Default and Custom Channel Grouping in Google Analytics Explained

Last Updated: August 20, 2022

This article is in conjunction with the article: Understanding Channels in Google Analytics where I explained the concept of traffic sources, medium, and channels in great detail.

I also explained how to create your own marketing channels in GA. If you have not already read that article, then I would suggest you read it first. 

The knowledge acquired through that article will help you greatly in understanding the concept of channel grouping.

In this present article, I will take you one step further and show you how to create and use channel grouping for advanced data analysis.

What is channel grouping in Google Analytics?

Channel grouping is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels.

Channels groups are created for two main reasons:

  1. To change the way Google Analytics label and aggregate the incoming traffic for advanced data analysis.
  2. To quickly check the performance of a set of marketing channels or set of traffic sources.

There are four types of channel groupings available in Google Analytics:

  1. Default Channel Grouping
  2. Custom Channel Grouping
  3. Default MCF channel groupings
  4. Custom MCF channel groupings

What is the default channel grouping in Google Analytics?

The default channel grouping (also known as ‘default Non-MCF channel grouping’) is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels that is applied to standard (Non-MCF) reports in Google Analytics.

You can see the default channel grouping as a primary dimension in Google Analytics by navigating to:

#1 Acquisition > Overview report:

google analytics default channel grouping,

#2 Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels report:

default channel grouping3

Editing a default channel grouping in Google Analytics

Avoid any edits to the default channel grouping unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing. Unless you understand exactly how to interpret the GA reports going forward.

Any edits to the default channel grouping will permanently change how new traffic is classified and reported by Google Analytics.

I edited the default channel grouping just to show you how to do it.

By editing the default channel grouping you can:

  1. Redefine a default marketing channel.
  2. Add a new marketing channel to the default channel grouping.
  3. Remove a marketing channel from the default channel grouping.

How to redefine a default marketing channel?

Avoid changing the definition of default marketing channels unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing. Unless you understand exactly how to interpret the GA reports going forward.

Any edits to a default marketing channel will permanently change how new traffic is classified and reported by Google Analytics.

I edited the default marketing channel just to show you how to do it.

Let us suppose you want to change the definition of the default marketing channel called ‘Social’.
You only want the traffic coming to your website from traffic sources like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be all labelled as Social traffic.

Although you can’t change the system definition of the Social channel (which is ‘System defined channel‘ matches ‘Social‘), you can redefine the Social channel by using a different dimension (i.e. a dimension other than system defined channel).

Follow the steps below to redefine the Social marketing channel in Google Analytics:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in Google Analytics.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel Settings > Channel Grouping:

channel settings channel grouping 1

Step-3: Click on the ‘Default Channel Grouping‘ link:

default channel grouping link

Step-4: Click on the pencil icon next to ‘Social‘:

social channel google analytics 1

Step-5: Remove the system definition of Social by clicking on the ‘-‘ button next to it:

system definition of Social

After removing the system definition, your ‘Social’ channel is going to look like the one below:

after removing system definition

Step-6: Define a new rule for the ‘social’ channel as shown below:

Define a new rule for the Social channel

Here, facebook|twitter|t\.co$|linkedin is a regular expression.

Step-7: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-8: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save‘ button.

That’s how you can redefine a default marketing channel. 

Let us suppose you want to change the definition of the default marketing channel called ‘Direct’. 

You also want GA to label the traffic from the website optimizesmart.com / referral as direct traffic.

To change the definition of the Direct marketing channel, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in Google Analytics.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel settings > Channel grouping.

Step-3: Click on the ‘Default channel grouping‘ link.

Step-4: Click on the pencil icon next to ‘Direct‘:

Click on the pencil icon next to Direct

Step-5: Click on the ‘OR’ button:

Click on the OR button

Note: Do not click on the ‘AND’ button. Be careful with the ‘AND’ button whenever you are editing a default marketing channel. If used incorrectly, it can easily skew your analytics data for good. The ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ buttons work just like the logical operators OR and AND.

Step-6: Add a new rule with the following configuration:

Add a new rule with the following configuration

Step-7: Click on the ‘Done’ button and then click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom. 

