In this article you will learn:

1. What traffic sources and medium, really are.
2. What channels are in the context of Google Analytics
3. Types of channels: Default and Custom
4. How Google defines: organic search traffic, paid search traffic, direct traffic, email traffic, etc.
5. How to change the definition of a default channel like ‘direct’.
6. How to create a new marketing channel.
7. How to create ‘generic’, ‘branded’ and ‘unknown’ paid search channels
8. How to create ‘generic’, ‘branded’ and ‘unknown’ organic search channels.

Google Analytics provides many reports on Acquisition through which you can understand traffic/users’ acquisition (i.e. how you are acquiring users /traffic for your website):

However, in order to understand the various Acquisition reports and the users’ acquisition in general, you need to understand what channels really are and how they are defined in Google Analytics.

Without adequate knowledge of channels, you can’t accurately interpret the various Acquisition reports in GA and consequently your acquisition strategy.

In order to understand channels, you first need to know about various traffic sources, medium and campaigns.

What is ‘Source’ in Google Analytics?

Source (or traffic source) is the origin of your website traffic. It also includes traffic sources tracked via utm_source parameter.

For example,

In the case of google / organic, ‘google’ is the traffic source

In the case of bing / cpc, ‘bing’ is the traffic source

In the case of tripadvisor / referral, ‘tripadvisor’ is the traffic source.

Note: In Google Analytics, ‘source’ names are case sensitive. So ‘google’, ‘Google’ and ‘GOOGLE’, are all treated as different traffic sources in Google Analytics.

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What is ‘Medium’ in Google Analytics?

Medium (or traffic medium) is the category of the traffic source as defined by Google. It also includes traffic medium tracked via utm_medium parameter.

For example,

In the case of google / organic, ‘organic’ is the medium.

In the case of bing / cpc, ‘cpc’ is the medium

In the case of tripadvisor / referral, ‘referral’ is the medium.

Note: In Google Analytics, medium names are case sensitive. So ’email’, ‘Email’ and ‘EMAIL’ are all treated as different mediums in Google Analytics.

What is ‘Campaign’ in Google Analytics?

Campaign is the name of your Google Adwords campaign and/or custom campaign.

A custom campaign is that marketing campaign that has been tagged with campaign tracking parameter ‘utm_campaign’.

What is a Channel (or a Marketing Channel) in Google Analytics?

In Google Analytics, a channel or a marketing channel is a group of several traffic sources with the same medium.

For example ‘organic search’ is a marketing channel. It can be made up of following traffic sources with the same medium called ‘organic’:

#1 google (as in google / organic)
#2 yahoo (as in yahoo / organic)
#3 bing (as in bing / organic)
#4 aol (as in aol / organic) etc

You can view channels in Google Analytics by going to:

#1 Acquisition > Overview report

#2 Acquisition > All traffic > Channels report

#3 Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Overview report

#4 Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions report

#5 Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Top Conversion Paths report

There are two types of channels in Google Analytics:

#1 Default marketing channels (or default channels)

#2 Custom marketing channels (or custom channels)

Default Marketing Channels

Default marketing channels are pre-defined (or system defined) marketing channels in Google Analytics.

Following are default marketing channels:

1. Organic Search
2. Paid Search
3. Display
4. Direct
5. Referral
6. Social
7. Email
8. (Other)

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Organic Search Marketing Channel (or what is organic search traffic in Google Analytics)

Organic search marketing channels can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘organic’.

For example, the ‘organic’ search marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 google / organic
#2 yahoo / organic
#3 bing / organic
#4 aol / organic etc

Paid Search Marketing Channel (or what is paid search traffic in Google Analytics)

Paid search marketing channels can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘CPC’, ‘ppc’ or ‘paidsearch’ and Ad Distribution Network’ does not matches ‘content’.

For example, ‘paid search’ marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 google / cpc
#2 bing / cpc
#3 facebook / ppc
#4 linkedin / paidsearch etc

Display Marketing Channel (or what is display traffic in Google Analytics)

Display marketing channels can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘display’, ‘cpm’ or ‘banner’ and ‘Ad Distribution Network’ matches ‘content’.

