Which “Mediums” are Available in Google Analytics?
Which “Mediums” are Available in Google Analytics?
The “Mediums” available in Google Analytics are the default channels on which the platform bases its reporting suite.
- Channels are the highest level categories into which GA4 groups your incoming website traffic.
- “Mediums” are the dimensions for these channels, which allow you to review your website traffic by type in your Acquisition Traffic reports, for example.
- The bottomline, in my opinion, is that for all intents and purposes “mediums” are in fact channels, and vice-versa.
Default Pre-set Channel Names and Descriptions in Google Analytics 4
GA4 offers, out-of-the-box the following channels or “mediums”:
| 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. |
You Can Also Add Your Own Custom Channels in GA4
To do that, simply access the admin section of your Google Analytics platform and start adding your own “mediums” in the Channel Group admin page. Building your custom channel set is a quick and easy process. A few elements to consider:
- You can easily assign your custom channel group as your primary reporting group. This option will override the out-of-the-box default GA4 channels.
- Custom channel groups can be added to reports retroactively and viewed as “dimensions”mediums” in custom reports and explorations.
- Quickly find your new custom channels or “mediums” in the Acquisition > User acquisition and Acquisition > Traffic acquisition reports by filtering on “medium” or “source”, or both.
- You cannot use your custom channels in the Conversion Paths reporting.
Your Marketing Campaigns’ Manually Added “Mediums” Should Absolutely Align with the GA4 Channels You Are Using
If you are using “mediums” or utm_medium values in your campaign destination URLs that are not aligned with your channels, you will end up losing traffic in the “unspecified” bucket.
Find out more about Channels, also known as Mediums here.
3 Key UTM_Medium Takeaways
Ensure Parity
The Medium tags manually added in your campaign’s destination URLs have to align with your GA4 channels to avoid under-reporting. Learn the 6 easy steps to a great campaign tracking strategy.
Avoid Issues
Watch this video to see why marketing campaign traffic will get lost if your UTM_Medium Tags in the destination URLs are not the same as your Google Analytics Channels
Drive Success
Read this tutorial to learn more about the utm_medium tag and how to use it to ensure your reporting is always accurate, consistent and generating the insights you need to drive marketing ROI.