Acquisition channel performance

The question behind this is always "where should we spend more?" Sessions alone can't answer it — a channel with half the traffic and triple the conversion rate is the better channel.

Steps

1. Pull channel-level performance. google_analytics.run_report with dimensions: ["sessionSourceMedium"], metrics: ["sessions", "totalUsers", "newUsers", "engagementRate", "averageSessionDuration", "conversions"] (add "totalRevenue" if the property tracks it), over a 30-day window, limit: 50.

2. Compute per-channel efficiency. Conversions ÷ sessions per channel. This ratio, not raw sessions, is what should drive the recommendation.

3. Add a trend. Re-run with dimensions: ["date", "sessionSourceMedium"] to see whether each channel is growing or shrinking. A small but fast-growing channel is often the real finding.

4. Break organic down further (if Search Console is connected). GA4 collapses all organic search into one bucket. google_search_console.query with dimensions: ["query"] splits it into branded vs non-branded — filter by whether the query contains the brand name. Branded organic mostly reflects demand you created elsewhere; non-branded is what SEO actually earned. Reporting them as one number consistently overstates SEO.

5. Report. One table sorted by conversions: channel, sessions, engagement rate, conversions, conversion rate, and 30-day trend. Then name the highest-efficiency channel, the biggest-volume channel, and where they differ — that difference is the recommendation.

Gotchas

• Never rank channels by sessions. It always flatters whatever is cheapest to buy.
• Direct traffic is a junk drawer. It absorbs untagged campaigns, app opens, and lost referrers. A large direct share usually means a UTM tagging problem, not genuine type-in traffic — say so.
• GA4 conversions depend on configured key events. If conversions come back as zero everywhere, the property likely has none configured. Report that finding rather than concluding nothing converts.
• Attribution is last-click by default. Channels early in the journey (organic, social) get systematically undercredited. Flag this before recommending anyone cut spend.
• Don't join GA4 organic sessions to Search Console clicks and expect them to match. They count different things (sessions vs clicks) with different bot filtering. Trends are comparable; absolute numbers aren't.