Understanding User Behavior by Manual Medium in Google Analytics 4
Analyzing users by manual medium is crucial for understanding how different marketing channels contribute to your website traffic. This analysis helps evaluate the effectiveness of various traffic sources and optimize your marketing strategy. We'll show you how to create a detailed exploration in Google Analytics 4 to track and analyze user behavior across different manual mediums.Basic Report Structure
- Primary dimension: Session medium
- Secondary dimensions: User source and First user source
- Key metrics: Total users, New users, and Engaged sessions
- Visualization: Table format with optional bar chart
- Time comparison: Enable period-over-period comparison
Steps to Create the Report
- Open GA4 and navigate to Explore section
- Click the Blank template to start a new exploration
- Under the Dimensions click the + button and search for Session medium, User source, and First user source, check the checkbox beside them and click Confirm
- Under the Metrics click the + button and search for Total users, New users, and Engaged sessions, check the checkbox beside them and click Confirm
- Drag Session medium to the Rows section of your report
- Drag Total users, New users, and Engaged sessions to the Values section
- Add User source and First user source as secondary dimensions if needed
- Set your desired date range in the report settings
- Optional: Add a filter to exclude "(none)" or "(not set)" values
Important Dimensions and Metrics
- Session medium: Shows the marketing medium (e.g., organic, cpc, referral)
- User source: Indicates where users came from
- First user source: Shows the original source that brought users to your site
- Total users: Number of users who initiated sessions
- New users: First-time visitors to your site
- Engaged sessions: Sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds
Actionable Insights
- Compare engagement rates across different mediums to identify which channels bring the most valuable traffic
- Analyze the ratio of new users to total users for each medium to understand which channels are best for acquisition
- Use the insights to adjust your marketing budget allocation based on medium performance
- Identify underperforming mediums and investigate potential improvements
- Track changes in medium performance over time to detect trends and seasonal patterns
Answers Similar Questions
- How to track traffic sources in GA4
- GA4 manual medium report setup
- Analyze marketing channels in Google Analytics 4
- Track user acquisition by medium GA4
- Google Analytics 4 medium performance analysis