Now, going forward, the direct traffic will also include traffic from the website optimizesmart.com. That is how you can change the definition of a default marketing channel in GA.

Avoid changing the definition of Direct traffic unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing. I changed the definition just to show you how to redefine a marketing channel. 

How to add a new marketing channel to the default channel grouping?

To add a new marketing channel to the default channel grouping follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in Google Analytics.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel settings > Channel grouping.

Step-3: Click on the ‘Default channel grouping‘ link.

default channel grouping link

Step-4: Click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

Define a new channel

Step-5: Name your new marketing channel and define the rules for your new channel like the one below:

Name your new marketing channel

Here I have created a new marketing channel called ‘Optimize Smart Newsletter‘ to measure the performance of my newsletter campaigns.

Step-6: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-7: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save‘ button.

Now going forward, my default channel grouping will also include a new marketing channel called ‘Optimize Smart Newsletter’:

Optimize Smart Newsletter

Avoid adding new marketing channels to the default channel grouping. This is because it could inflate your aggregate data if your setup is not correct.

For example,

If you are adding a new marketing channel for your newsletter to the default channel grouping, then you would need to make sure that the Email marketing channel does not record traffic data from your newsletter.

Otherwise, GA will count your newsletter traffic twice while computing aggregates.

You should avoid adding a new channel to the default channel grouping if:

  1. You are not 100% sure about your new setup.
  2. You don’t really understand how to interpret analytics reports going forward.

Instead, create and use custom marketing channels and custom channel grouping.

How to remove a marketing channel from the default channel grouping

Avoid deleting a marketing channel from the default channel grouping unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing.

I removed a marketing channel from the default channel grouping just to show you how to do it.

To remove an existing marketing channel from the default channel grouping, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in Google Analytics.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel Settings > Channel Grouping.

Step-3: Click on the ‘Default Channel Grouping‘ link.

Step-4: Click on the cross button next to the marketing channel you want to remove:

delete marketing channel google analytics

Step-5: Click on the ‘Delete Rule‘ button:

delete rule

Step-6: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save’ button.

Some important points to remember:

  1. Avoid removing any default marketing channel from the default channel grouping unless you absolutely understand the implications. 
  2. Whatever changes you want to make, do them in a custom channel grouping. Keep default channels and the default channel grouping intact. 
  3. Any changes to the default channel grouping will permanently change the way new traffic is labelled in GA reports. However, this change does not affect historical data. 

What is custom channel grouping?

Custom channel grouping (also known as ‘custom Non-MCF channel grouping’) is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels that is applied to standard (Non-MCF) reports in Google Analytics.

When you create a new custom channel grouping, you can apply it retroactively (i.e. you can apply it to historical data). However, when you edit a default channel grouping, you cannot apply it retroactively.

This is one big advantage of creating a custom channel grouping instead of just editing the default channel grouping.

Advantages of using custom channel grouping

When you use custom channel grouping, you can:

  1. Report the performance of marketing channels much more accurately.
  2. You make the Google Analytics reports much easier to understand esp. for your clients.

When and why you should use Custom Channel grouping?

You should create and use custom channel grouping when:

  1. Google Analytics reports the performance of a marketing channel via several different referrers.
  2. You are using a user-defined traffic source and/or user-defined medium.
  3. Different traffic sources are part of the same marketing channel.
  4. You want to make a Google Analytics report easier to understand for your client.

For example, Google Analytics can report traffic from Facebook via several referrers:

Google Analytics can report traffic from Facebook via several referrers

In order to see all of the Facebook traffic in your GA report, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to your main GA reporting view. 

Step-2: Navigate to the Acquisition > All traffic > Source/medium report:

source medium report

Step-3: Type ‘facebook’ in the search box on the reporting interface and then press ‘Enter’:

Type facebook in the search

You should now be able to see all the Facebook referrers:

Google Analytics can report traffic from Facebook via several referrers

However, this is not the best way to analyse Facebook traffic data every single day. What I suggest is to create a new custom channel-group just for Facebook.

