Google Analytic Default Channel Grouping often shows data that is not in an accurate grouping. This situation is confusing, resulting in difficult decision making. However, do you know it’s possible to modify this Default Channel Grouping so that it collects the data we want to see?
Yes, in this blog post, I would like to share with you the steps to modify Google Analytics Default Channel Grouping.
What is Default Channel Grouping?
Default Channel Grouping is one of the data presentation metrics of Google Analytics. These data are collected from Google Analytics data and categorized into multiple channels based on default settings. The default channel groups are:
- Direct
- Organic Search
- Social
- Affiliates
- Referral
- Paid Search
- Other Advertising
- Display
However, this “default” setup sometimes does not categorize the data accurately, especially when you have some customization on your data and tracking method (example: you track your traffic using UTM links, it will alter the tracking result).
As a result, the data we are reading is not exactly the one we wish to look into. Hence, it is crucial for us to edit the Default Channel Grouping to suit our data tracking.
Editing Default Channel Grouping
In this article, I will show you step by step on how to edit the channel grouping so that it reflects the data you wish to look into.
Step 1: Go to Google Analytics Admin Tab at the left sidebar.
Step 2: Choose “Channel Settings” under the View column.
Step 3: Choose “Channel Grouping”.
Step 4: You can click “+ New Channel Grouping” button to create new channel grouping or edit the existing channel grouping setting.
**In this case, I choose to edit existing Default Channel Grouping.
Step 5: Go to the specific channel you wish to edit (in this case, I choose “Email”).
Step 6: Add your desired tracking parameters into this channel.
Step 7: Save your changes.
Step 8: Wait for 1 day before returning to check on the tracking.
*Note: You can select many types of parameters including Source, Medium, Keywords, Search Query, Landing Page, etc. You can also set the conditions of the parameters, including Exact match, contains, starts with, end with and more.
The Bottom Line
It is important that we make sure all of our website data remain accurate and reflect the actual performance. It ensures we get the correct information to make the correct decision for our business. I hope this blog post helps you look clearer into your website performance.
With this article, you can start learning on how to setup a Google Analytics today.
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