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name: channel-acquisition description: "Break down sessions and users by traffic source, medium, and channel group to understand where your audience comes from and which channels perform best."

Channel Acquisition Analysis

Break down sessions and users by traffic source, medium, and channel group to understand where your audience comes from and which channels perform best.

Correct dimension names

Concept	GA4 API name
Channel group	sessionDefaultChannelGroup
Source	sessionSource
Medium	sessionMedium
Source / Medium	sessionSourceMedium
Campaign name	sessionCampaignName
Campaign ID	sessionCampaignId
Ad content	sessionManualAdContent

Do not use sessionDefaultChannelGrouping — it does not exist. Do not combine sessionCampaignName with user-scoped metrics like totalUsers.

Step 1 — Channel overview

dimensions: ["sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "totalUsers", "newUsers", "userEngagementDuration",
          "screenPageViewsPerSession", "bounceRate"]
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC

Step 2 — Source / medium detail

dimensions: ["sessionSource", "sessionMedium"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers", "userEngagementDuration", "keyEvents"]
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC
limit: 25

Step 3 — Campaign performance (paid)

dimensions: ["sessionCampaignName", "sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers", "keyEvents", "userEngagementDuration"]
dimension_filter: {
  "filter": {
    "fieldName": "sessionMedium",
    "stringFilter": {"matchType": "EXACT", "value": "cpc"}
  }
}
date_range: last 30 days
order_by: sessions DESC

Step 4 — Trend by channel over time

dimensions: ["date", "sessionDefaultChannelGroup"]
metrics: ["sessions", "newUsers"]
date_range: last 90 days
order_by: date ASC

What to report

• Top 5 channels by sessions and by new users
• Engagement quality per channel (userEngagementDuration per session)
• Which channel drives the most key events (conversions)
• Week-over-week or month-over-month trend for top channels