22 Jan Default Channel Groupings
Channel groupings are the names of channels that bring in traffic to your website. These channels are grouped based on different rules from definitions set by Google.
They give us a high-level view to analyze the performance of different channels, and if one is doing better than another then we can direct our efforts toward that channel. Otherwise, we would be wasting our limited resources on unfruitful channels.
For instance, you could be spending a lot of money on running ads, but your analytics show that your Organic Search is bringing a lot more traffic. Therefore, you would want to direct more efforts toward SEO.
Compared to UA, GA4 has expanded the default channel groupings by adding 16 more groupings under its umbrella, which also include Audio, Video, SMS, and Mobile Push Notifications. More on that later.
| Channel | Google Analytics 4 | Defination |
| Direct | Source exactly matches direct AND Medium is either (not set) or (none) |
Direct traffic can result from a user entering the URL into their browser or using a bookmark to access the webpage directly. If a user clicks on the links available in a Microsoft Office document or a PDF file, that traffic will also be considered direct. If the medium in the URL is ‘not set’ or ‘none’, the traffic will be considered direct traffic. |
| Organic Search | Source matches a list of search sites OR Medium exactly matches organic |
Traffic will be assigned to the organic search channel group when the medium matches’ organic’. This channel group defines the traffic coming from a search engine like Google or Bing. |
| Paid Social | Source matches a regex list of social sites AND Medium matches regex ^(cpc|ppc|paid)$ |
When users arrive on your landing page using a link via a paid social campaign, such traffic will be attributed to the ‘Paid Social’ channel group. For example, if you are running a Facebook campaign for one of your landing pages, let’s say a product page, if the user on Facebook sees the advertisement and then clicks on it, he will be considered ‘Paid Social’ traffic. |
| 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”) |
When a user arrives on your landing page using a link via an organic social media post (not paid), such traffic will be attributed to the ‘Organic Social’ channel group. For example, users coming to a website from a general Facebook post will be attributed to ‘Organic Social’. |
| Source = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail OR Medium = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail |
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| Affiliates | Medium = affiliate|affiliates | The affiliate channel indicates traffic from affiliate marketing efforts. If you have a list of affiliates, you can ask them to include affiliate definitions to tag your landing page URLs. |
| Referral | Medium exactly matches referral | The referral traffic channel in Google Analytics 4 groups the users coming from sources outside of its search engine. When a user clicks on a link to navigate to a new web page, GA4 will track the link as a ‘referral’ to the new web page, and the original web page will be considered a ‘referrer’. |
| Paid Search | Medium matches regex ^(cpc|ppc|paidsearch)$ AND Ad Network does not exactly match DISPLAY or matches PAID_SEARCH |
Traffic coming from paid search ads that appear on search engines like Google, Bing, or AOL, will be attributed to the ‘Paid search’ channel group. Paid search traffic is determined by the medium of CPC, PPC, or paidsearch. It also excludes traffic coming from display ads. |
| Display | Medium is one of (“display”, “banner”, “expandable”, “interstitial”, “cpm”) | When a user clicks on display ads (Google Network only) and lands on the web page, such traffic is attributed to the ‘Display’ channel. |
| sms | Medium exactly matches sms | – |
| unassigned | Unassigned is used when there are no other channel rules that match the event data. | – |
Note: Case Sensitivity
GA4 ignores case sensitivity in your UTM Parameters. For example:
?utm_medium=email
?utm_medium=Email
Both would be counted under the ‘Email’ Default Channel Group in GA4.
My UTM Tagging Has Been Incorrect for Months!
Unfortunately, one area where GA4 and Universal Analytics align is: you can’t edit historical Google Analytics data. So if your tagging has been setup incorrectly & you’ve been sending traffic data to GA4 that’s funneled into the wrong Channel Grouping, there is no way to fix it in GA4.
Source by : https://www.getelevar.com/analytics/how-to-use-channel-grouping-in-ga4/
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