When you create a custom channel group for Facebook Traffic, you will almost always see the most accurate data about the Facebook marketing channel.

Let us suppose Google Analytics report traffic from Facebook as:

  • facebook.com / referral – 965 sessions
  • l.facebook.com / referral – 19 sessions
  • m.facebook.com / referral – 13 sessions
  • facebook.com / social – 10 sessions
  • facebook / social – 1 session
  • web.facebook.com / referral – 1 session

Now if you are not very careful, you may just take the traffic from facebook.com / referral into account while interpreting reports. 

You can then draw the conclusion that Facebook sent 965 visits (aka sessions) to the website in the last month. 

In fact, Facebook sent 1,009 visits (965 + 19 + 13 + 10 + 1 +1) to the website in the last month.

So when you take only facebook.com / referral traffic into account while trying to understand the performance of the Facebook marketing channel, you are most likely to misinterpret the data and draw wrong conclusions.

The traffic from all of these traffic sources is basically Facebook traffic.

But Google Analytics is not going to automatically consolidate all of this data and report it to you as Facebook traffic. This is something you need to do manually.

You would need to identify all the traffic sources (referrers) that belong to Facebook. Then you would need to consolidate the data from different Facebook referrers into one custom Facebook channel.

To accomplish this task, you will need to create a custom channel for Facebook via custom channel grouping:

create a custom channel for Facebook via custom channel grouping

Similarly, Google Analytics can report traffic from Google Ads via several referrers.

For example, Google Analytics can report traffic from Google Ads as:

  • google / cpc – 430,635 sessions
  • google / ppc – 133,147 sessions
  • google / CPC – 7,278 sessions

So if you are not very careful, you may just take the traffic from google /cpc into account while interpreting reports. 

You can then draw the conclusion that Google Ads sent 430,635 visits to the website in the last month. 

In fact, Google Ads sent 571,060 visits (430,635 + 133,147 + 7,278) to the website in the last month.

Now, how many marketers go through the trouble of consolidating all of the marketing channel data before interpreting it?

Not many.

This scenario is quite common and occurs mainly when:

  1. The ad campaigns were tagged without any proper thought or planning.
  2. When there is no consistency maintained in naming the various campaign tracking parameters.
  3. When the campaign tracking parameters do not match the Google Analytics predefined channel rules.

For example, someone could first choose to tag their ad campaigns with ‘CPC’ as the traffic medium and then later tag the new campaigns with ‘cpc‘ as the medium. 

And then, further down the line, tag new ad campaigns with ‘ppc‘ as a medium.

In that case, Google Analytics can report Google Ads traffic as:

  • google / cpc – 430,635 sessions
  • google / ppc – 133,147 sessions
  • google / CPC – 7,278 sessions

In Google Analytics, the names of traffic sources and traffic mediums are case sensitive. So, google / cpc is different from: Google / cpc, google / CPC or GOOGLE / CPC.

But in reality, they still all refer to the same marketing channel, i.e. Google Ads.

Many marketers are not aware of this issue or do not always religiously filter out such data every time they interpret the traffic reports. 

Many take only those traffic sources into account that appear as the top 10 in the GA acquisition reports.

Google Analytics is not going to automatically consolidate the traffic data from ‘google / cpc’, ‘google / ppc’ and ‘google / CPC’ and report it to you as Google Ads traffic.

This is something you need to do manually.

If you don’t do it, then you will get poor analytical insight from your GA reports.

So, you would need to identify all the traffic sources (referrers) which are basically Google Ads Traffic.

Then you need to consolidate the data from different traffic sources into one custom Google Ads channel.

To accomplish this task, you will need to create a new custom channel for Google Ads via custom channel grouping:

new custom channel for Google Ads via custom channel grouping

Sometimes, different traffic sources are a part of the same marketing channel. In that case, you should create and use custom channel grouping.

For example, Google Analytics can report traffic from email as:

Google Analytics can report traffic from email as

Now if you are not very careful, you may just take the traffic from Newsletter /email into account while interpreting reports. 

