Custom channel grouping

Effective data analysis requires attributing all traffic sources to a successful channel setup. In analytics, you can set up both default and custom channel groupings.

The default channel groupings in Google Analytics are: Direct, Paid Search, Organic Search, Referrals, Email, Display, Social, Affiliates, Other Advertising and Other.

Custom channel grouping is a rule-based grouping of marketing channels that is applied to standard reports in analytics. This option gives you the ability to create a fully customized group of channels. Thus, custom channel grouping allows for advanced tracking. For example, you want to segment ‘newsletter’ traffic into a different channel bucket from standard ‘email’ traffic, since those users may behave differently. In such a case, you can create a custom channel grouping that will apply channel definitions to all existing data into the right bucket.

When you create a new custom channel grouping, you can apply it retroactively to see historical data. When you edit a default channel grouping, you cannot apply it retroactively. This is a major advantage of creating a custom channel grouping instead of just editing the default one.

Custom channel grouping allows for:

  • Reporting the performance of marketing channels much more accurately
  • Making analytics reports much easier to understand

When should you create and use custom channel grouping?

  • You want to report the performance of a marketing channel via several different referrers
  • You are using a user-defined medium and/or user-defined traffic source
  • At least one of your marketing channels consists of varying traffic sources

Learn more:


  • PHI and PII

    PHI and PII: How they impact HIPAA compliance and your marketing strategy

    Personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) may seem similar. However, there are critical distinctions between the two. While PII is a catch-all term for any information that can be associated with an individual, PHI applies specifically to HIPAA-covered entities dealing with identifiable patient information. Keeping HIPAA compliant and protecting patient information requires…

  • How can healthcare organizations benefit from using a customer data platform (CDP)

    Like many industries, healthcare has been undergoing significant change and is under immense pressure. Patients expect personalized healthcare experiences, but are increasingly aware of their privacy rights and demand that their data is safe and not misused. Healthcare providers have been seeking ways to connect, scale, and leverage customer data more effectively to meet consumers’…