For example, a display marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 expedia / display
#2 tripadvisor / display
#3 brightroll / banner
#4 bbc / cpm

Direct Marketing Channel (or what is direct traffic in Google Analytics)

The Direct marketing channel can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the traffic sources are unknown to Google Analytics.

Whenever a referrer is not passed or is dropped because of technical reasons, Google Analytics is not able to determine the traffic source and the traffic is treated as direct traffic by Google. In that case, GA sets the traffic source to ‘direct’ and medium to ‘none’.

For example, in the case of traffic coming from a Microsoft Word document, instant messenger app (like Skype) or a mobile app, the referrer is not passed and hence Google Analytics is not able to determine the source of the traffic. Because of that, all such traffic is treated as direct traffic by Google.

And of course, if a user is visiting a website directly or via a bookmark, that traffic is also treated as direct traffic by Google Analytics.

Related Article: Complete Guide to Direct Traffic in Google Analytics

Referral marketing channel (or what is referral traffic in Google Analytics)

The Referral marketing channel can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘referral’.

For example, the referral marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 facebook / referral
#2 tripadvisor / referral
#3 bing.com / referral

Social Marketing Channel (or what is social traffic in Google Analytics)

The Social marketing channel can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘social’, ‘social media’, ‘social-media’, ‘social network’, or ‘social-network’.

For example, the social marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 facebook / social
#2 twitter / social media
#3 linkedin / social network etc.

Email Marketing Channel (or what is email traffic in Google Analytics)

The Email marketing channel can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of the traffic sources is ‘email’.

For example, the email marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 Product A Newsletter / email
#2 Product B Newsletter / email
#3 Silverpop / email

(Other) marketing channel (or what is ‘other’ in Google Analytics)

The (Other) marketing channel (or other advertising) is made up of all those traffic sources whose medium is:

#1  not pre-defined but is in fact defined by a user via custom tracking parameters ‘utm_medium’

#2 (not set).

Note: The medium (not set) means, a user didn’t set the medium for his custom campaign via the utm_medium parameter.

For example, (Other) marketing channel can be made up of following traffic sources:

#1 twitterfeed / linkedin
#2 Growthackers.com / community
#3 whos_blogging_what / newsletter
#4 conversionBook / word-document
#5 ABC user / (not set)

Here ‘linkedin’, ‘community’, ‘newsletter’ and ‘word-document’ are user-defined mediums and hence they have been put under the ‘other’ marketing channel category by Google.

Editing a Default Marketing Channel

You can change the definition of a default marketing channel (like ‘direct’) in GA. To do this, follow the steps below:

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

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

Step-3: Click on the ‘default channel grouping’ link:

Pay attention to the warning message you see at the top:

GA display this warning message for a good reason. Any change to the definition of default marketing channels, permanently changes how the new traffic is classified. However, historical data will not be affected. Avoid changing the definition of default marketing channels unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing. 

Step-4: Let us suppose you want to change the definition of direct traffic. You want the traffic coming to your website from your other website (say xyz.com) to be also treated as direct traffic by Google Analytics.

To do this, click on the pencil icon, next to ‘Direct’ channel:

Step-5: click on the ‘OR’ button:

Step-6:  Add a new rule according to the specifications below:

Here I am telling Google Analytics to record the incoming traffic as ‘direct’ traffic if:

System defined channel is ‘Direct’

or if

the traffic comes from my other website (xyz.com).

If I use the ‘AND’ logical operator here:

Then I am telling Google Analytics to record the incoming traffic as ‘direct’ traffic if:

System defined channel is ‘Direct’

And

the traffic comes from my other website (xyz.com).

Since this condition will always evaluate to false, GA will stop recording ‘direct’ traffic.

So do not click on the ‘AND’ button:

Whenever you are editing a default marketing channel, you need to be careful with the use of the ‘AND’ button. It’s wrong use can easily skew your analytics data for good.  These ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ buttons work just like the logical operators OR and AND.

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

Now going forward, your direct traffic will also include traffic from your second website (xyz.com)

That’s how you can change the definition of a default marketing channel in Google Analytics.

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Custom Marketing Channels (or how to create a new marketing channel in Google Analytics)

Custom marketing channels are user-defined marketing channels.