You can then draw the conclusion that email sent 1780 visits to your website. 

So you would need to create a new custom channel group just for email:

new custom channel group just for email

Another advantage of using the custom channel grouping is that you can make GA reports much easier to understand for the ‘average Joe’.

Google Analytics reports are not always easy to understand. For example, consider the following traffic report:

consider the following traffic report

Unless you already know Google Analytics really well, you may have a hard time figuring out what this report is all about. 

Following are some common questions asked by non-geeky clients:

The only terms which look familiar to a not-so-Google-Analytics-savvy person (like your client) are Google and Facebook. All others are alien terminology. 

So even after having all the website usage data, such GA reports can be pretty much useless for an average website owner. 

The traffic report above could be made simpler via custom channel grouping like the one below:

The traffic report above could be made simpler

Much easier to understand, isn’t it?

That’s why it is so important that you set up custom channels to better understand the performance of various marketing channels. 

Remember, accurate data interpretation is the key to understanding and fixing attribution issues.

It is the key to determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. And this is not possible without using channel grouping.

Custom channel groupings at the view level and user level

You can create custom channel grouping at the view level and/or user level.

If you want your custom channel grouping to be visible to all the users of your reporting view then create the custom channel grouping at the view level:

create the custom channel grouping at the view level

If you want your custom channel grouping to be visible only to the user who created it then create the custom channel grouping at the user level:

private channel grouping

Note: When a custom channel grouping is created at the user level, it is called private channel grouping.

How to create a new custom channel grouping at the view level?

To create a new custom channel grouping in Google Analytics at the view level, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in GA.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel Settings > Channel Grouping:

channel settings channel grouping 1

Step-3: Click on the ‘+NEW CHANNEL GROUPING‘ button:

channel grouping view level

Step-4: Name your new channel grouping and then click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

Define a new channel2

Step-5: Name your new marketing channel (say ‘Facebook Channel‘) and then create a rule(s) for the new channel:

Facebook Channel

Step-6: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-7: Again click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button.

Step-8: Name your new marketing channel (say ‘Google Ads Channel‘) and then create a rule(s) for the new channel:

Google Ads Channel

Step-9: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-10: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save‘ button.

Step-11: Navigate to Acquisition > All traffic > Channels report:

Channels report

Step-12: Click on the ‘Primary dimension’ drop-down menu and select the name of your new custom channel grouping (in our case ‘Paid Marketing Channels’) as the new primary dimension:

Paid Marketing Channels

Some important points to remember

#1 Custom channel grouping can be applied as a primary dimension or as a secondary dimension both in the Acquisition > Overview report and the Acquisition > All traffic > Channels report.

#2 You can also apply both the default channel grouping and custom channel groupings at the same time in the Channels report as a primary and secondary dimension.

default and custom channel grouping

#3 When you create a new custom channel grouping, you can immediately select it in your GA reports. You can also apply custom channel grouping retroactively and analyse historical data classified by your new channel definitions.

#4 You can create a maximum of 50 new channel groupings per reporting view.

Another example of creating a custom channel grouping at the view level

Let’s create a new custom channel grouping called ‘Time of the Day‘. This channel group is a rule-based grouping of the following four custom marketing channels:

  1. Morning
  2. Afternoon
  3. Evening
  4. Night

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in GA.

Step-2: Under the ‘View‘ column, click on Channel Settings > Channel Grouping.

Step-3: Click on the ‘+NEW CHANNEL GROUPING‘ button.

Step-4: Name the new channel grouping: ‘Time of the day‘ and then click on ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

time of the day new channel

Step-5: Name the new custom marketing channel ‘Morning‘ and then define it according to the specifications below:

morning marketing channel

Here ‘Time of the Day’ is a custom dimension that reports on the time of a day (Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night) when a user visited your website.

This time is based on a user’s local time and not the time configured for your GA account.

