Resolve 'Unassigned' traffic in GA4
You open the acquisition reports in Google Analytics 4 and see 'Unassigned'. What is it and how do you get rid of it? There are many possible reasons. Some of your traffic can be fixed and for some of your traffic, you will unfortunately have to accept that Google cannot assign it (unless Google fixes the underlying problems).
Google Analytics 4 groups different traffic sources into larger categories that give you a general overview of which channels are performing best for your site or app. For example, you might have traffic coming from Bing organic search and Google organic search. Both of these traffic sources are added to a default channel group for 'Organic Search'.
There are eighteen channel groups:
Affiliates
Audio
Cross-network
Direct
Display
Email
Mobile Push Notifications
Organic Search
Organic Shopping
Organic Social
Organic Video
Paid Other
Paid Search
Paid Shopping
Paid Social
Paid Video
Referral
SMS
And there are set rules on how Google assigns a traffic source to a channel group. You can find those rules here.
But if a traffic source is not covered by those rules, it will be assigned the default channel group 'Unassigned'. This is because Google Analytics 4 doesn't know which group that traffic source should be assigned to.
Let's look at different situations why a traffic source gets 'Unassigned' in GA4 and the possible solutions.
For example, if you offer a free e-book, you might want to track whether people click on the links in that e-book. For this, you can use the UTM parameter "utm_medium=pdf". Only GA4 does not know which channel group this should be assigned to, so this traffic is shown as 'Unassigned'.
But besides this e-book example, there are also many business owners and marketers who add completely wrong UTM parameters to their campaigns. Those then use, for example, "utm_medium=mail" instead of "utm_medium=email" or those use "utm_source=paid-social" instead of "utm_source=facebook". So always check that your UTM parameters match Google's default rules.
If you do not use UTM parameters, Google cannot read where a user came from. This is because your tagging pixel is not set to the domain where that user came from.
When using UTM parameters, always use at least utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. For your Meta campaigns, for example, set the UTM parameters "utm_source=facebook", "utm_medium=paid_social" and "utm_campaign=leads_collect" as these lines indicate.
Often, a purchase on an online shop is not made in the first session. After all, people often take longer to decide whether to make a purchase. So when someone comes in via your Meta campaign during the first session and comes right back a few days later to actually make the purchase, GA4 doesn't know where this conversion should be assigned (i.e. where it should 'assigne' the conversion to).
Hence, you can always check for unassigned traffic to see how they first ever got to the site in their first session. A good way to see this is to add 'Source for new user' or 'Medium for new user' as an additional variable in the GA4 traffic acquisition report.
It is good to know the difference between "new user" and "session". New user looks at the first visit and session looks at the last visit before a purchase was made.
In the screenshot below, you can see an example where source for new user has been added as variables:
Below is a roadmap on how to check this yourself:
Go to reports
Click on acquisition and then traffic acquisition
Click on the plus sign to add the session source for new user variables
Then search for "unassigned" in the search bar
Via server-side tagging, a Google Tag (configuration tag) is fired on every page. This is likely to be triggered when a page is viewed. This configuration tag will have to be fired first. So you could set the trigger for this tag, for example, to "Initialisation - All pages" so that it is always fired before all other tags. If an event tag is triggered before the Google tag does, the event tag will not know your server URL, and may give you results (not set) as a value.
If you use Google Ads, your Google Analytics 4-property must be linked to your Google Ads account to see Google Ads data in Analytics. You can check and fix the link from both Analytics and Google Ads. If you create the link from Analytics, it should also be visible in Ads and also if you create the link from Ads, it should be visible in Analytics.
In Analytics, make sure your Google Ads account is linked
In Google Analytics, click on Admin.
Under Product links, click Google Ads links.
Check that your Google Ads account is listed. If your Google Ads account is not listed, follow the instructions to link Google Ads and Analytics.
In Google Ads, check that your Analytics property is linked
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click the Google Ads | tools [Icon] tool icon in the top-right corner of your account.
Under Settings, click Linked accounts.
Under Your linked accounts and products, find Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase, then click Manage and link.
In the Ownership column, find your Analytics ownership and check the Status column.
If the status is "Not linked", follow the instructions to link Google Ads and Analytics.
Also, you may not have auto-tagging within Google Ads turned on. To turn that on, follow these steps:
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click Settings in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
Click Account Settings at the top of the page.
Click on the Automatic tagging section. If the box next to "Tag the URL people click on from my ad" is unchecked, automatic tagging is off.
Apparently, it helps to change the reporting identity of your GA4 profile to 'Device-based'. This can significantly reduce the number of 'Unassigned' sessions. We don't know exactly what causes this problem ourselves, but changing the reporting identity may also be a solution.
It takes Google Analytics between 24 and 48 hours to process data. So if you look at your reports from today or yesterday, you may see an increase in 'Unassigned' traffic. This is normal in GA4, and you should be more patient. Check the same period at a later time, and the number of 'Unassigned' sessions in Google Analytics 4 should have reduced.
