Resolve Unassigned Traffic GA4

Within the world of digital marketing, data is essential. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a valuable tool in this regard for tracking and analysing user behaviour on websites. Every click, page view and conversion is a piece of the puzzle that allows you to make the right decisions and refine your strategy. However, there is one annoying problem that can confuse even the most experienced GA4 experts: unassigned traffic in your GA4 reports.

At AdPage, we always claim that tracking issues are the number one frustration in the world of digital marketing. That frustration is easily resolved thanks to the implementation of server-side tagging. However, we've noticed that ‘unassigned traffic’ within Google Analytics ranks second in the frustration list. That's a more complex frustration that cannot be easily resolved. But how can you fix unassigned traffic? There are multiple ways to improve this, which we'll explain in this article.

 

What is ‘Unassigned’ in Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 assigns various traffic sources to broader categories so that you, as a user, have an overall overview of which types of channels perform best. For example, traffic from organic Bing searches and organic Google searches is added to a default channel group for ‘Organic Search’. When Google does not know where to attribute a session or a visitor, they do not assign it to anything, and that session or user therefore receives ‘unassigned’ as the channel group.

In total, there are 18 channel groups to which traffic sources are assigned. Google uses fixed rules to assign a traffic source to a default channel group. You can find those rules here to find. These are the eighteen channel groups:

• Affiliates
• Audio
• Cross-network
• Direct
• Display
• Email
• Mobile Push Notifications
• Organic Search
• Organic Shopping
• Organic Social
• Organic Video
• Other Paid
• Paid Search
• Paid Shopping
• Paid Social
• Video Advertisement
• Referral
• Text message

When a traffic source is not covered by standard Google rules, or when Google is unsure from which channel group a user or session arrived on your site or app, it will be assigned to ‘unassigned’.

 

Hoe los je oningedeeld verkeer in GA4 op?

There are various options for resolving unassigned Google Analytics traffic. However, there isn't a simple way to see which solutions apply to your situation, so the most practical approach is to examine each solution individually to see if it can be implemented and whether it's advisable to do so.

Furthermore, there's also a way to find out where Google Analytics is going wrong and how certain users or sessions should have actually been attributed. Make sure you read each part carefully, even if you think based on the title that it won't work for your situation. Because the solutions below are often applied incorrectly, even by the most experienced marketers.

 

Solution 1: Use UTM parameters

UTM parameters are additional components that you add to the end of your external URLs. When that URL with the UTM parameters is subsequently visited, Google Analytics can track information, such as how that visitor ended up on your site. Therefore, if you aren't already using UTM parameters in your campaigns and other external links, Google cannot ascertain where a user came from. Because you and Google Analytics are blind to all the steps a visitor takes on other sites or platforms before arriving at yours, that person appears to have landed on your site from nowhere for Google.

Here is an example of a URL with UTM parameters. If you were to click a link on LinkedIn to our blogs, you would appear on our page with this URL in your browser's address bar:

https://www.adpage.io/post/ga4-rapporten?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=blog-ga4-reports-sharing

The red underlined text in the screenshot shows the UTM parameters that have been added to the URL of this blog post for tracking purposes. You'll notice it starts with a “?” and includes the following parameters: `utm_content`, `utm_medium`, and `utm_source`.

The addition of these UTM parameters does not change the content of the page. However, it ensures that Google Analytics can interpret the source of the visitor.

There are five standard UTM parameters you can use. When using UTM parameters in your campaigns, we recommend always using at least utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign.

utm_source

This indicates the source of origin, meaning from which site or platform the user came. Examples include: LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube.

utm_medium

This indicates the origin medium, meaning from which marketing channels a visitor arrived on your site. Examples include: social, cpc, email or organic.

utm_campaign

This indicates the campaign of origin, meaning which campaign brought the user to your site. When you use different campaigns on one platform, utm_source and utm_medium will be the same for all those campaigns. Therefore, you can effectively use utm_campaign to distinguish between the different campaigns from one platform. You are free to choose what you add here for utm_campaign.

For a Meta campaign, you would set, for example, the UTM parameters “utm_source=facebook”, “utm_medium=paid_social”, and “utm_campaign=collecting_leads” like these rules indicate. Within Google Analytics, unassigned traffic that would actually come in via a Meta campaign will now be assigned correctly.

 

Solution 2: Correctly set UTM parameters

If you've read the first solution and thought, “I've had that set up for ages, this can't be the solution for me,” then there's a good chance you've now arrived at the correct solution. We still too often see marketers and web administrators setting up their UTM parameters incorrectly or in the wrong place.

