This article is for GA4 properties. Default channel grouping for Universal Analytics (UA) properties is covered in this article.
We recently made improvements to default channel grouping for Google Analytics 4 properties. Learn more
You also have the option to create custom channel groups, which let you create your own rule-based categories of web-traffic sources.
Channels are rule-based definitions of your website's traffic sources that let you monitor the performance of all of the channels sending traffic to your website. You can find descriptions and definitions of the channels in the tables below.
You can see the default channels as values for the following dimensions:
| Dimension | Definition | Attribution model | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default channel group | The channels by which users arrived at your site/app |
Attribution model set for the property. Default is data-driven attribution model |
Event |
| Session default channel group | The channels by which users arrived at your site/app when they initiated new sessions | Paid and organic channels last click | Session |
| First user default channel group | The channels by which users first arrived at your site/app | Paid and organic channels last click | User |
You can see the dimensions listed above in the Acquisition reports, the Advertising section, and if you include them in custom reports.
Default channel descriptions
| Channel | Description |
|---|---|
| Affiliates | Affiliates is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links on affiliate sites. |
| Audio | Audio is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads on audio platforms (e.g., podcast platforms). |
| Cross-network | Cross-network is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads that appear on a variety of networks (e.g., Search and Display). |
| Direct | Direct is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via a saved link or by entering your URL. |
| Display | Display is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via display ads, including ads on the Google Display Network. |
| Email is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links in email. | |
| Mobile Push Notifications | Mobile Push Notifications is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links in mobile-device messages when they're not actively using the app. |
| Organic Search | Organic Search is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links in organic-search results. |
| Organic Shopping | Organic Shopping is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links on shopping sites like Amazon or ebay. |
| Organic Social | Organic Social is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links on social sites like Facebook or Twitter. |
| Organic Video | Organic Video is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links on video sites like YouTube, TikTok, or Vimeo. |
| Paid Other | Paid Other is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads, but not through an ad identified as Search, Social, Shopping, or Video. |
| Paid Search | Paid Search is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads on search-engine sites like Bing, Baidu, or Google. |
| Paid Shopping | Paid Shopping is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via paid ads on shopping sites like Amazon or ebay or on individual retailer sites. |
| Paid Social | Paid Social is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads on social sites like Facebook and Twitter. |
| Paid Video | Paid Video is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via ads on video sites like TikTok, Vimeo, and YouTube. |
| Referral | Referral is the channel by which users arrive at your site via non-ad links on other sites/apps (e.g., blogs, news sites). |
| SMS | SMS is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links from text messages. |
Default channel definitions
These definitions reflect Analytics' current view of what constitutes each channel. The following definitions are provided for your reference and may evolve as the market changes.
Channel definitions aren't case sensitive and can't be edited.
| Channel | Analytics definition |
|---|---|
|
Channels for Google Ads traffic |
|
| Paid Shopping |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads campaign type is "Shopping" |
| Paid Search |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Google Search", "Google Partners") |
| Paid Video |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("YouTube Search", "YouTube Videos") |
| Display |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Google Display Network") |
| Cross-network |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Cross-network") Cross-network includes Discovery, Performance Max and Smart Shopping. |
| Paid Social |
Source platform is "Google Ads" AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Social") |
|
Channels for Display & Video 360 traffic |
|
| Display |
Source platform 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 |
Source platform is "DV360" AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Native video", "Video", "Templated app install video", "Flipbook") |
| Audio |
Source platform is "DV360" AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Audio") |
| Paid Other |
Source platform is "DV360" AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Publisher hosted", "Tracking", "Unknown") |
|
Channels for Search Ads 360 traffic (The following are channels for non Google Ads traffic; the channels for Google Ads traffic are the same as those listed at the beginning of this table under "Channels for Google Ads traffic") |
|
| Paid Search |
Source platform is "SA360" AND SA360 engine account type is one of ("bing", "yahoo gemini", "yahoo.jp", "baidu", "admarketplace", "naver", "360.cn", "yandex") |
| Paid Social |
Source platform is "SA360" AND SA360 engine account type Is one of ("facebook", "twitter") |
|
Channels for Merchant Center traffic |
|
| Organic Shopping | Source platform is "Shopping Free Listings" |
|
Channels for 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 Discovery, Performance Max and Smart Shopping. |
| Paid Shopping |
(Source matches a list of shopping sites OR Campaign Name matches regex ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$) AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Search |
Source matches a list of search sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Social |
Source matches a list of social sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Video |
Source matches a list of video sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$ |
| Display |
Medium is one of (“display”, “banner”, “expandable”, “interstitial”, “cpm”) |
| Paid Other | Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$ |
| 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 |
| Referral |
Medium is one of ("referral", "app", or "link") |
|
Source = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail OR Medium = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail |
|
| Affiliates |
Medium = affiliate |
| Audio |
Medium exactly matches audio |
| SMS |
Source exactly matches sms OR Medium exactly matches sms |
| Mobile Push Notifications |
Medium ends with "push" OR Medium contains "mobile" or "notification" OR Source exactly matches "firebase" |
Unassigned is the value Analytics uses when there are no other channel rules that match the event data.
(other) is the value Analytics uses for an aggregated row due to cardinality limits. Learn more
Analytics' list of sources and categories
If you would like us to add your search, social, video, or shopping site to the list or if you would like to make a change to your current listing, contact us at googleanalytics-channelgrouprequests@google.com. Google Analytics reviews these requests at least once per year and often more frequently. Inclusion is based on Google’s assessment of a number of factors including but not limited to whether a significant volume of traffic is sourced from a given search engine, social site, or shopping site.
