Which GA4 channel will this link land in?
Build a tagged link or paste one. See the default channel group GA4 gives it, the rule that decides it, and anything that would push it into Unassigned.
The page the click should open, on your own site.
Where the click happens: google, facebook, newsletter.
The kind of traffic: cpc, paid_social, email, social.
One name per campaign, lowercase.
Tells two ads or links apart.
The paid keyword.
Your own campaign ID.
Only for a link placed on a web page. Enter the site's domain; if it is your own site, the checker says what that does.
Fill in the landing page, utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to get the link. The channel shows as soon as you type a source or a medium.
How GA4 picks the channel
GA4 reads three values from a tagged link, the UTM parameters: the source (utm_source, where the click happens, such as google or newsletter), the medium (utm_medium, the kind of traffic, such as cpc or email) and the campaign (utm_campaign). It runs Google's default channel rules in a fixed order and stops at the first one that matches. A value the link does not carry counts as “(not set)”. Together, source and medium are the link's traffic source.
Three terms do most of the work:
- Reads as paid: the medium contains “cp” (cpc, cpm, cpv), starts with “paid” (paid_social), or is exactly “ppc” or “retargeting”. Google's pattern:
^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$. - Shopping pattern: the campaign name contains “shopping”, or “shop” at the start, after a digit, a space or a symbol such as _ or -, or after the letter e. So spring_shop, shop-now and eshop match, and workshop does not. Google's pattern:
^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$. - The lists: Google's lists of shopping, search, social and video sites. The checker matches the whole source against them, so facebook.com matches and www.facebook.com does not.
The rules, in Google's order
- Direct: the source is “(direct)” and the medium is “(none)” or “(not set)”.
- Cross-network: the campaign name contains “cross-network”.
- Paid Shopping: the source is on the shopping list, or the campaign name matches the shopping pattern, and the medium reads as paid.
- Paid Search: the source is on the search list and the medium reads as paid.
- Paid Social: the source is on the social list and the medium reads as paid.
- Paid Video: the source is on the video list and the medium reads as paid.
- Display: the medium is display, banner, expandable, interstitial or cpm.
- Paid Other: the medium reads as paid, whatever the source.
- Organic Shopping: the source is on the shopping list, or the campaign name matches the shopping pattern.
- Organic Social: the source is on the social list, or the medium is social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network or social media.
- Organic Video: the source is on the video list, or the medium contains “video”.
- Organic Search: the source is on the search list, or the medium is exactly “organic”.
- AI Assistant: the medium is exactly “ai-assistant”.
- Referral: the medium is referral, app or link.
- Email: the source or the medium is email, e-mail, e_mail or e mail.
- Affiliates: the medium is exactly “affiliate”.
- Audio: the medium is exactly “audio”.
- SMS: the source or the medium is exactly “sms”.
- Mobile Push Notifications: the medium ends with “push” or contains “mobile” or “notification”, or the source is “firebase”.
Anything else lands in Unassigned. The checker shows Google's exact condition under each result.
Case, lists and limits
Case. The rules ignore case, so “Facebook” and “facebook” land in the same channel group. GA4 reports keep the case you typed, so they show as separate rows. Use lowercase everywhere.
Google's list of sites. The checker carries all 819 sources in the file Google links from its help page (592 social, 129 search, 52 shopping and 46 video). The file was last modified on 9 February 2023, so it lacks newer names such as x.com and threads.net, and GA4 may know sources it does not. A source that is not on the list is judged by the medium and campaign rules alone.
Limits. The checker covers tagged links, which GA4 calls manual traffic. A click with a gclid from Google Ads auto-tagging takes its channel from the Google Ads campaign instead. A link with no utm parameters is classified by the site it was clicked on, or lands in Direct when there is none.
Source: Google Analytics Help, [GA4] Default channel group, as published on 26 September 2026, including the AI Assistant rule between Organic Search and Referral. Read more about Google Analytics.
Worked example: one ad, five ways to tag it
Example values, not a real campaign: a Facebook ad for a spring sale, landing on https://www.example.com/sale. Only the utm values change.
utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=spring_sale
Paid Social, rule 5
“facebook” is on Google's list of social sites and the medium “paid_social” reads as paid.
utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social_paid&utm_campaign=spring_sale
Organic Social, rule 10
“facebook” is on Google's list of social sites and the medium does not read as paid.
utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=spring_shop
Paid Shopping, rule 3
The campaign name “spring_shop” matches Google's shopping pattern and the medium “paid_social” reads as paid.
utm_source=fb_ads&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=spring_sale
Paid Other, rule 8
The medium “paid_social” reads as paid, but the source “fb_ads” is not on Google's lists of shopping, search, social or video sites.
utm_source=meta&utm_medium=ads&utm_campaign=spring_sale
Unassigned, no rule matched
None of the 19 rules matches the source “meta” with the medium “ads”.
Same ad, same budget, five channel groups. Only the first files its visits and sales under Paid Social, where they belong.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my traffic Unassigned in GA4?
Because none of GA4's default channel rules matched the source and medium it recorded. The usual causes are a medium no rule names (newsletter, affiliates, ads), a missing utm_medium, which GA4 records as (not set), or a source GA4 does not know paired with a medium it does not know. Paste the link into the checker above to see which rule it misses.Are UTM parameters case sensitive in GA4?
The channel rules are not: Google says its channel definitions aren't case sensitive, so Facebook and facebook land in the same channel group. The reports are: GA4 keeps each value as typed, so Facebook and facebook show as two rows in Traffic acquisition. Use lowercase for every value.Which utm_medium should I use for paid social ads?
A medium GA4 reads as paid, with the platform as the source. A medium reads as paid when it contains cp (cpc, cpm), starts with paid (paid_social) or is exactly ppc or retargeting. With a source on Google's social list, such as facebook, instagram or tiktok, the click lands in Paid Social. A medium such as social_paid or facebook_ads does not read as paid, so the same click lands in Organic Social.Why does my paid social link land in Paid Other?
Paid Social needs a source on Google's list of social sites. The file Google publishes, last modified in February 2023, lists facebook, fb, instagram, ig, tiktok and twitter, but not meta, insta, x or x.com, and the checker matches whole values, so fb_ads and www.facebook.com are not on it either. A paid medium with a source off the list falls through to Paid Other. GA4 may know newer names than the file does; a name on the list is the safe choice.Should I use UTM parameters on internal links?
No. A tagged link on your own site tells GA4 a campaign brought the visitor, so the sale that follows can be credited to your internal tag instead of the ad, search or email that really brought them. Google's help page on the scopes of traffic-source dimensions walks through this case with a link tagged internal_promotion. Measure banners and menus with GA4 events instead.What happens when a link has both a gclid and UTM parameters?
Google says that when manual tagging and auto-tagging are used together, source, medium and the other traffic-classification dimensions use the auto-tagged values. The utm values count only when GA4 cannot use the gclid, for example when the visitor denies consent for ad data. For Google Ads clicks, the channel comes from the Google Ads campaign, not from the rules this tool checks.
Unassigned and Direct hide the channels that sent the buyer.
Your GA4 export shows how much revenue lands there. First finding free at /start; the full read is €99.