When you use UTM parameters that aren't recognised by Google, Google doesn't know which channel group to assign a visitor or session to. For example, if you're offering a free e-book and use the UTM parameter “utm_medium=pdf”, GA4 won't know which channel group to attribute this to. Therefore, all traffic coming to your site via that URL will be displayed as ‘unassigned’.

But besides this e-book example, there are also many entrepreneurs and marketers who are adding completely incorrect UTM parameters to their campaigns. For example, they use “utm_medium=mail” instead of “utm_medium=email” or they use “utm_source=paid-social” instead of “utm_source=facebook”. So always check if your UTM parameters correspond with the standard rules that Google applies.

For Meta, we recommend the following query parameters:

utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid&utm_source_platform={{placement}}&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_term={{adset.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}

Furthermore, you can also add UTM parameters in the wrong place. For example, within Meta Ads Manager, there are two different places in a campaign where you can add UTM parameters. These are directly in the destination URL or in the tracking settings. Experience has shown that if you add UTM parameters in the tracking settings (the red arrow in the screenshot below), you will encounter unassigned GA4 traffic. When you add the UTM parameters directly to the destination URL, this is not the case.

 

Solution 3: Use English terms in your UTM parameters

When your browser or Google Account is set to a language other than English, channel groups will also be translated from English. Within Google Analytics, you may see Dutch channel groups such as partners, organic traffic, or referrals. It then seems obvious that you can use these Dutch terms in your UTM parameters. Unfortunately, this does not work well at the moment.

When you add, for example, utm_medium=partners to a URL, the traffic via this URL cannot be assigned. Google uses standard translations in Analytics, but you cannot use this translation of the channel group Affiliates yourself in your UTMs. Therefore, always use the English terms from The list of GA4 channel groups.

 

Solution 4: Checking original sessions of unassigned traffic

The number of purchases made at a first point of contact is extremely low. Purchases are not often made in the first session. People often need more time to decide whether they are going to make a purchase. Therefore, when someone enters via your Meta campaign during the first session and returns a few days later to actually make the purchase, GA4 can have difficulty attributing this conversion.

For unassigned traffic in GA4 and for unassigned conversions, it is still possible to see how that visitor ended up on the site. When you add an extra variable such as ‘First user source’ or ‘First user medium’ within the GA4 ‘Traffic Acquisition’ report, you can see that the first session of unassigned traffic can still be attributed. You can see an example of this in the screenshot below.

How can I see the above screenshot in my GA4?

Open your traffic acquisition report in GA4. The default dimension for this report is ‘Session default channel group’. In any GA4 report, you can always add an additional dimension via the blue plus icon to the right of the default dimensions. There you can add many different types of dimensions, including ‘First user manual ad content’ or ‘First user brand’.

To then filter for only the unassigned standard channel groups, you can use the search bar at the top left of the table.

Please note that you must have been using UTM parameters for a long time. Without UTM parameters during previous sessions, you will still not get any answers here as they will still be assigned to (direct) or (not set).

 

Solution 5: Check your CMP

A Consent Management Platform (CMP) plays a crucial role in ensuring privacy in online tracking. When the traffic source in Google Analytics is displayed as ‘unassigned’, this can be related to how a CMP is set up. Firstly, some users actively refuse cookies and tracking, meaning their information is not recorded and everything they do is assigned as ‘unassigned’ or ‘not set’ in GA4. Secondly, an incorrectly configured CMP can result in user information not being stored and transmitted correctly.

To address these issues, you will need to carefully review your CMP settings. Check that all necessary permissions are correctly configured and that there are no errors in the setup. This process will ensure your CMP functions effectively, minimising the ‘unassigned’ label in Google Analytics. By proactively managing your CMP, you will not only safeguard user privacy but also guarantee accurate data collection for valuable analytics.

 

Solution 6: Activate The Google Tag First

Do you use Server-Side Tagging? Then this solution could be useful for you. Aren't you already using it? What are you waiting for? The end of third-party cookies is getting closer, and you want to get your tracking in order, right? If you want to know more about this, sign up for our next webinar. This unassigned traffic solution is only applicable to websites that use server-side tagging.

Via server-side tagging, a Google Tag (configuration tag) is fired from the web container on every page. This configuration tag ensures that the web container can communicate with the server container. This Google Tag can be triggered when a page is viewed. You can also trigger this tag, for example, on page initialisation, which means it will always be fired before all other tags. This prevents an event tag from being triggered before the Google Tag, resulting in ‘(not set)’ values.

 

Solution 7: Correctly setting up the connection between Google Ads and Analytics

If you use Google Ads as well as Google Analytics, your Google Analytics 4 property must be linked to your Google Ads account so that data from Google Ads is visible in GA4. You can check and repair that connection from both Google Analytics and Google Ads. If you make the connection from Google Analytics, it should also be visible in Google Ads and vice versa. To check if your connection between Google Ads and GA4 is working, follow three steps:

Link Google Ads with Google Analytics from Google Analytics

In your Google Analytics settings, you can view your product links. Here, under the Google Ads links, you can check if a link to your Google Ads account is present. If your Google Ads account is not listed, you can link it by following the instructions after clicking the ‘Link’ button.

