The first question any client asks when you open GA4: "where do my visitors come from?". It's also the most important question to assess the effectiveness of marketing actions.
The GA4 acquisition report answers that: but it contains two sub-reports many freelancers confuse, and data that may look inconsistent if you don't know how to read it.
Where to find the acquisition report in GA4
In GA4: Reports > Life cycle > Acquisition.
You'll find two distinct reports:
- User acquisition: which channel acquired the user for the first time (first session of their life). Measures awareness and effectiveness of acquisition campaigns.
- Traffic acquisition: which channel generated each session (all sessions, not just the first). Measures recurring traffic.
For a standard monthly client report, use Traffic acquisition. It reflects what happened this month, all sources combined.
The 8 default GA4 channels
GA4 automatically classifies each session into a channel group:
| Channel | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Organic Search | Clicks from Google, Bing, etc. without ads |
| Direct | Sessions without identifiable source (typed URL, bookmarks, dark social) |
| Organic Social | Clicks from social networks without paid campaign |
| Referral | Clicks from other sites (inbound links) |
| Clicks from email campaigns (requires UTM) | |
| Paid Search | Clicks from Google Ads, Bing Ads |
| Paid Social | Clicks from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn ads |
| Unassigned | Unclassifiable traffic: often a tracking issue |
User acquisition vs traffic acquisition: concrete example
Mark visits the site for the first time in March from Google. In April, he returns 4 times via your newsletter.
- User acquisition: Mark is counted 1 time in Organic Search (his first session, in March)
- Traffic acquisition: Mark generates 4 sessions in Email in April
The same user appears in two different channels depending on the report. Not a bug: the distinction between "where does this user come from" and "where does this traffic come from".
When Direct is too high (and what to do)
A Direct rate > 25-30% on most sites is usually a signal of misconfigured tracking, not that people really type your URL.
Frequent causes:
- Links in mobile apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, Slack) that don't pass the source
- Newsletters without UTM: clicks land as Direct instead of Email
- Redirects that strip source parameters
- HTTPS to HTTP (if a site page isn't on HTTPS)
How to diagnose: filter Direct by source/medium in the GA4 exploration. If you see (direct) / (none) dominating, it's untagged traffic. If you see (direct) / email, it's a newsletter without UTM.
Unassigned: a problem to fix quickly
If "Unassigned" exceeds 5% of your traffic, there's a tracking issue to identify. Typical causes:
- Events misconfigured without a session parameter
- Traffic from sources not recognised by GA4
- Cross-domain tracking not configured (if the site has multiple subdomains)
GA4 regularly improves its automatic classification, but high Unassigned = unusable data.
UTMs: the key to no more unexplained Direct
GA4 can't guess the source of a click if no parameter is in the URL. UTMs are the parameters you add to your links:
utm_source -> the platform (newsletter, linkedin, partner-x)
utm_medium -> the type (email, social, referral, cpc)
utm_campaign -> the campaign (launch-may, summer-promo, win-back)
Example:
https://narratiq.fr?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=may-2026
Simple rule: every link you control must have UTMs. Newsletters, pinned LinkedIn posts, profile bios, guest articles, partnerships. Without UTMs, this traffic lands in Direct and you can't recover it retroactively.
How to present this data to a client
Most clients don't know what "Organic Search" means. Translation into client language:
| GA4 channel | What you say |
|---|---|
| Organic Search | "People who found you on Google" |
| Direct | "People who already know your site (or untracked clicks)" |
| Organic Social | "Visitors from your social network posts" |
| Referral | "Visitors from other sites talking about you" |
| "Visitors from your email campaigns" | |
| Paid Search / Social | "Visitors from your ads" |
In your client report, the goal is to answer: "which channels are growing, which are declining, why?"
Summary
- Two reports: User acquisition (first session) and Traffic acquisition (all sessions): use the second for a monthly report
- The 8 default channels cover the essentials; Unassigned > 5% = problem to fix
- High Direct = links without UTM or untracked mobile traffic
- Add UTMs on all the links you control (newsletter, social, partners)
- Translate GA4 channels into language your clients understand
This acquisition data is automatically included in reports generated by NarratIQ: channel split, month-over-month variations, formatted to be presented directly to a client.
Going further
The acquisition report is the gateway to GA4 reporting. To fully exploit this data:
- GA4 landing pages: cross traffic sources with arrival pages to identify the most performing channel × page pairs.
- Connect Search Console to GA4: to see which organic keywords bring SEO traffic behind "Organic Search".
- GA4 engagement rate: engagement rate by channel reveals which sources bring truly qualified traffic.