Is Paid Search the same as google / cpc?

Mostly, but not exactly. Search ad clicks from Google Ads usually show as google / cpc. Paid Search also takes other search engines' ads when they carry a paid medium, so the row can hold more than Google. Add Session source / medium next to the channel to see the mix.

Why does Paid Search revenue differ between GA4 reports?

Because each report reads a different version of the label. Traffic acquisition credits the channel that started each session. User acquisition credits the channel that first brought each user. Key event reports credit channels by your attribution model, data-driven by default. Compare like with like.

What is the difference between Paid Search and Paid Other?

Paid Search needs two things: a source on GA4's list of search sites and a paid medium. Paid Other catches the remaining ad visits, with a paid medium but a source GA4 cannot place as search, social, shopping or video. A cpc link from a source GA4 does not know usually lands there.

What does Paid Search mean in GA4?

Paid Search is GA4's channel label for visits from ads on search engines. Google Ads clicks from Search campaigns land there, and so do tagged links that pair a search engine with a paid medium such as cpc. Shopping and Performance Max ads usually land in other rows.

By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 2026-10-016 min read

Paid Search is GA4's label for visits that came from ads on search engines. GA4 usually files a visit there when a Google Ads click comes from a Search campaign. A tagged link that pairs a search engine with a paid medium, such as cpc, lands there too. Shopping and Performance Max ads usually land in other rows.

So the row is a rule, not a list of your campaigns. It holds whatever matched the rule and nothing that did not, which is both its use and its trap.

What one store's data shows

The usual answer stops at "traffic from search ads". One store's export shows why the rule behind the label matters more than the name.

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	Share of revenue	Source cell
Direct, in last click, first click and touched views	57.7%	Channels sheet, Direct row
Paid Social, in last click, first click and touched views	0.0%	Channels sheet, Paid Social row
All channels in the touched view, added up	110.4%	Channels sheet, Touched column total
Journeys with 4 to 9 touches (1,568 distinct paths, 16.9 days to buy)	5.4%	Journeys sheet, 4 to 9 touches row

Every row on the Channels sheet is one of GA4's channel labels. Google calls channels rule-based definitions of your traffic sources. Each row holds the visits that matched its rule, whatever your ad accounts say.

Paid Social shows how literal that is. On the Channels sheet it holds 0.0% of revenue in all three views. A paid row stays empty when no visit matches its rule, ads or no ads. Paid Search works the same way: it counts matches, not money spent on Google.

Direct is the other side of the coin. On the Channels sheet it holds 57.7% of revenue in all three views. Google lists why visits land there: links without tags, redirects that strip them, and ad blockers. A search ad click that lost its tag on the way in cannot meet the Paid Search rule. It ends up in Direct or another row instead.

The touched column adds a second lesson. Give every channel on a journey full credit and that column comes to 110.4% on the Channels sheet. A channel's share depends on the credit rule, and GA4 keeps Paid Search under three rules. One property can therefore show three honest Paid Search totals.

Time shapes what a Paid Search session holds, too. On the Journeys sheet, journeys of 4 to 9 touches held 5.4% of revenue and took 16.9 days to buy. Google says sessions follow a non-direct last click model, with a lookback window of 90 days by default. So a visit that starts with a typed address keeps the last non-Direct source, such as a search ad clicked two weeks before.

What the export cannot show: what this store spent on search ads, or which search clicks its sales came from. It is one store, not a benchmark.

Why is Paid Search not the same as your Google Ads account?

Because GA4 sorts Google Ads clicks by network and campaign type, not by account. For those clicks, Paid Search means ad network type Google Search or Google Partners, or campaign type Search, Hotel or Travel. Shopping campaigns go to Paid Shopping. Performance Max and Demand Gen go to Cross-network, YouTube ads to Paid Video, and the Display Network to Display.

Tagged links follow a second rule. A visit lands in Paid Search when its source is on GA4's list of search sites and its medium fits GA4's paid pattern. That pattern means cp anywhere in the medium, ppc, retargeting, or a medium starting with paid. Another search engine's ads therefore count, if you tag them that way. So does a newsletter link someone tagged google and cpc.

Campaign names only matter for tagged links. On Google's list, Paid Shopping sits above Paid Search, and its rule fires on a campaign name containing shop or shopping. A hand-tagged search ad named autumn_shop can therefore land in Paid Shopping. Google adds that channel rules ignore capital letters and cannot be edited.

With auto-tagging on, hand tags lose. Google says GA4 prioritises auto-tagging over manual tagging, because there is no override option. Turn auto-tagging off, and your Search campaigns reach Paid Search only through tags someone remembered to add.

Which Paid Search number should you read?

GA4 keeps three versions, and each answers a different question.

First user default channel group asks which channel first brought each user. It fills the User acquisition report, where a user's later visits stay in that first row.
Session default channel group asks which channel started each visit. It is the default dimension of the Traffic acquisition report.
Default channel group, with no prefix, asks which channel earned a key event such as a purchase. It follows your property's attribution model, data-driven unless someone changed it.

The first two use paid and organic last click and ignore model changes. The third moves whenever the model moves. Pick the version that matches your question, and never add two of them together.

What to do this week

Look inside the row. In GA4, select Reports, then Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. Search the table for Paid Search and add Session source / medium as a second dimension. Pass: every line is a search engine with a paid medium, such as google / cpc. Fail: a line you know is not an ad, such as a newsletter tagged google / cpc.
Confirm auto-tagging. In Google Ads, click Admin, then Account settings, then the Auto-tagging section. Pass: the box "Tag the URL that people click through from my ad" is ticked. Fail: it is not, so GA4 can only sort your search clicks by hand-typed tags.
Match each campaign to its row. In the same report, switch the dimension to Session campaign and add Session default channel group beside it. Pass: Search campaigns sit in Paid Search, while Shopping and Performance Max sit elsewhere. Fail: a Search campaign turns up in Paid Shopping or Paid Other, so a hand tag decided its row.

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); [GA4] Understand (direct) / (none) traffic (Google); Custom channel groups (Google); About auto-tagging (Google); Scopes of traffic-source dimensions (Google); User acquisition report vs. Traffic acquisition report (Google); Traffic acquisition report (Google).

Frequently asked questions

Is Paid Search the same as google / cpc?
Mostly, but not exactly. Search ad clicks from Google Ads usually show as google / cpc. Paid Search also takes other search engines' ads when they carry a paid medium, so the row can hold more than Google. Add Session source / medium next to the channel to see the mix.
Why does Paid Search revenue differ between GA4 reports?
Because each report reads a different version of the label. Traffic acquisition credits the channel that started each session. User acquisition credits the channel that first brought each user. Key event reports credit channels by your attribution model, data-driven by default. Compare like with like.
What is the difference between Paid Search and Paid Other?
Paid Search needs two things: a source on GA4's list of search sites and a paid medium. Paid Other catches the remaining ad visits, with a paid medium but a source GA4 cannot place as search, social, shopping or video. A cpc link from a source GA4 does not know usually lands there.

Go deeper: Incrementality testing, explained.

Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.

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