Linking Google Analytics with Google Ads from Google Ads

A link can also be created with Google Analytics from Google Ads. You can see this in your Google Ads account under ‘Linked Accounts’ in your settings. Under your linked accounts and products, look for Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase and then click ‘Manage and link’. In the status column, the status might be “Not linked”; if so, follow the instructions to link Google Ads and Analytics.

Automatic tagging within Google Ads is not enabled

Within your Google Ads settings, it's possible that auto-tagging might not be enabled. Auto-tagging ensures that conversions are monitored and linked between Google Ads and Google Analytics. To check this, go to your account settings within Google Ads and click on the ‘Auto-tagging’ section. If the tick box next to ‘Tag the URL that people click through from my ad’ is not ticked, then automatic tagging is switched off. Make sure this is enabled.

 

Solution 8: Setting up a clean GA4 property

It's not just from your site that events can be sent to GA4. Events can also be sent from other platforms such as email service providers, CRM systems or plugins on your site. These events, which are not sent by yourself, may not be set up correctly, leading to a lot of unassigned traffic. GA4 cannot see which sessions these events belong to, nor how users of these unknown events arrived on your site.

By creating a new GA4 property, you are essentially starting with a clean slate. This is because each GA4 property has a unique measurement ID, and nothing has been sent to your new measurement ID yet. By switching to a new property, you ensure that no data from other sources is received, as the measurement ID is completely different. Using this method ensures a clear separation of data sources, enabling you to perform more accurate analyses.

 

Solution 9: Improve your complete tracking setup

There may be other aspects of your tracking that are not configured correctly, such as your DataLayer or the use of the Measurement Protocol. These are a bit more difficult to discover and resolve. However, a tracking scan could bring problems to light. Start creating a Data Deck on the AdPage platform immediately a draft is leaking in your tracking setup.

 

Solution 10: Disconnecting your old GA4 connection

If you are already using server-side tagging, one of the reasons for your unassigned traffic could be an old GA4 connection. When you receive data through your server in GA4, you do not want to receive data from other sources. A GA4 connection from your CMS, for example, will contaminate your data. Below is a brief explanation for each CMS on where to find the old GA4 connection to disconnect it. Please note that if you are not sending data from a server to GA4, you should not implement this solution.

Shopify

Go to the ‘YouTube & Google’ application within Apps in your Shopify store. There you can find and disconnect the Google Analytics property.

Magento

In Magento, you go to Stores and then to Configuration settings. Then go to Google Ads under the heading Selling. Here you can see if you have an existing connection to Google Analytics. If so, you can disconnect it.

Phoenix

Within Phoenix, you can find the GA4 script and scripts from other platforms under Scripts in your settings. There, you can deactivate any redundant scripts.

Lightspeed (C-Series)

Within Lightspeed, you can find the GA4 connection in your Settings. From there, go to Web Statistics. Here, you can set up and disconnect both your Google Analytics 4 and your Facebook connection.

WordPress / WooCommerce

Within WordPress, there are many different applications that can be used to connect with GA4. The primary method is via the Google Site Kit plugin. If you open that plugin, you can see your GA4 connection, among other things, and disconnect it from there.  

Solution 11: Identity Reporting

Within GA4, you can also adjust your reporting identity. If your tracking isn't entirely correct, it's possible that the User ID, Google Signals, and Device ID are not being forwarded properly. However, these are the standard methods for Google Analytics to link users to events. If you have your reporting identity set to ‘Observed’, it's possible that all sessions where the aforementioned methods are absent cannot be assigned.

You have the option to use fewer methods to link users to sessions. For example, you can also choose ‘Device-based’ in the reporting identity settings. Then you link users to sessions based solely on device ID. This solution can therefore ensure that you have less unassigned traffic, but it does carry the risk of not linking users to the correct sessions. We do not recommend this solution, unless all other solutions have failed to resolve your unassigned traffic.

 

Solution 12: Data Processing Period

It takes Google Analytics between 24 and 48 hours to process data. So if you look at your reports from today or yesterday, you might see an increase in ‘Unassigned’ traffic. This is normal in GA4, so it's better to choose a date range longer than 48 hours. Check the same period at a later time, and the number of ‘Unassigned’ sessions in Google Analytics 4 may have decreased.  

Want to know more about GA4?

Would you like to learn more about the reporting possibilities within Google Analytics 4? Have a look at our blog article about GA4 reports.