Which GA4 channel does your utm_medium land in? Default channel group rules, by medium
Google's GA4 default channel rules read from the utm_medium side: which values land in Email, Paid Search, Organic Social, Display or Unassigned.
On this page
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) sorts each session into a default channel with rules on source, medium and campaign name. For a link you tagged yourself, the utm_medium value decides most of it: email lands in Email, cpc in one of the paid channels, social in Organic Social, and a value that matches no rule lands in Unassigned. The table below reads Google's default channel definitions (opens in a new tab) from the medium side, so you can check a value before you type it.
Which channel each utm_medium lands in
Google's channel definitions (opens in a new tab) are rule-based categories of traffic sources, and the default group cannot be edited. Google adds that the definitions reflect its current view of each channel and may evolve as the market changes, so re-check the table when a channel looks wrong. The rows below are only the rules Google lists under manual traffic; the Manual source platform in GA4's Traffic acquisition report (opens in a new tab) covers traffic that is not from Google media marketing activity. Where a rule also looks at the source or the campaign name, the second column says so.
utm_medium value |
Also needs | Channel |
|---|---|---|
email, e-mail, e_mail, e mail |
nothing; a source with the same values also qualifies | |
affiliate |
nothing | Affiliates |
audio (exact) |
nothing | Audio |
sms (exact) |
nothing; source sms also qualifies |
SMS |
ends with push, or contains mobile or notification |
nothing; source firebase also qualifies |
Mobile Push Notifications |
organic (exact) |
nothing; a source on Google's search list also qualifies | Organic Search |
referral, app, link |
nothing | Referral |
social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network, social media |
nothing; a source on Google's social list also qualifies | Organic Social |
contains video |
nothing; a source on Google's video list also qualifies | Organic Video |
display, banner, expandable, interstitial, cpm |
nothing | Display |
| matches the paid pattern below | source on Google's search list | Paid Search |
| matches the paid pattern below | source on Google's social list | Paid Social |
| matches the paid pattern below | source on Google's video list | Paid Video |
| matches the paid pattern below | source on Google's shopping list, or a campaign name matching the shopping pattern below | Paid Shopping |
| matches the paid pattern below | no source or campaign match above | Paid Other |
ai-assistant (exact) |
nothing | AI Assistant |
(none) or (not set) |
source (direct) |
Direct |
| anything else | Unassigned |
The paid pattern is one regular expression that five paid channels share, and the shopping pattern is the campaign-name test the two shopping channels use:
paid medium: ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$
campaign name: ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$
It matches ppc, retargeting, anything that starts with paid (so paid-social, paidsearch and paid_media all count) and anything that contains cp anywhere, which is how cpc qualifies. Google lists cpm under Display by name, and cpm also contains cp, so it matches the paid pattern too.
Two more rules sit outside the medium. A campaign name that contains cross-network lands in Cross-network, and the Organic Shopping rule looks only at the source and the campaign name, so no medium value alone reaches it.
Unassigned is Google's value for event data that matches none of the channel rules. A medium such as newsletter, qr, partner or print appears in none of the rows above, so a link carrying it shows as Unassigned until you change the medium or add a custom channel.
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The medium values GA4 recognises
If you want the plain list, these are the medium strings the manual-traffic rules name:
- Email:
email,e-mail,e_mail,e mail - Affiliates:
affiliate - Audio:
audio - SMS:
sms - Mobile Push Notifications: a value ending in
push, or containingmobileornotification - Organic Search:
organic - Referral:
referral,app,link - Organic Social:
social,social-network,social-media,sm,social network,social media - Organic Video: any value containing
video - Display:
display,banner,expandable,interstitial,cpm - Paid channels:
ppc,retargeting, any value starting withpaid, any value containingcp - AI Assistant:
ai-assistant - Direct:
(none)or(not set)together with the source(direct)
Google's channel definitions (opens in a new tab) are not case-sensitive, so Email and email both satisfy the Email rule. The parameter values themselves are a different matter: campaign parameter values are case-sensitive (opens in a new tab), so Email and email appear as two separate medium values in your reports. Pick one spelling, in lowercase, and keep it. Google also recommends always setting utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign; a missing parameter shows as (not set) in reporting.
