Sequel
Marketing

Acquisition channel performance

Compare traffic sources and marketing channels on volume, engagement and conversion rate to decide where to spend more and where to cut: which channel gives the best return, whether to shift budget between paid, organic, referral and email, and how each is trending.

Install into your agent
  • Which marketing channel converts best?
  • Should we shift budget between paid and organic?
  • How is each channel trending this quarter?

The playbook

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.

Install

Install Sequel skills into your agent

Pick your app and Sequel installs itself: a one-click link where the client supports it, that client’s own few steps where it doesn’t. The playbooks come with the server: your agent sees that this playbook exists and reads it when a question matches.

Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Muse, dots and any other MCP app

Already have an MCP client?

https://api.sequel.sh/mcp

Add it as a remote (streamable HTTP) server and sign in when prompted. Skills come with it; nothing else to install. Manual setup per client

Choose your app

  • Claude

    One click, opens in the app

  • Cursor

    One click, opens in the app

  • VS Code

    One click, opens in the app

  • ChatGPT

    Turn on developer mode, then add Sequel. About two minutes.

  • Claude Code

    Run one command, then sign in with /mcp.

  • Codex

    Run one command, then sign in.

  • Gemini CLI

    Run one command, then sign in with /mcp auth.

  • Grok

    Add Sequel as a connector and sign in.

  • Grok Bot

    Paste this to the bot. It registers Sequel and asks you to sign in.

  • Muse

    Muse writes its own connector. One message is the whole setup.

  • dots

    Add Sequel in ChatGPT; your dot picks it up with no extra step.

  • OpenCode

    Add Sequel as a remote server from the OpenCode CLI.

  • Other MCP app

    Any client that speaks remote MCP can connect with this URL.

More like this

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Measure marketing ROI by source: trace channels and campaigns through to closed revenue by joining CRM deals with payment records, so revenue per lead and return on spend are known instead of stopping at lead counts.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is acquisition channel performance analysis?
A comparison of how well each traffic source, such as organic search, paid, email, direct, and social, converts visitors into leads or customers. It answers which channels are worth increasing investment in and which are underperforming relative to their cost.
How do I compare marketing channels in GA4?
Use the acquisition report with session default channel group as the primary dimension. Add sessions, engagement rate, conversions, and revenue as metrics. Filter to the last 90 days. Sort by conversions to see which channels drive outcomes, not just traffic.
Why does direct traffic look so large in GA4?
GA4 assigns sessions to direct when it cannot attribute them to a source: bookmarks, UTM-stripped shares, in-app browsers, email clients that strip referrers, and dark social all inflate direct. A large direct share usually means attribution problems upstream, not actual direct intent.
How do I know which channel to invest more in?
Look at cost per conversion relative to lifetime value, not just conversion rate. A channel with a lower conversion rate but much lower cost per click can outperform a high-converting but expensive channel. Add channel cost data to GA4 through data import or a CRM connection to make this calculation possible.
Can an AI agent analyze acquisition channel performance?
Yes. With GA4 connected, the agent pulls channel data, computes conversion rates and revenue per channel, and returns a comparison with trend lines. Sequel provides the GA4 connection over MCP and the acquisition-channel-performance playbook.

Put this playbook to work

Connect a source, ask the question, and the agent follows these steps. Free to start.

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