I have explained about creating this custom dimension in great detail, in the article: How to correctly measure Conversion Date & Time in Google Analytics

Step-6: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-7: Click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

define a new channel2

Step-8: Name the new custom marketing channel ‘Afternoon‘ and then define it according to the specifications below:

afternoon marketing channel

Step-9: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-10: Click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

define a new channel3

Step-11: Name the new custom marketing channel ‘Evening‘ and then define it according to the specifications below:

evening marketing channel

Step-12: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Step-13: Click on the ‘Define a new channel‘ button:

define a new channel4

Step-14: Name the new custom marketing channel ‘Night‘ and then define it according to the specifications below:

night marketing channel

Step-15: Click on the ‘Done‘ button.

Your new channel grouping settings are going to look like the one below:

channel grouping settings

Step-16: Drag and drop the channels one by one to specify the order in which they should apply.

drag the channels

The final channel grouping settings is going to look like the one below:

final channel grouping settings

Step-17: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save‘ button.

Step-18: Once you have created the new custom channel grouping, navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels report.

Step-19: Click on the ‘Primary dimension’ drop-down menu:

Primary dimension drop down menu

Step-20: Select ‘Time of the Day‘ as the primary dimension:

select time of the day

Once you selected ‘Time of the Day‘ as the primary dimension, the data table is automatically going to update and would look something like the one below:

time of the day primary dimension 1

From the report above, we can conclude that the majority of users visited the website in the afternoon, followed by morning, night and evening.

Similarly, you can also determine the time of the day when users purchased the most. And if you are planning to run a time-sensitive campaign, then this information would be of great help to you.

This is the kind of insight you can get from a custom channel grouping.

How to create a new custom channel grouping at the user level (Private Channel Grouping)

To create a new custom channel grouping at the user level (also known as private channel grouping) follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the ‘Admin‘ section of your main reporting view in GA.

Step-2: Click on the ‘Custom Channel Grouping BETA‘ link under ‘Personal Tools and Assets‘ section in the ‘View‘ column:

custom channel grouping

Step-3: Click on the ‘+NEW CHANNEL GROUPING‘ button:

NEW CHANNEL GROUPING 1

Step-4: Name your new channel grouping and then add and define new marketing channels one by one as explained earlier. 

For example, in the screenshot below I create a new private channel grouping named ‘Time of the day‘ which is used to report on website users’ local time of the day’ (i.e. morning, afternoon, evening or night):

Time of the day

Step-5: Drag and drop the channels one by one to specify the order in which they should apply (optional).

Step-6: Scroll down to the bottom of your screen and then click on the ‘Save‘ button.

Step-7: Once you have created the new private custom channel grouping, navigate to Acquisition > All traffic > Channels report:

Channels report2

Step-8: Click on the ‘Primary dimension’ drop-down menu and then select the name of your new private channel grouping as the primary dimension:

new private channel grouping as the primary dimension
time of the day primary dimension

Note: You can create a maximum of 100 private Custom Channel Groupings per user.

How to edit a custom channel grouping in Google Analytics?

Once you have created and saved a new custom channel grouping, you can edit it by either clicking on its name or by clicking on the ‘Edit‘ option from the ‘Actions‘ drop-down menu:

edit custom channel grouping

Some important points to remember:

  1. You can also use the ‘Actions’ menu to copy, delete, promote or share a custom channel grouping.
  2. You can copy and share a default channel grouping, but you cannot delete it.
  3. When you share a custom channel grouping, only the configuration information is shared. Your analytics data is not shared.

How to copy a custom channel grouping?

If you want to create a new custom channel grouping by using an existing channel grouping as a foundation then copy the channel grouping.

You can copy an existing channel grouping by clicking on the ‘Copy‘ option from the ‘Actions‘ drop-down menu:

copy custom channel grouping

Once you clicked on the ‘copy‘ link, a new custom channel grouping will automatically be created for you:

copied channel grouping

How to delete a custom channel grouping?

You can delete a custom channel grouping by clicking on the Delete‘ option from the ‘Actions‘ drop-down menu:

delete custom channel grouping

Note: You can not delete the default channel grouping.

How to convert private custom channel grouping into view level custom channel grouping?

