If you have been using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for sometime now, you probably have seen users get identified as “Unassigned” under channels and mediums. For months, many of my clients had a majority of their users being categorized as “unassigned” when we switched over to GA4 in July 2023. After months of digging and talking to experts I believe I have finally figured out the source for most of these “unassigned” users.
My Main Reason For GA4 Unassigned
From my understanding, the main reason users are getting added to the “unassigned” medium is because of your website’s cookie settings. Because of Google’s new requirements, most websites now need to ask for cookies. When a user comes to your site and does not accept the cookies or ignores the cookie, GA4 assigns this user as “unassigned.” This is because the user has not agreed to your cookie settings and therefore Google ads them to “unassigned.”
A workaround for these “unassigned” users would be to update your cookie settings. You can update your cookie settings to force a user to accept them before they enter the site or make it more prominent on your site when someone first enters. I have heard of instances where a user clicks off or closes the cookie window, that the cookie is automatically accepted and the only way not to accept the cookie is by actually saying “No.”
My Second Reason For Unassigned In GA4
UTM codes play a huge role in GA4. Read my other article about how UTM codes affect GA4 tracking for more detail. But you need to make sure your UTM codes are set up properly to track users properly. Google Ads has an option for “auto-tagging” that does a great job tracking user mediums and channels. But when you put together email campaigns or Facebook ads, you need to be sure you are using a UTM code to properly track the user.
My Third Reason For Unassigned in GA4
This reason is a little harder to explain as it only effect e-commerce. Products Free Listings and Performance Max have introduced some new channels and mediums. Free Listings are a new feature in Google Merchant Center and give people the opportunity to advertise their e-commerce products for free. The problem is that because these listings are free, Google Ads does not track them, and therefore we can not trust the Google Ads auto-tagging to tag the new user from Free Listings.
The workaround I have discovered is to set up a separate feed for your free listings. In essence, you would have one feed for Google Ads and a second feed for Free Listings but with custom UTM codes in the listing URL. Google Merchant Center gives you the ability to use a Google Doc to update these products. So I would recommend using the Google Doc method to upload your Free Listings by copying your current feed and updating the URLs for the Free Listings feed.
I hope these findings help you solve your “unassigned” user issue. These a some quick fixes I found to help reduce the number of users in “unassigned” but this doesn’t mean all of your issues will be solved. Some users will still get tracked as “unassigned” but this should help reduce the amount.
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