Google Analytics Channels, Source, and Medium explained in easy examples

I heard often from people that they are confused with Google Analytics Source, Media and Channel- these three important indicators under Acquisition. These concepts seem and sound very similar but there is variation between them. I explain the difference in an easy way with examples. Hope you can learn something out of this article. 

Source is the origin of your website traffic.

For example:

in case of google/organic, “google” is the traffic source

in case of google/cpc, “bing” is the traffic source

in case of analytics.google.com/referral, “analytics.google.com” is the traffic source

Medium is the category of traffic source.

For example:

in case of google/organic, ‘organic’ is the medium

In case of partners/affiliate, “affiliate” is the medium

In case of tripadvisor/ referral, “referral” is the medium 

Channel is a group of several traffic sources with the same medium.

There are two types of channel:

·     Default marketing channels

·     Custom marketing channels 

Following are 8 default marketing channels:

 1. Organic search

 For example:

“organic search” is a marketing channel. It can make up of the following traffic sources with the same medium call “organic”

• Google (as in google/organic)
• Yahoo (as in yahoo/organic)
• Bing (as in bing/organic)
• Aol (as in aol/organic)

2. Paid search

For example:

Paid search can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of traffic source is “ CPC”, “ppc”, “paidsearch” etc.

• Google/cpc
• Bing/cpc
• Facebook/ppc
• Linkedin/paidsearch etc

3. Display

For example:

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

• Expedia/display
• Tripadvisor/display
• Brightroll/banner
• Bbc/cpm

4. Direct

 5. Referral

 For example:

Referral can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of traffic source is” referral”.

• Facebook/referral
• Tripadvisor/referral
• Bing.com/referral

6. Social

 For example:

Social can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of traffic source is “social”, “social media”, “social-media”, “social network”, or “ social-network”.

• Facebook/social
• Twitter /social media
• Linkedin / social network etc. 

7. Email

For example:

Email can be made up of any number of traffic sources as long as the medium of traffic source is “email”.

• Product A newsletter/email
• Product B newsletter /email
• Silverpop /email 

8. Others ( or advertising) is made up of all of those traffic sources whose medium is 1. Not pre-defined but is in fact defined by a user via custom tracking parameter” utm_medium”. 2. (not set).

For example:

• Twitterdeef/linked
• Growthackers.com/community
• Whos_bligging_what/newsletter
• Convertionbook/word-document
• ABC user/(not set) 

For more information about Channel, check my previous article working with Acquisition Channel.