The Traffic acquisition report is a pre-made detail report that's designed to help you understand where your website and app visitors are coming from. It specifically shows where new and returning users come from. It differs from the User acquisition report, which shows where new users come from.
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Traffic source dimensions
The Traffic acquisition report provides cross-channel traffic source dimensions, a special set of product-agnostic dimensions that help you dig into how you acquire users.
These cross-channel traffic source dimensions provide information across organic and paid traffic sources, google-paid sources and third-party paid sources, buying platforms (e.g., Google Ads, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360), and publisher or inventory sources (e.g., Google Search, YouTube).
View the report
- Sign in to Google Analytics.
- From the left menu, select Reports
.
- On the left, select Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
Where the data comes from
You have the option to collect traffic-source data by manually tagging your destination URLs, or by creating integrations between Analytics and your ad platforms (e.g., Google Ads, Search Ads 360, or Display & Video 360) and using the auto-tagging feature available with those integrations.
View data for one traffic source
To find data for one traffic source, you can search for the traffic source in the search bar above the table. For example, to view organic Google Search traffic, search "google / organic" and press Enter.
Dimensions in the report
The Traffic acquisition report includes the following cross-channel traffic source dimensions. These dimensions provide a single, unified view across all traffic sources and marketing channels. The names of the cross-channel traffic source dimensions do not reference any specific integration, channel, or source platform.
Each of the following cross-channel traffic source dimensions includes the word "Session," indicating that the dimension describes a user's most recent session, regardless of whether they're a new or returning user. Learn more about scopes
| Metric | What it is | How it's populated |
|---|---|---|
| Session campaign |
The name of a promotion or marketing campaign that led to a key events in a session. |
To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
| Session default channel grouping |
Channel groupings are rule-based definitions of your traffic sources. Default channel groups include 'Direct', 'Organic Search', 'Paid Social', 'Organic Social', and 'Email'. Learn more about the dimension values This is the default dimension for the report. |
To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
| Session medium |
The method for acquiring users in a new session. |
To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
| Session source |
A representation of the publisher or inventory source from which traffic originated. For example, users who return to your website from Google Search show as "google" in the Session source dimension. Examples include “googleâ€, “youtubeâ€, and “gmailâ€. |
To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
| Session source / medium | The source and medium associated with a new session. | To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
| Session source platform |
The platform where you manage buying activity (i.e., where budgets and targeting criteria are set). Examples include:
|
To learn how to populate this dimension, see Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging. |
Metrics in the report
The report includes the following metrics. If you are an Editor or Administrator, you can add or remove metrics in the report.
| Metric | What it is | How it's populated |
|---|---|---|
| Average engagement time per session |
The average time per session that your website was in focus in a user's browser or an app was in the foreground of a user's device. Average engagement time = total user engagement durations / number of active users |
This metric is populated automatically. |
| Key events | The number of times users triggered a key event. | Populate this metric by marking an event as a key event. |
| Engaged sessions |
The number of sessions that lasted 10 seconds or longer, or had 1 or more key events or 2 or more page or screen views. Engaged sessions is the inverse of low engagement sessions. |
This metric is populated automatically. |
| Engagement rate |
The percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions. Engagement rate = engaged sessions / total sessions Engagement rate is the inverse of bounce rate. Learn more about Engagement rate and bounce rate. |
This metric is populated automatically. |
| Event count | The number of times users triggered an event. | This metric is populated automatically. |
| Events per session | The average number of events per session. | This metric is populated automatically. |
| Sessions |
The number of sessions that began on your website or application. A session is a period of time during which a user interacts with your website or app. A session initiates when a user either: Opens your app in the foreground Views a page or screen and no session is currently active (e.g. their previous session has timed out) By default, a session ends (times out) after 30 minutes of user inactivity. There is no limit to how long a session can last. Learn more about sessions. |
This metric is populated automatically. |
| Session key event rate |
The percentage of sessions in which a user triggered a key event. This metric is calculated as the number of sessions in which a key event happened divided by the total number of sessions. |
This metric is populated automatically. |
| Total revenue |
The total revenue from purchases, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and ad revenue. Total revenue = purchases + in-app purchases + subscriptions + ad revenue - refunds |
This metric is the sum of the purchase, in_app_purchase, app_store_subscription_renew, and app_store_subscription_convert events, as well as ad revenue, which is populated via the Google AdMob integration, Google Ad Manager integration, or by sending the ad_impression event from a third-party integration. Important: When setting up the purchase event, make sure you provide values for both the value and currency parameters. Otherwise, you won't see purchase data for the Total revenue metric.
|
Troubleshooting
How do I find the traffic sources for a particular page or screen?
- Click + Add filter at the top of the report.
- In the 'Build filter' dialog on the right, leave 'Include' selected.
- In the 'Dimension' drop-down, select 'Page path and screen class'.
- In the 'Dimension values' drop-down, select the page path or screen class.
- Click OK.
- Click Apply.
- Next to the dimension drop-down, click
.
- Select Page path and screen class.
- Use the search above the dimension drop-down to find the page or screen.
How do I filter out traffic sources from the report?
- Click + Add filter at the top of the report.
- In the 'Build filter' dialog on the right, select 'Include' and choose 'Exclude' instead.
- In the 'Dimension' drop-down, select 'Session source' (or another traffic source dimension).
- In the 'Dimension values' drop-down, select the values you want to filter out.
- Click OK.
- Click Apply.