/channel-acquisition

name: channel-acquisition
description: "Break down sessions and users by traffic source, medium, and channel group to understand where your audience comes from and which channels perform best."

Channel Acquisition Analysis

Break down sessions and users by traffic source, medium, and channel group to understand where your audience comes from and which channels perform best.

Correct dimension names

| Concept | GA4 API name | |---|---| | Channel group | `sessionDefaultChannelGroup` | | Source | `sessionSource` | | Medium | `sessionMedium` | | Source / Medium | `sessionSourceMedium` | | Campaign name | `sessionCampaignName` | | Campaign ID | `sessionCampaignId` | | Ad content | `sessionManualAdContent` |

Do not use `sessionDefaultChannelGrouping` — it does not exist. Do not combine `sessionCampaignName` with user-scoped metrics like `totalUsers`.

Step 1 — Channel overview

dimensions: ["sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "totalUsers", "newUsers", "userEngagementDuration",
          "screenPageViewsPerSession", "bounceRate"]
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC

Step 2 — Source / medium detail

dimensions: ["sessionSource", "sessionMedium"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers", "userEngagementDuration", "keyEvents"]
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC
limit: 25

Step 3 — Campaign performance (paid)

dimensions: ["sessionCampaignName", "sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers", "keyEvents", "userEngagementDuration"]
dimension_filter: {
  "filter": {
    "fieldName": "sessionMedium",
    "stringFilter": {"matchType": "EXACT", "value": "cpc"}
  }
}
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC

Step 4 — Trend by channel over time

dimensions: ["date", "sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers"]
date_range: last 90 days
order_by: date ASC

What to report

• Top 5 channels by sessions and by new users
• Engagement quality per channel (userEngagementDuration per session)
• Which channel drives the most key events (conversions)
• Week-over-week or month-over-month trend for top channels