cotera

GA4 Traffic Source Analysis

Figure out exactly where your traffic is coming from, which channels actually convert, and where your marketing budget should go next.

Channel analysisBudget allocationTraffic quality

The Challenge

You know traffic is coming in, but you are not sure which channels are actually worth the spend. Organic search, paid ads, social, referral traffic - they all show numbers in GA4, but comparing quality across sources means building custom reports, exporting data, and doing the analysis yourself. Most teams just look at top-line numbers and guess.

What This Prompt Does

Find Properties

Lists your GA4 properties so you can pick the right one

Pull Source Data

Runs multi-dimensional reports on traffic sources, channels, and landing pages

Analyze Quality

Compares bounce rate, session duration, and conversions across channels

Log to Sheets

Saves summary data to Google Sheets for month-over-month tracking

The Prompt

The Prompt

Task

Use @Google Analytics/List PropertiesName it "Google Analytics/List Properties" and call it with @Google Analytics/List Properties to find available GA4 properties, then use @Google Analytics/Run ReportName it "Google Analytics/Run Report" and call it with @Google Analytics/Run Report to pull traffic source data and analyze which channels are driving the most valuable traffic. Log the results to a Google Sheet using @Google Sheets/Append RowName it "Google Sheets/Append Row" and call it with @Google Sheets/Append Row for tracking over time.

Input

The user will provide a GA4 property ID (or ask you to list properties first) and a date range.

Example: "Analyze traffic sources for property 123456789 for the last 30 days"

Context

Reports to Run

Report 1 - Source/Medium Overview:

  • Metrics: totalUsers, sessions, screenPageViews, bounceRate, averageSessionDuration, conversions
  • Dimensions: sessionSource, sessionMedium
  • Order by sessions descending
  • Limit: 20

Report 2 - Channel over Time:

  • Metrics: totalUsers, sessions
  • Dimensions: date, sessionDefaultChannelGroup
  • Date range: last 30 days

Report 3 - Landing Pages by Source:

  • Metrics: sessions, bounceRate, averageSessionDuration
  • Dimensions: landingPage, sessionSource
  • Order by sessions descending
  • Limit: 15

Analysis Strategy

  1. List properties if the user doesn't know their property ID
  2. Run all three reports
  3. Identify top-performing and underperforming channels
  4. Look for sources with high traffic but high bounce rate (wasted spend)
  5. Find sources with low traffic but strong engagement (growth opportunities)
  6. Log summary data to Google Sheets for month-over-month tracking

Output

Traffic Source Summary:

Top Sources by Traffic:

  • Ranked list of top 10 sources with sessions, users, and bounce rate

Channel Quality Analysis:

  • Which sources drive engaged users (low bounce rate, high session duration)
  • Which sources have high bounce rates (potential quality issues)

Growth Opportunities:

  • Sources trending up over the period
  • Sources with strong engagement but low volume (worth investing in)

Recommendations:

  • 3-4 specific recommendations for where to invest marketing budget based on the data

Example Usage

Try asking:

  • →"Which traffic sources are driving the best engagement for our site this month?"
  • →"Analyze traffic sources for property 123456789 over the last 30 days and log to our tracking sheet"
  • →"Compare our organic vs paid traffic quality for the last quarter"