The default channel report for GA4 is as follows:
It can be seen that many Channels are different from GA3.
Default Channel Group
GA4 Default channel definitions are as follows:
|
Channel |
Channel Group |
Definition |
|
Google Ads traffic |
Paid Search | Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of (“Google Search”, “Google Partners”) |
| Paid Video | Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of (“YouTube Search”, “YouTube Videos”) |
|
| Display | Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of (“Google Display Network”) |
|
| Cross-network | Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of (“Cross-network”) Cross-network includes Performance Max and Smart Shopping. |
|
| Paid Social | Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of (“Social”) |
|
|
Display & Video 360 traffic |
Display | Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of (“Standard”, “Expandable”, “Native site square”, “Backdrop”, “Templated app install interstitial”, “Deprecated”, “Native app install”,”Native app install square”, “Native site”, “Templated app install”, “Lightbox”) |
| Paid Video | Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of (“Native video”, “Video”, “Templated app install video”, “Flipbook”) |
|
| Audio | Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of (“Audio”) |
|
| Paid Other | Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of (“Publisher hosted”, “Tracking”, “Unknown”) |
|
|
Search Ads 360 traffic |
Paid Search | SA360 engine account type is one of (“bing”, “yahoo gemini”, “yahoo.jp”, “baidu”, “admarketplace”, “naver”, “360.cn”, “yandex |
| Paid Social | SA360 engine account type Is one of (“facebook”, “twitter”) | |
|
Manual traffic |
Direct | Source exactly matches direct AND Medium is one of (“(not set)”, “(none)”) |
| Cross-network | Campaign Name contains “cross-network” Cross-network includes Performance Max and Smart Shopping. |
|
| Paid Shopping | (Source matches a list of shopping sites OR Campaign Name matches regex ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$) AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
|
| Paid Search | Source matches a list of search sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
|
| Paid Social | Source matches a list of social sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
|
| Paid Video | Source matches a list of video sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
|
| Display | Medium is one of (“display”, “banner”, “expandable”, “interstitial”, “cpm”) | |
| Organic Shopping | Source matches a list of shopping sites OR Campaign name matches regex ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$ |
|
| Organic Social | Source matches a regex list of social sites OR Medium is one of (“social”, “social-network”, “social-media”, “sm”, “social network”, “social media”) |
|
| Organic Video | Source matches a list of video sites OR Medium matches regex ^(.*video.*)$ |
|
| Organic Search | Source matches a list of search sites OR Medium exactly matches organic |
|
| Source = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail OR Medium = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail |
||
| Affiliates | Medium = affiliate | |
| Referral | Medium = referral | |
| Audio | Medium exactly matches audio | |
| SMS | Medium exactly matches sms | |
| Mobile Push Notifications | Medium ends with “push” OR Medium contains “mobile” or “notification” |
If you want to use UTM, Source, Medium, and Campaign must use Manual traffic. If you didn’t follow the Default channel definitions rules, it will lead to division into the wrong channel.
For example：
- https://www.bbccss.com/index.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer-sale
- https://www.bbccss.com/index.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=summer-sale
Looking at these two UTMs, Source and Campaign are the same, but Medium is different, and will be divided into different channels, the first is divided into Paid Social, the second is divided into Organic Social.
You may see some special channels, their rules are as follows:
Unassigned
According to the official documentation: unassigned is the value Analytics uses when there are no other channel rules that match the event data
UTM parameters are not channel rules, such as
- utm_source=Admin&utm_medium=Admin&urm_campaign=Admin
- utm_source=BLOG&utm_medium=ELLA
- utm_source=GA&utm_medium=AD_K
You can filter out unassigned now, and then add “First user source/medium” in the secondary dimension
Send data through the MP without the ga_session_id parameter, it will be classified as Unassigned
There will be a feature here, some Engagement will be relatively low.
When the session is opened, the session_start event will be sent, and the UTM information is on the session_start. If the session_start is not sent, the UTM will not be set, and the channel will be Unassigned.
Learn more: Why Unassigned appears in GA4 Channels
(Other)
(other) is the value Analytics uses for an aggregated row due to cardinality limits.
Direct VS Unassigned
Some people have doubts about Direct and Unassigned, their default channel definitions rules are as follows:
- Direct: Source exactly matches direct AND Medium is one of (“(not set)”, “(none)”)，
- Unassigned is the value Analytics uses when there are no other channel rules that match the event data
In fact, it is very easy to distinguish, direct visit is Direct, if the UTM mark is wrong, it is Unassigned.
It can be known from two rules:
- Direct needs to satisfy both source and medium before it can be classified as a Direct channel.
- Direct has a higher priority than Unassigned.
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