To create a new marketing channel in Google Analytics follow the steps below:

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

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

Step-3: Click on the ‘default channel grouping’ link:

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

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

Here I have created a new marketing channel to track traffic from my newsletters campaign. If you want to add more than one rule then click on the ‘OR’ or ‘AND’ button. These ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ work just like the logical operators OR and AND.

Step-6: Click on the ‘Done’ button and then on the blue ‘Save’ button at the bottom. Now going forward, my default channel grouping will also include a new marketing channel called ‘Optimize Smart Newsletter’:

That’s how you can create a custom marketing channel in Google Analytics.

Introduction to ‘Generic’, ‘Branded’ and ‘Unknown’ Paid Search Channels

‘Generic’ paid search channel records the traffic coming from non-branded keywords (also known as generic keywords) to your website via search engines. By setting up a generic paid search channel, you can get a better understanding of the performance of generic search keywords in terms of driving traffic and sales to your website.

‘Branded’ paid search channel records the traffic coming from branded keywords (search terms which include your brand name) to your website via search engines. By setting up a branded paid search channel, you can get a better understanding of the performance of branded search keywords in terms of driving traffic and sales to your website.

‘Unkown’ paid search channel records the traffic coming from not provided keywords to your website via search engines. By setting up unknown paid search channel, you can get a better understanding of the performance of not provided keywords in terms of driving traffic and sales to your website.

Creating ‘Generic’, ‘Branded’ and ‘Unknown’ Paid Search Channels

To create these channels, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source / Medium report in your main view.

Step-2: Click on the ‘keyword’ tab:

Step-3: Filter all of the branded keywords (including misspellings) and download the data into excel.

Step-4: Navigate to the ‘Admin’ section of your main view in Google Analytics.

Step-5: Under the ‘View’ section, click on Channel Settings > Manage Brand Terms

Step-6:Copy paste the list of branded keywords from excel into the ‘Enter Brand Terms‘ text box and then click on the ‘Add brand terms‘ button:

The added brand terms will appear under the column labeled as ‘Active brand terms‘.

Step-7: Look at the ‘Suggested brand terms‘ box and if you find a branded keyword which is missing from your branded keywords list, then add it to the right column (labeled as ‘Active brand terms’):

Step-8: Click on the ‘Save’ button. You will now see the following dialog box:

Step-9: Click on ‘Yes Set up now’ button. As soon as you click on this button, you will see the following dialog box:

Step-10: Click on the ‘Dismiss’ button. You can now see two new channels named ‘Generic Paid Search’ and ‘Branded Paid Search’ added to your default channel grouping:

Step-11: Click on the ‘pencil’ button next to ‘Generic Paid Search’ channel to see how it has been defined:

Step-12: Click on the ‘pencil’ button next to ‘Branded Paid Search’ channel to see how it has been defined:

By looking at these definitions, you will get an idea of how to create ‘Unknown Paid Search‘ channel.

Because of not provided keywords, there are many keywords which can not be categorized as either branded or generic. In order to understand the performance of these keywords, we need to create a new channel called ‘Unknown Paid Search’.

Step-13: Click on ‘Define a new channel’ button and then create a new channel with the following specifications:

Note: Make sure that Brand Paid Search, Generic Paid Search and Unknown Paid Search channels are above the default Paid Search channel in the Channel Definitions list.

Introduction to ‘Generic’, ‘Branded’ and ‘Unknown’ Organic Search Channels

‘Generic’ organic search channel records the traffic coming from non-branded keywords (also known as generic keywords) to your website via search engines.

‘Branded’ organic search channel records the traffic coming from branded keywords (search terms which include your brand name) to your website via search engines.

‘Unkown’ organic search channel records the traffic coming from not provided keywords to your website via search engines.

Creating Generic, Branded, and Unknown Organic Search Channels

Follow the steps below:

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

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

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

Step-4: Click on ‘Define a new channel’ button and then create generic, branded and unknown organic search channels, one by one using the following specifications:

Another article you will find useful: Understanding the Anatomy of Conversion Optimization

Frequently asked questions about Google Analytics Channels