Source still matters
For the four paid channels and for Organic Search, Organic Social and Organic Video, the rule checks the source against a list Google maintains of search, social, video and shopping sites. Google publishes that list as a downloadable spreadsheet (opens in a new tab) on the same page as the rules, and site owners can ask Google to add a site; Google reviews those requests at least once a year.
This is why the same medium can land in different channels. cpc with a source on Google's search list is Paid Search. cpc with a source Google does not list, such as a niche newsletter, is Paid Other. The medium passed the paid pattern in both cases; the source decided the rest. For choosing the two values together, read the source vs medium guide.
Traffic from Google Ads itself is classified differently: Google uses the source platform, the ad network type and the campaign type for that traffic. That is a separate topic and this page does not cover auto-tagging.
Session vs first-user channel group
GA4 exposes the default channel as three dimensions, and they answer different questions. Google's table of the three dimensions (opens in a new tab) gives each a scope and an attribution model.
| Dimension | What it reports | Scope | Attribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default channel group | the channels by which users arrived and triggered a key event | event | the attribution model set for the property; data-driven by default |
| Session default channel group | the channels by which users arrived when they started a new session | session | paid and organic channels last click |
| First user default channel group | the channels by which users first arrived | user | paid and organic channels last click |
For a campaign link, the session dimension is usually the one to read: it reports the channel of the session the link started. The first-user dimension reports the channel that first brought a user to the site, which can differ from the session's channel. These dimensions appear in the Acquisition reports, in the Advertising section and in custom reports. To open those reports, start from the GA4 tracking guide.
When the default rules are not enough: custom channel groups
If your partner, QR or print traffic has no home in the default rules, a custom channel group is the supported fix. Google's custom channel groups page (opens in a new tab) explains that you create a group by copying an existing one, starting with a copy of the default group, and then edit, add, remove or reorder channels. Order matters in a group: traffic goes into the first channel whose definition it matches, in the group's current order. Custom groups apply to reports retroactively, and any custom group can be chosen as the property's primary channel group, which is the editable stand-in for the default group.
The limits on a standard property are 2 custom groups in addition to the pre-defined one and 50 channels per group; Google Analytics 360 properties get 5 groups. The default group itself cannot be edited (opens in a new tab), so a custom group is where newsletter or qr can get a channel of its own without changing the links.
Build the link with the right medium
Once you know which value you need, the free UTMTool builder offers quick-fill buttons for Google Ads, Meta ads, LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn post and Newsletter, suggests cpc, email, social and paid-social as medium values, and needs no signup. It runs in your browser, so your recent links stay on your device. Before you share the link, the campaign link preflight checklist covers the checks that keep a tagged link out of the Unassigned row.
Sources
- Google Analytics Help: default channel group (opens in a new tab)
- Google Analytics Help: custom channel groups (opens in a new tab)
- Google Analytics Help: Traffic acquisition report (opens in a new tab)
- Google Analytics Help: collect campaign data with custom URLs (opens in a new tab)
- UTMTool free UTM builder
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Frequently asked questions
What is not considered a default medium in Google Analytics?
Any medium value that none of Google's manual-traffic rules name. Values such as newsletter, qr, partner or print match no rule, so sessions carrying them show as Unassigned.
Why does cpc land in Paid Search for one campaign and Paid Other for another?
The medium cpc matches the paid pattern in both cases. The channel then depends on the source: a source on Google's search list gives Paid Search; a source on none of Google's lists gives Paid Other.
Does Google change the channel rules?
Yes. Google states that the definitions reflect its current view of each channel and may evolve as the market changes, so re-check the rule table on Google's page when a channel looks wrong.
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