Traffic-source dimensions provide information about where your traffic originates (source, for example, google, baidu, and bing), the methods by which users arrive at your site/app (medium, for example, organic, cpc, and email), and the specific marketing efforts you use to drive that traffic (for example, campaign, creative format, and keywords).
With Analytics, 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 and using the auto-tagging feature available with those integrations.
With both manual tagging and auto-tagging, the parameters and parameter values appear as dimensions and dimension values in your reports and explorations and in the audience and segment builders.
Manual tagging
If you don't plan to create integrations between Analytics and your different ad platforms (for example, Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Search Ads 360), you can manually tag the destination URLs in your ads with UTM parameters to collect a basic set of traffic-source dimensions:
| Parameter | Dimension |
|---|---|
| utm_source |
Manual source First user manual source Session manual source |
| utm_medium |
Manual medium First user manual medium Session manual medium |
| utm_campaign |
Manual campaign name First user manual campaign name Session manual campaign ID |
| utm_term |
Manual term Session manual term First user manual term |
| utm_content |
Manual ad content Session manual ad content First user manual ad content |
| utm_source_platform |
Manual source platform Session manual source platform First user manual source platform |
| utm_creative_format |
Creative format Session creative format First user creative format |
| utm_marketing_tactic |
Marketing tactic Session marketing tactic First user marketing tactic |
utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic are not currently reported in Google Analytics 4 properties.When you use manual tagging, you provide the value for each parameter in your destination URL, for example:
http://example.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summersale
You can use the Analytics URL builders to construct your URLs.
If you use manual tagging and auto tagging together, then the source, medium, and other traffic-classification dimensions use the auto-tagged values. The manually tagged values for utm_content and utm_term are used for the Manual Ad Content and Manual Term dimensions.
Learn more About utm parameters and how the URL builders work.
Auto-tagging
If you're integrating your Google Analytics property with your various ad platforms, then you want to use the auto-tagging feature that is implemented with each integration. Auto-tagging provides you with platform-specific dimensions and with more dimensions than you get with manual tagging.
We recommend using cross-channel dimensions like Source, Session source, and First user source to understand cross-channel acquisition data. Then you can use the platform-specific dimensions like SA360 source, SA360 session source, and SA360 first user source to analyze acquisition data for a specific ad platform.
The following lists enumerate the dimensions that auto-tagging provides when you integrate Analytics with your ad platforms.
The dimension names below form the root of the dimension names. The full dimension names take the form:
[scope] [linked product] [dimension]
For example: Session Google Ads campaign (scope = session; linked product = Google Ads; dimension = campaign)
Google Ads
URLs that are auto-tagged with Google Ads parameters include the GCLID parameter. Auto-tagging provides the following dimensions at event, session, and user scopes:
- Google Ads account name
- Google Ads ad group ID
- Google Ads ad group name
- Google Ads ad network type
- Google Ads campaign
- Google Ads customer ID
- Google Ads keyword text
- Google Ads query
Campaign Manager 360
URLs that are auto-tagged with Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) parameters include the GCLID parameter. Auto-tagging provides the following dimensions at event, session, and user scopes:
- CM360 account ID
- CM360 account name
- CM360 advertiser ID
- CM360 advertiser name
- CM360 campaign ID
- CM360 campaign name
- CM360 creative format
- CM360 creative ID
- CM360 creative name
- CM360 creative type ID
- CM360 creative type name
- CM360 creative version
- CM360 default channel grouping
- CM360 medium
- CM360 placement cost structure
- CM360 placement ID
- CM360 placement name
- CM360 rendering ID
- CM360 site ID
- CM360 site name
- CM360 source
- CM360 source / medium
Display & Video 360
URLs that are auto-tagged with Display & Video 360 (DV360) parameters include the DCLID and/or GCLID parameters. Auto-tagging provides the following dimensions at event, session, and user scopes:
- DV360 advertiser ID
- DV360 advertiser name
- DV360 campaign ID
- DV360 campaign name
- DV360 creative format
- DV360 creative ID
- DV360 creative name
- DV360 default channel grouping
- DV360 exchange ID
- DV360 exchange name
- DV360 insertion order ID
- DV360 insertion order name
- DV360 line item ID
- DV360 line item name
- DV360 marketing tactic
- DV360 medium
- DV360 partner ID
- DV360 partner name
- DV360 site ID
- DV360 site name
- DV360 source
- DV360 source / medium
Search Ads 360
URLs that are auto-tagged with Search Ads 360 (SA360) parameters include the GCLID parameter. Auto-tagging provides the following dimensions at event, session, and user scopes:
- SA360 ad group ID
- SA360 ad group name
- SA360 campaign ID
- SA360 campaign name
- SA360 creative format
- SA360 default channel grouping
- SA360 engine account ID
- SA360 engine account name
- SA360 engine account type
- SA360 keyword
- SA360 manager account ID
- SA360 manager account name
- SA360 marketing tactic
- SA360 medium
- SA360 query
- SA360 source
- SA360 source / medium