What does Cross-network in GA4 mean for a pet store?
If you sell pet products, GA4's Cross-network row usually holds your Performance Max and Demand Gen visits, product-feed Shopping ads included. Reorders typed in within the lookback window can carry the label too, so read it in User acquisition as well as Traffic acquisition.
By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 5 min read
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If you sell pet products, Cross-network is usually where GA4 files visits from your Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns. That includes Shopping ads for food and toys. If customers reorder by typing your address, the label can follow them for weeks. So judge the row on first orders, not on sessions alone.
If you sell pet products
If you sell food, litter and treats, much of your revenue runs on a timer. The bag empties and the owner comes back. If those second orders start from a bookmark, a typed address or a reminder email, no ad is needed to make them happen.
First orders look different. A new puppy or kitten sends an owner searching, comparing and watching videos. If you run Performance Max on your product feed, your Shopping ads for those searches sit in Cross-network. So do Demand Gen videos on YouTube, and Performance Max ads on Google Maps if people can walk into your shop.
What one store's data shows
One store's anonymised GA4 export, 1 January 2024 to 21 August 2026. It holds shares of revenue only: no ad spend, no order counts.
| What the export shows | Value | Source cell |
|---|---|---|
| Direct, in last click, first click and touched views | 57.7% of revenue | Channels sheet, Direct row |
| Journeys with 1 touch (0.5 days to buy) | 79.5% of revenue | Journeys sheet, 1 touch row |
| Journeys with 2 to 3 touches (12.5 days to buy) | 12.2% of revenue | Journeys sheet, 2-3 touches row |
Store A is one store, and nothing in its export says it sells pet products. Read it as a pattern to look for in your own data, not a forecast.
Direct holds 57.7% of revenue in last click, first click and touched views (Channels sheet). In that export, more than half the money came through journeys GA4 could only see as typed addresses or saved links.
79.5% came from one-touch journeys that took 0.5 days (Journeys sheet). One visit, bought the same day: that is the shape a planned reorder would take, though the export cannot say who those buyers were.
Journeys of 2 to 3 touches held 12.2% and took 12.5 days (Journeys sheet). A first order for a new pet, researched over a week or two, would look more like that row.
What these rows cannot show is how much of that store's revenue Cross-network earned, which campaigns it ran, or which buyers were new.
What changes for a pet store?
The lookback window decides who gets the reorder. Traffic acquisition labels a session by the last non-direct click within the key event lookback window. Google's help puts that window at 90 days by default. So if an owner clicked a Performance Max ad for the first bag, a typed-address reorder inside the window can still read Cross-network. After the window, the same reorder reads Direct.
First-user and session views tell different stories. User acquisition files each user under the channel that first brought them, and keeps them there as they return. If Cross-network brings in new owners and email keeps them, Cross-network will look bigger there than in Traffic acquisition.
The same video can live in two rows. GA4 files Google Ads Video campaigns under Paid Video, and Demand Gen or Performance Max under Cross-network. Run one clip of a dog chasing a ball both ways, and its sales split across two rows. The dog does not mind; your report should.
What to do this week
- Compare first-user and session views for last quarter. In GA4, open Reports > Acquisition > User acquisition and read Total revenue for Cross-network, then do the same in Traffic acquisition. Pass: you know whether Cross-network finds owners, keeps them, or both. Fail: you judge it on one report alone.
- Check your lookback window against your reorder cycle. In GA4, go to Admin > Data display > Events > Attribution settings and note the key event lookback window. Pass: you know whether a usual reorder lands inside it and can carry an ad's label. Fail: you read every Cross-network session as a sale the ads won.
- See how much of Performance Max is product ads. In Google Ads, open Campaigns > Insights and reports > Channel performance and set Format to Ads using product data. Pass: you know what share of the campaign's conversion value came from your feed. Fail: you credit the videos with what the Shopping ads sold.
Check the homework. Your GA4 Attribution paths export already holds the evidence. Causality Engine reads that one file and shows what each channel caused next to what last-click gave it, in 1 to 2 minutes, for €99 once (excluding VAT), refundable within 30 days. Check the homework
Sources, 1 October 2026: Default channel group (Google Analytics Help); User acquisition report vs. Traffic acquisition report (Google Analytics Help); Select attribution settings (Google Analytics Help); Scopes of traffic-source dimensions (Google Analytics Help); About Performance Max channels (Google Ads Help); About the channel performance report for Performance Max (Google Ads Help); About Demand Gen campaigns (Google Ads Help).
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Does a pet food reorder count as Cross-network in GA4?
It can. Traffic acquisition gives a session to the last non-direct channel within the key event lookback window, 90 days by default. So a typed-address reorder soon after a Performance Max click can carry the Cross-network label. Reorders after the window show as direct.Do YouTube pet videos land in Paid Video or Cross-network?
It depends on the campaign type, not the video. GA4 files Google Ads Video campaigns under Paid Video, and Demand Gen or Performance Max under Cross-network. The same clip can sit in two rows if you run it both ways.Does a Google Maps ad for my pet shop count as Cross-network?
Usually, yes. Performance Max serves ads on Google Maps among its channels, and GA4 files Performance Max visits under Cross-network. GA4's rules also list Local campaigns there. So map clicks join the same row as Shopping and YouTube clicks from those campaigns.
Go deeper: Causal attribution, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Terms in this article
- AnalyticsAnalytics is the systematic computational analysis of data. It reveals customer behavior and measures campaign performance.
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- CausalityCausality is the relationship where one event directly causes another, essential for identifying specific actions that drive desired outcomes in marketing.
- ConversionConversion is a specific, desired action a user takes in response to a marketing message, such as a purchase or a sign-up.
- Direct TrafficDirect Traffic refers to website visitors who arrive by typing the URL directly into their browser or through bookmarks. They do not come from search engines or referrals.
- Google AdsGoogle Ads is an online advertising platform where advertisers bid to display ads, service offerings, and product listings.
- Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
- Product FeedProduct Feed is a file containing product lists and their attributes. It distributes product information to shopping channels and marketplaces.