The stories in Google Analytics 4 could be complicated. Take, for instance, acquisition stories — the channels sending site visitors to your web site — at Experiences > Acquisition. The part lists two sorts of acquisition: consumer and site visitors (i.e., classes).
I’ll tackle these stories on this submit.
Site visitors Sources in GA4
“Consumer acquisition” vs. “Site visitors acquisition”
These two stories within the Acquisition part disclose the place every customer got here from. Consumer acquisition represents the preliminary supply that introduced the individual to your web site. Site visitors acquisition is the newest.
Say a first-time customer got here to your web site from clicking an natural search itemizing. GA4 will group that preliminary go to within the “Natural search” channel for each stories. But when she leaves and returns a number of days later from a Fb advert, GA4 will checklist the second go to within the “Paid social” channel within the “Site visitors acquisition” report and “Natural search” in “Consumer acquisition.”
In different phrases, the “Site visitors acquisition” report doesn’t differentiate between new and returning customers. It reveals the whole classes and the place every originated. The “Consumer acquisition” report reveals the whole customers and their preliminary (first-time) supply.
Channels
Each stories present “default channel teams” — traffic-source classes — together with:
- “Direct.” Guests who typed your URL of their browser’s search bar.
- “Natural Search.” Guests who clicked an natural itemizing on Google, Bing. or one other search engine.
- “Natural Social.” Guests who clicked an natural submit on a social media web site.
- “E mail.”
- “Paid Search.”
- “Paid Social.”
- “Referral.” Guests who clicked non-ad hyperlinks on third-party websites.
- “Natural Video.” Guests who clicked non-ad hyperlinks on websites comparable to YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo.
For particulars on every channel, click on the drop-down menus on every report. In “Consumer Acquisition,” click on the “First consumer default channel group” menu and choose “First consumer supply” for the checklist of originating domains.
For detailed sources of customers, click on the “First consumer default channel group” menu and choose “First consumer supply.” Click on picture to enlarge.
Within the “Site visitors Acquisition” report, click on “Session default channel group” and choose “Session supply.”
For detailed sources of classes, click on the “Session default channel group” menu and choose “Session supply.” Click on picture to enlarge.
The numbers could also be totally different owing to new versus returning visits.
You’ll be able to restrict each stories to a single web page through the “Add filter” choice on the high.
- Choose “Add filter.”
- Click on “Choose dimensions.”
- Choose “Hyperlink Click on URL”
- Choose “incorporates” beneath “Match kind.”
- Paste your web page’s URL within the “Enter dimension URL” field.
The site visitors and consumer acquisition stories will now present knowledge for that URL.
Restrict each stories to a single web page through the “Add filter” choice. Click on picture to enlarge.
In lots of circumstances, the consumer and site visitors acquisition stories are interchangeable. The variations, once more, end result from returning guests. Regardless, the stories present the sources of site visitors — channels that introduce your model and drive return visits.