Updated on: 10/11/2023
What is 'Unassigned' in Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 groups different traffic sources into larger categories that give you a general overview of which channels are performing best for your site or app. For example, you might have traffic coming from Bing organic search and Google organic search. Both of these traffic sources are added to a default channel group for 'Organic Search'.
There are eighteen channel groups:
Affiliates
Audio
Cross-network
Direct
Display
Mobile Push Notifications
Organic Search
Organic Shopping
Organic Social
Organic Video
Paid Other
Paid Search
Paid Shopping
Paid Social
Paid Video
Referral
SMS
And there are set rules on how Google assigns a traffic source to a channel group. You can find those rules here.
But if a traffic source is not covered by those rules, it will be assigned the default channel group 'Unassigned'. This is because Google Analytics 4 doesn't know which group that traffic source should be assigned to.
Let's look at different situations why a traffic source gets 'Unassigned' in GA4 and the possible solutions.
UTM parameters set incorrectly
For example, if you offer a free e-book, you might want to track whether people click on the links in that e-book. For this, you can use the UTM parameter "utm_medium=pdf". Only GA4 does not know which channel group this should be assigned to, so this traffic is shown as 'Unassigned'.
But besides this e-book example, there are also many business owners and marketers who add completely wrong UTM parameters to their campaigns. Those then use, for example, "utm_medium=mail" instead of "utm_medium=email" or those use "utm_source=paid-social" instead of "utm_source=facebook". So always check that your UTM parameters match Google's default rules.
No UTM parameters used
If you do not use UTM parameters, Google cannot read where a user came from. This is because your tagging pixel is not set to the domain where that user came from.
When using UTM parameters, always use at least utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. For your Meta campaigns, for example, set the UTM parameters "utm_source=facebook", "utm_medium=paid_social" and "utm_campaign=leads_collect" as these lines indicate.
Sessions are not properly linked together
Often, a purchase on an online shop is not made in the first session. After all, people often take longer to decide whether to make a purchase. So when someone comes in via your Meta campaign during the first session and comes right back a few days later to actually make the purchase, GA4 doesn't know where this conversion should be assigned (i.e. where it should 'assigne' the conversion to).
Hence, you can always check for unassigned traffic to see how they first ever got to the site in their first session. A good way to see this is to add 'Source for new user' or 'Medium for new user' as an additional variable in the GA4 traffic acquisition report.
It is good to know the difference between "new user" and "session". New user looks at the first visit and session looks at the last visit before a purchase was made.
In the screenshot below, you can see an example where source for new user has been added as variables:
Below is a roadmap on how to check this yourself:
Go to reports
Click on acquisition and then traffic acquisition
Click on the plus sign to add the session source for new user variables
Then search for "unassigned" in the search bar
The Google Tag (configuration) is not triggered first
Via server-side tagging, a Google Tag (configuration tag) is fired on every page. This is likely to be triggered when a page is viewed. This configuration tag will have to be fired first. So you could set the trigger for this tag, for example, to "Initialisation - All pages" so that it is always fired before all other tags. If an event tag is triggered before the Google tag does, the event tag will not know your server URL, and may give you results (not set) as a value.
Google Ads issues
If you use Google Ads, your Google Analytics 4-property must be linked to your Google Ads account to see Google Ads data in Analytics. You can check and fix the link from both Analytics and Google Ads. If you create the link from Analytics, it should also be visible in Ads and also if you create the link from Ads, it should be visible in Analytics.
In Analytics, make sure your Google Ads account is linked
In Google Analytics, click on Admin.
Under Product links, click Google Ads links.
Check that your Google Ads account is listed. If your Google Ads account is not listed, follow the instructions to link Google Ads and Analytics.
In Google Ads, check that your Analytics property is linked
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click the Google Ads | tools [Icon] tool icon in the top-right corner of your account.
Under Settings, click Linked accounts.
Under Your linked accounts and products, find Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase, then click Manage and link.
In the Ownership column, find your Analytics ownership and check the Status column.
If the status is "Not linked", follow the instructions to link Google Ads and Analytics.
Also, you may not have auto-tagging within Google Ads turned on. To turn that on, follow these steps:
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click Settings in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
Click Account Settings at the top of the page.
Click on the Automatic tagging section. If the box next to "Tag the URL people click on from my ad" is unchecked, automatic tagging is off.
Reporting identity
Apparently, it helps to change the reporting identity of your GA4 profile to 'Device-based'. This can significantly reduce the number of 'Unassigned' sessions. We don't know exactly what causes this problem ourselves, but changing the reporting identity may also be a solution.
GA4 is not yet done with data processing
It takes Google Analytics between 24 and 48 hours to process data. So if you look at your reports from today or yesterday, you may see an increase in 'Unassigned' traffic. This is normal in GA4, and you should be more patient. Check the same period at a later time, and the number of 'Unassigned' sessions in Google Analytics 4 should have reduced.
Updated on: 10/11/2023
Updated on: 13/03/2024
Thank you!