Knowing which campaigns generate revenue is the foundation of marketing ROI analysis. Google Analytics 4 can attribute purchases and conversions back to their originating campaigns — but only when your setup is correct. This guide walks through the prerequisites and how to read the resulting reports.
Prerequisites
Before campaign revenue data appears in GA4, two things must be in place:
1. UTM-tagged campaign URLs
Every campaign link must include UTM parameters so GA4 knows where traffic came from:
utm_source— the platform (e.g.,google,facebook,newsletter)utm_medium— the channel type (e.g.,cpc,email,social)utm_campaign— the campaign name (e.g.,spring-sale-2025)
Example: https://example.com/products?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring-sale-2025
2. Purchase events tracked as conversions
GA4 must receive purchase events with a value parameter for revenue to appear. In Admin, confirm the purchase event is marked as a key event under Admin → Events → Key events.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Open the Campaigns Report
Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition.
In the dimension dropdown (top of the table), switch from "Session default channel group" to "Session campaign".
The table now shows each campaign with sessions, users, and engagement metrics.
Step 2: Add the Revenue Metric
Click the "Customize report" icon (pencil) in the top right. Under Metrics, add:
- Total revenue — total revenue attributed to sessions from each campaign
- Conversions — number of key events completed
Click Apply and Save if you want this view to persist.
Step 3: Sort by Revenue
Click the Total revenue column header to sort campaigns from highest to lowest revenue. This immediately shows which campaigns are most valuable.
Step 4: Cross-Reference with Source / Medium
To understand both which platform and which campaign drives revenue, use Explore → Free Form:
- Dimensions:
sessionSourceMedium+sessionCampaignName - Metrics:
totalRevenue,conversions,sessions - Sort by
totalRevenuedescending
This gives you a full breakdown like: google / cpc | spring-sale-2025 | $12,400.
Step 5: Check Attribution Model
GA4 uses data-driven attribution by default (machine learning). To see or change the attribution model, go to Admin → Attribution settings. Different models (last click, first click, linear) will distribute revenue differently across campaigns.
What to Look For
- Campaigns with high spend but low revenue — candidates for optimization or pausing
- Campaigns with low session counts but high revenue — high-intent audiences worth scaling
- Revenue concentrated in one campaign — a dependency risk; diversify or validate the attribution
Common Issues
- Revenue shows as $0 in campaign rows — purchase events are firing but without a
valueparameter, or the events aren't marked as key events - All revenue attributed to
(direct) / (none)— UTM parameters are missing or being stripped by redirects. Check your campaign URLs in the browser and confirm parameters survive the redirect chain - Revenue totals differ from platform reports (Google Ads, Meta) — expected. Each platform uses its own attribution model. GA4 provides a unified cross-channel view
Using Sequel
Connect your Google Analytics account to Sequel and ask:
"Which campaigns generated the most revenue last quarter?"
"Show me total revenue and conversions by campaign for the last 30 days"
"Compare revenue from Google CPC vs email campaigns this month"
Sequel queries the GA4 Data API directly — no report customization or Explore setup needed. Just ask your question and get the data.