Google Analytics is a valuable tool for assessing your blog’s digital marketing effectiveness. It tracks your online content, showing visitor numbers, top pages, and audience sources. This info is super valuable for understanding what your audience likes. It also helps you adjust your content to get even better results. It’s like the magic key to unlocking blogging success!
With the most recent version of Google Analytics 4, GA4, you get a cool new feature called Cross Network. This tool is a GAME-CHANGER because it lets you see user interactions with your brand across multiple networks and platforms like Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, emails, blog posts, etc and shows you which platform brings the most people to your blog, which deliver the most newsletter sign-ups, and which have the most content engagement.
We’re dedicating this blog post to all things Cross Network in GA4! Once you learn to utilize this feature, you’ll know all about your traffic and engagement metrics to help you get the most out of your digital marketing efforts!
What is Cross Network in Google Analytics?
Cross Network in Google Analytics is a brand new feature that lets you see how people interact with your content across multiple networks all in one place. Imagine being able to track if someone first discovered your content on Instagram, visited your website, and then watched a YouTube video you posted all in a single report.
For affiliate marketers and small businesses, this feature is INCREDIBLY valuable because it shows which channels like social media, email, or paid ads are helping the most to attract visitors. Maybe you’ll discover that people who first find you from a YouTube search are more likely to sign up for your newsletter or that Instagram leads to the most purchases.
Cross Network is SUPER HELPFUL because it reveals the true impact of your marketing efforts. It’s no longer just about counting visitors it’s about understanding where your audience comes from and how they interact with your content. You can allocate budgets for paid search and Google ads campaigns much better with this information. Of course, you’ll see how much of your traffic comes from your search engine optimized blog, too! (Psst . . . we bet it’ll be a lot!)
How Does Cross Channel Attribution Work in GA4?
Cross Channel Attribution in GA4 analyzes how users engage across platforms before completing goals, showing how channels work together to drive actions like sign-ups, memberships, or purchases.
Here’s how it works GA4 uses tracking tags and machine learning to gather data on each touchpoint (or interaction) a user has with your content. These “tags” are little bits of code added to your site, social posts, or email links. They allow GA4 to recognize when someone interacts with content and where they came from.
GA4’s machine learning identifies patterns in user behavior, such as a journey from an Instagram post to an email, then a website visit leading to conversions. It also bridges gaps when users switch devices, ensuring continuity in tracking.
The Cross Channel Attribution model assigns a “credit’ to each channel based on how much it contributes to achieving your goals. If the most people come from organic search to your website, that will have the highest credit! If the most come from Insta, that’ll get the higher credit assignment. You’ll know which platform or content performs the best all in one place!
What are the Benefits of Cross Channel Analytics?
See the whole user journey.
Cross Channel Analytics lets you follow your users from the first place they find you, like an organic search, all the way to their final conversion moment, like signing up for your membership plan or downloading a digital product. It helps you understand all the steps they take with your content that leads them to your targeted goal!
Make a better content plan.
By seeing which platforms get the most likes, views, or visits, you can plan what and where to post to get the best results. This way, you’re spending your time on things that actually work!
Show brands your value.
When working with brands, you can prove how your followers interact with your content across different platforms. This helps show brands and other bloggers why you’re worth collaborating with and can help you get better deals. Here’s more on how to do brand collaborations and develop a medoa kit!
Understand your audience better.
By looking at how people interact with you on different platforms, you can learn what types of content your fans enjoy most on each one. This helps you create posts that keep your followers happy and engaged!
How to Set Up Cross Network Channel in Google Analytics
Step 1: Create a GA4 property.
If you don’t already have a GA4 property, create one in Google Analytics.
Click on Admin at the bottom left and go to Account. Select your Google account or create a new one.
Under Property, click Create Property and select GA4.
Follow the prompts to set up your GA4 property, entering details like your website’s URL and time zone.
If you’re using Squarespace to host your website, check out our blog about setting up Google Analytics on Squarespace for more helpful information!
Step 2: Add data streams.
In your GA4 property, go to Data Streams under Property Settings.
Click Add Stream and enter your site’s URL and a stream name, then click Create Stream.
Each stream will have a measurement ID to track users on your website.
Step 3: Install GA4 tracking tags.
In the Data Streams panel, locate your Global Site Tag (gtag.js) code.
Copy this tag and paste it into the header of your website to enable visitor tracking.
Step 4: Connect Google Ads for Cross Network tracking.
In GA4, go to Admin > Product Links > Google Ad Links.
Click Link and select your Google Ads account to link it to GA4. This step is super important for tracking Google Ads traffic, including cross-network campaign types like Performance Max or Smart Shopping campaigns.
After linking, GA4 automatically categorizes cross-network ads, like those running on multiple Google platforms like YouTube, Display, and Gmail.
Step 5: Enable Google signals for cross-device tracking.
Go to Admin > Data Settings > Data Collection.
Click Get Started under Google Signals to enable tracking across multiple devices if a user switches from one device to another.
Step 6: Set up tracking for different content.
To capture traffic and user interactions from social media platforms and other networks, you will create UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module) in Google’s Campaign URL Builder. You will identify the Source, Medium, and Campaign Name in the UTM and share them across your networks.
To view the reports, go to Advertising > Attribution > Conversion Paths to see where the platform and link’s role in the user journey.
Step 7: Set up attribution reports.
In the GA4 dashboard, go to Reports > Advertising > Attribution.
Access the Conversion Paths and Model Comparison reports. Here, you can view how each marketing channel contributes to conversions and compare different models.
To see which channels have the most impact, go to Data-Driven to see a full view of your cross network.
Step 8: Check cross network performance in acquisition reports.
To see a full report of where your visitors are coming from and how they interact with your ads, content, or social media, go to Reports > User Acquisition or Traffic Acquisition.
You’ll find “Cross Network” under Default Channel Grouping, letting you analyze cross platform traffic all in one place.
Customize your report and understand cross network behaviors by adding dimensions like Campaign, Source/Medium, and Sessions.
Get deeper insights to your blog’s audience with GA4’s incredibly helpful features.
Okay, setting up the technical stuff for your blog isn’t always the most fun part of being a blogger. But it is totally necessary and helpful if you want to grow your blog!
Understanding just how helpful Google Analytics is instantly levels up your blog and influencer career. And when it comes to adding GA4 to your website and handling all of those little technical details, InfluencerSEO is here to help. With our Blog Tech package, we will optimize your website to ensure you’re using GA4 to the fullest and our SEO packages show results when it comes to ranking on the first page of Google.
Make sure to check out our other articles about Google Analytics too!
Jordan Becerra, founder and Lead SEO Strategist at InfluencerSEO, has spent almost 15 years in the creator internet space, the last nine building InfluencerSEO into the go-to SEO partner for content creators, with 500+ creators served from pre-launch to massive publication. She learned creator monetization and community building strategy from the inside working for Lauryn Bosstick of The Skinny Confidential prior to founding InfluencerSEO, so she understands both halves of the game: how search actually works AND how creators actually build a strong community online and make money. Her job now is to stay ahead of where search engine optimization is going, especially as AI rewrites the rules, and to make sure the creators she works with get there first.
Leave a Reply