If you want a custom channel grouping created at the user level (i.e. private channel grouping) to be visible to all users of your reporting view then click on the ‘Promote‘ option from the ‘Actions‘ drop-down menu:

promote custom channel grouping

Then click on the ‘Promote‘ button:

promote this custom channel grouping to view level

Promoting a custom channel grouping creates a copy of it at view level which you can access by navigating to Channel settings > Channel grouping.

So if you navigate to Channel Settings > Channel Grouping, you can see a copy of your private custom channel grouping:

copy custom channel grouping2

If later you delete this new channel grouping at the view level, it will not automatically delete the corresponding channel grouping at the user level.

Note(1): The promoted Channel Grouping will count toward the view’s limit of 50 Channel Groupings.

Note(2): You can not promote the default channel grouping.

How to share a custom channel grouping?

You can share your custom channel grouping with other users by sharing the template link.

When you share a Custom Channel Grouping, only the configuration information is shared. Your analytics data is not shared.

To share a custom channel grouping, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Click on the ‘Share‘ option from the ‘Actions‘ drop-down menu:

sharing custom channel grouping

Step-2: Click on the ‘Share template link‘ button and then click on the ‘Share‘ button:

select a method for sharing object

Note: If you want to share your custom channel grouping with the general public then select the ‘Share in Solutions Gallery‘ option.

Step-3: Copy the template URL and then share it with others:

copy the url below to share

Understanding default channel grouping rules

If you recall, Channel grouping is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels. So what are these rules?

To see these rules follow the steps below:

Step-1: Log in to your GA account and then navigate to the admin section of your main reporting view:

admin section of your main reporting view

Step-2: Under the ‘View’ column, click on ‘Channel settings‘:

Channel settings

Step-3: Click on ‘Channel grouping‘:

Click on Channel grouping

Step-4: Click on the ‘Default Channel Grouping’ link:

Default Channel Grouping

You should now be able to see all the default channel grouping rules:

default channgel grouping rules1 1

Default channel grouping in Google Analytics has got 9 rules.

These rules decide how a channel grouping should work.

These rules are executed in the order in which they are defined. So the first rule that will execute is for Direct channel and the last rule that will execute is for Display.

Since the first rule is for Direct channel, GA will look for all the traffic sources whose traffic source is unknown and bucket them under ‘Direct’ channel for reporting purposes.

Since the second rule is for organic search channel, GA will look for all the traffic sources (other than unknown traffic sources) whose medium is organic and bucket them under ‘Organic Search’ channel for reporting purposes.

Similarly, all other rules will be executed in the order in which they are defined.

You can change the order in which these rules are executed by simply dragging and dropping marketing channels as shown below:

dragging and dropping marketing channels

However, avoid changing the order of default marketing channels in default channel grouping.

If you have the need to change the order then make a copy of the default channel grouping, give it a new name and then change the order.

Understanding custom channel grouping rules

Just like the default channel grouping, the custom channel grouping is also governed by a set of rules. These rules decide how the custom channel grouping should work.

These rules are also executed in the order in which they are defined and they work just like they would in the case of default channel grouping.

Related Article: Understanding Channel Groupings in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Other articles you will find useful

Frequently asked questions about Channel Grouping in Google Analytics

What is channel grouping?

Channel grouping is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels.

What is the advantage of creating a new channel grouping?

The advantage is that you can change the way Google Analytics label and aggregate the incoming traffic for advanced data analysis.

What types of channel groupings are available in Google Analytics?

There are four types of channel groupings available in Google Analytics:

– Default Channel Grouping
– Custom Channel Grouping
– Private Channel Grouping
– MCF Channel Grouping

What is default channel grouping?

Default channel grouping is a rule-based grouping of default marketing channels.

When you create a new channel grouping in a view you can?

When you create a new channel grouping in a view you can immediately select it in the Acquisition Overview and Channel reports. You can also apply channel grouping retroactively and analyze historical data classified by your new channel definitions.

What is custom channel grouping?

Custom channel grouping is a rule based grouping of user defined marketing channels.

What is private channel grouping?

It is the custom channel grouping created at the user level. The private channel grouping is visible only to the user who created it.

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