{"id":1530049,"date":"2023-11-16T09:34:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T14:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1530049"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:57:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T17:57:10","slug":"ga4-user-acquisitions-vs-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/ga4-user-acquisitions-vs-sessions","title":{"rendered":"GA4: User Acquisition vs. Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reports in Google Analytics 4 can be confusing. Take, for example, acquisition reports \u2014 the channels sending traffic to your site \u2014 at Reports > Acquisition<\/em>. The section lists two types of acquisition: user and traffic (i.e., sessions).<\/p>\n

I’ll address those reports in this post.<\/p>\n

Traffic Sources in GA4<\/h3>\n

“User\u00a0 acquisition” vs. “Traffic acquisition”<\/h4>\n

These two reports in the Acquisition section disclose where each visitor came from. User acquisition represents the initial source that brought the person to your site. Traffic acquisition is the most recent.<\/p>\n

Say a first-time visitor came to your site from clicking an organic search listing. GA4 will group that initial visit in the “Organic search” channel for both reports. But if she leaves and returns a few days later from a Facebook ad, GA4 will list the second visit in the “Paid social” channel in the “Traffic acquisition” report and “Organic search” in “User acquisition.”<\/p>\n

In other words, the “Traffic acquisition” report doesn’t differentiate between new and returning users. It shows the total sessions<\/em> and where each originated. The “User acquisition” report shows the total users<\/em> and their initial (first-time) source.<\/p>\n

Channels<\/h4>\n

Both reports show “default channel groups” \u2014 traffic-source categories \u2014 including:<\/p>\n