlan: 'pro',
    userTenure: 45, // days since signup
  },
});

// Bad: Missing context
await kitbase.track({
  channel: 'features',
  event: 'feature_used',
  // No user_id, minimal tags - hard to analyze!
});

What NOT to Track

Sensitive data: Passwords, full credit card numbers, health information
PII without consent: Email addresses, phone numbers (unless necessary)
High-frequency events: Mouse movements, scroll positions (unless specifically needed)
Internal debugging: Developer-only events that pollute analytics

Organizing Events with Channels

Kitbase supports organizing events into channels for better filtering and analysis:

// Payment events
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'payments', event: 'payment_initiated', ... });
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'payments', event: 'payment_completed', ... });
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'payments', event: 'payment_failed', ... });

// User events
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'user', event: 'profile_updated', ... });
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'user', event: 'preferences_changed', ... });

// Feature events
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'features', event: 'dashboard_viewed', ... });
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'features', event: 'report_generated', ... });

Channels make it easy to:

Filter dashboards by event type
Set up channel-specific alerts
Manage data retention per channel

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Tracking Everything

More data isn’t always better. Focus on events that:

Answer specific questions
Drive decisions
Measure key metrics

2. Inconsistent Implementation

When tracking is implemented inconsistently across platforms or features, your data becomes unreliable. Create a tracking plan document that specifies:

Event names and when they fire
Required and optional properties
Which platforms implement each event

3. Missing Context

Events without context are hard to analyze:

// Hard to analyze - missing channel, context
await kitbase.track({ channel: 'ui', event: 'button_clicked' });

// Easy to analyze - rich context
await kitbase.track({
  channel: 'ui',
  event: 'button_clicked',
  user_id: 'user_123',
  tags: {
    buttonName: 'upgrade_plan',
    location: 'pricing_page',
    currentPlan: 'free',
  },
});

4. Not Validating Events

Implement validation to catch issues early:

Required properties should be present
Values should be in expected formats
Events should fire at the right times

Building a Tracking Plan

A tracking plan is a document that defines your event schema. It should include:

Event Name	Description	Properties	When It Fires
`user_signed_up`	New user registration	`method`, `referrer`	After successful signup
`feature_enabled`	User enables a feature	`featureName`, `plan`	When feature is turned on
`purchase_completed`	Successful purchase	`amount`, `items`, `method`	After payment confirmation

Real-Time Analytics with Kitbase

Kitbase provides real-time event tracking with powerful features:

Instant Insights

See events as they happen:

// Events appear in your dashboard immediately
await kitbase.track({
  channel: 'checkout',
  event: 'checkout_started',
  user_id: 'user_123',
  tags: {
    cartValue: 149.99,
    itemCount: 3,
  },
});

Webhook Notifications

React to events in real-time:

{
  "event": "purchase_completed",
  "properties": {
    "amount": 99.99,
    "customerId": "cus_123"
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-01-05T10:30:00Z"
}

Aggregations

See trends and patterns:

Event counts over time
Property breakdowns
Funnel analysis

Getting Started

Define your key questions: What do you need to know about user behavior?
Create a tracking plan: Document events, properties, and triggers
Implement consistently: Use the same conventions everywhere
Validate your data: Ensure events fire correctly
Iterate: Add new events as questions arise

Ready to start tracking? Sign up for Kitbase and implement event tracking in minutes.

Conclusion

Effective event tracking is the foundation of data-driven product development. By following these best practices—consistent naming, rich context, organized channels, and a documented tracking plan—you’ll build an analytics foundation that scales with your product.

Remember: track with purpose, not just for the sake of tracking. Every event should help you understand your users better and make better product decisions.

Need help setting up event tracking? Check out our Event Tracking documentation or contact our team for guidance.