What is a channel in Google Analytics?
A channel is a broad grouping of traffic sources, like Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct, Referral, Organic Social or Email.
GA4 sorts every visit into a channel using a set of rules called the default channel group. Channels include Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct, Referral, Organic Social, Paid Social, Email, Display, Organic Video and more. The rules mostly look at the source and medium of the visit. Traffic that fits no rule is labeled Unassigned. Property admins can also create custom channel groups.
Why it matters for your business: Channels give the big-picture view of your marketing mix, such as how much comes from search compared with social media.
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