This content provides a practical guide on how to track and report on AI-driven traffic (e.g., from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) within Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand user behavior and website performance.
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Hey there, I'm Benjamin from Loves Data. In this video, we're going to look at how you can report
on AI traffic in Google Analytics 4. This includes reporting on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot,
and more. Being able to understand your AI traffic in Google Analytics is really useful. It means
you can see how many people find your website using AI, which pages they're landing on, and
if your AI traffic is engaged and if it's driving conversions. I'll walk you through two ways to set
things up in Google Analytics. We will cover how to configure a dedicated channel group to use in
your reports. And I will also show you quick ways to report on AI traffic using filters. So you can
use one of these options or both, depending on what you want to see in your reports. Okay,
let's get started! Let's head to Google Analytics. We're going to begin by covering how you can use
filters in Exploration reports and standard reports to view AI traffic. So let's navigate
to 'Explore'. Now let's create a new blank report. Let's name the report 'AI Traffic'. Now
let's click the plus sign next to 'Dimensions'. And let's search for 'Session Source'. Let's
enable this. And now let's click 'Confirm'. Now let's click the plus sign next to 'Metrics'.
Let's search for and select 'Sessions'. Let's also search for and select 'Engagement
Rate'. And let's also search for and select 'Active Users'. Now let's click 'Confirm'.
Next, we can add the dimension and metrics to our report. To do this, let's double click the
dimension. And let's double click the metrics. We can now see all of the sources people use to
find our website, but we only want to see our AI traffic. So in the second column,
let's scroll down. And let's add a filter. We choose 'Session Source' for our filter. And for
the matching, let's choose 'Matches Regex'. Now we can enter a regular expression so that the report
only includes our AI traffic. And let's click 'Apply'. We can now see all of the AI traffic
in our exploration report. This shows us the exact AI tools sending traffic to our website. And I've
included the regular expression I've used in the description below this video. So you can copy and
paste it straight into your report. Now that we've covered the steps to create an exploration report
for our AI traffic, let's look at how we can apply similar steps to a standard report to see the same
traffic. To complete the steps we're about to cover, you will need editor or administrator
permission for the Google Analytics property. If you don't have the correct level of permission,
you'll need to find someone who does to complete these steps. Let's navigate to 'Reports'.
And since we have the correct level of permission for this property, we can see 'Library' at the
bottom of the menu on the left. Let's select this. Now let's click 'Create New Report'. And choose
'Create Detail Report'. Let's scroll down, and select the 'Traffic Acquisition' report template.
Let's click 'Dimensions' on the right. And let's make 'Session Source' the default dimension. And
click 'Apply'. Next, we click 'Add Filter'. Let's search for and select 'Session Source'. For the
match type, let's choose 'Matches Regex'. And let's enter the same regular expression we used
when we created the exploration report. Again, you can find this in the description below this video.
You can now click 'Apply', save your new report, and add it to your reporting menu. So you can
apply filters to standard reports and exploration reports to view your AI traffic. This is a great
option for more granular reporting. Apart from adjusting what's included in your reports,
you can also set up a custom channel group that includes your AI traffic. This lets you perform
top-level analysis like you can do with the default channel group. To set up a custom channel
group let's navigate to 'Admin'. Now let's select 'Data Display'. And choose 'Channel Groups'.
We can see the default channel group that is preconfigured for our property. Let's select
the three vertical dots, and copy the default channel group. Let's name the channel group
'Default and AI Chatbots'. Now let's click 'Add New Channel'. Let's name the channel
'AI Chatbots'. And click 'Add Condition Group'. We need to select 'Source'. Click 'Add A Condition'.
And let's select 'Matches Regex'. Let's add our regular expression. And let's click 'Apply'. We
can now save our new 'AI Chatbots' channel. Next, we have an important step we need to complete,
we need to ensure that our new 'AI Chatbots' channel comes before the 'Referrals' channel.
If we don't do this, then our AI traffic will continue to be classified as referral traffic.
To do this, we click 'Reorder'. Now let's move our 'AI Chatbots' channel so it comes before
the 'Referral' channel. Now we can click 'Apply'. And we can save our channel group.
We can now use this channel group to see all of our AI traffic grouped together at a top-level.
You will be able to find this channel in the standard reports and the exploration
reports. Let's navigate to 'Reports'. Select 'Acquisition'. And then 'Traffic Acquisition'.
Now we can select the default dimension above the table. And change this to our
new 'Default and AI Chatbots' channel. This will show you all of your channels,
including the 'AI Chatbots' channel we just created. Let me know how you go. Let me know
in the comments if you're using exploration reports, adjusting the standard reports,
or you've set up a channel group. I'd love to know! And try customizing your reports further.
For example, you could combine your channel group or session source with the landing page dimension
to see the first pages people view. If you found this helpful, please like it so I know to make
more videos like this one. And to stay up to date with my latest Google Analytics tutorials, please
take a moment to subscribe to this channel. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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