Where visitors come from: traffic acquisition
🔒Join free to watch this video lessonFree account · takes 30 seconds · no card neededJoin free & watchAlready a member? Log inThe traffic acquisition report answers the most common marketing question: which channels bring visitors who take action? Learn how to read it and avoid common misreadings.
In this lesson you’ll learn to
- I can find the traffic acquisition report
- I know what each default channel means
- I sort channels by key events, not just sessions
- I compare engagement and key event rates between channels
- I know the difference between traffic and user acquisition
Find the report
Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. Each row is a channel; the columns show sessions, engaged sessions, engagement rate, key events and revenue.
The default channel groups
ChannelWhat it usually means Organic SearchUnpaid results from Google, Bing and other search engines Paid SearchSearch ads Organic Social / Paid SocialUnpaid posts / paid ads on social networks EmailLinks in emails (needs UTM tags to be reliable) ReferralLinks from other websites DirectTyped URLs, bookmarks — and visits GA4 couldn't attributeRead it like a marketer
• Sort by key events, not just sessions — the biggest channel isn't always the best.
• Compare engagement rate between channels to spot low-quality traffic.
• Calculate a simple key event rate per channel
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