Revenue Attribution Modeling by Source / Medium : GA4 Reporting
One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is understanding where your revenue comes from. Although there’s lots of tools available, there’s a key one that most business rely on -the Google marketing platform. Using its tools like Google Analytics, the Google Analytics attribution model online businesses can easily track their revenue attribution by source and medium.
Data driven attribution is crucial to understanding where your revenue is coming from, so you can adjust your digital marketing strategies accordingly. In this article, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of setting up revenue attribution modelling in GA4.
The Different Types of Google Analytics Attribution Models
GA4 assigns revenue and marketing effectiveness based on attribution models. This means it will apply a conversion’s success to a certain event within GA4, depending on the attribution model used to assess the user.
There are a few different types of attribution modelling:
- Linear Attribution: All touchpoints are treated equally
- First Click: The user’s first marketing touchpoint is given the full credit for the conversion
- Last Click: The user’s last marketing touchpoint is given the full credit for the conversion
- Time Decay: The user’s most recent interactions are given more credit
- Position Based Attribution: The user’s first and last touchpoints are typically given the credit
- Data Driven Attribution (DDA): The user’s entire journey is evaluated
What Is Data Driven Attribution (DDA) & How Does It Work In GA4?
The data-driven attribution attribution model in GA4 is a modern, machine learning–powered approach to marketing revenue and ROI. Rather than relying on fixed attribution rules, DDA analyses the entire user journey. It evaluates user engagement and interaction across different channels, whether paid (PPC), organic, referral, or direct, and determines how much influence each touchpoint had in driving a conversion.
This attribution model doesn’t treat every path the same. It identifies subtle patterns in user behavior, learning from real data to assign credit where it’s actually due. As a result, marketing insights become more reflective of actual customer engagement—not just the final step before conversion.
What makes this particularly valuable is that the default GA4 attribution model is DDA. That means businesses are immediately equipped with a more intelligent, nuanced view of performance. Rather than oversimplifying contribution, DDA highlights the true value of each source/medium, helping marketers make better-informed decisions and optimise their strategy.
Setting Up Your Revenue Attribution Model In GA4
- To start a new custom attribution report, go to the left-hand tab in Google Analytics 4 and select “Explore”
- Then, click ‘Blank’ to start a brand new exploration.
3. Name your Exploration model and set a desired date range in the “variables” drop-down tab.
4. We need to start then adding in some segments, dimensions and metrics to the left “variables” drop-down bar. The first thing you want to do is select the “+” next to the “dimensions” column and select traffic source -> “first user medium” and “first user source”.
5. Press ‘Import’ once you’ve selected the attribution type.
Note: You can also use the search bar at the top to filter and look for specific attributions.
6. You then want to select the “+” next to the “metrics” column and select these three things, E-commerce Revenue, Transactions, and Active Users. Choose their Google attribution type from there:
- E-commerce -> Ecommerce Revenue
- Transactions
- User -> Active Users
Once you have selected all three press the blue “import” button on the top right.
7. We then want to add these dimensions and metrics into the “rows” and “values” columns found under the tab settings.
8. It will then update to your exploration!
Once your exploration has been created if you choose to update the date range the data will update with it.
Additionally, you can also press each of the columns to reorder the data from highest to lowest etc.
9. If you scroll to the top of the “tab settings” drop down you can also see there is an option to change the visualisation.
The best way to see the data in a new graph is to click the “+” next to your current exploration to create a new page.
GA4 Attribution Modelling Example: Scatter Plot Graph
When creating a new visualisation sometimes you need to alter the way you input the dimensions and metrics.
For this one, we have put “E-commerce Revenue” in the Y axis, “Transactions” in the X axis and in the “breakdown” column we have put a new dimension “first user source/medium”
You can find this new dimension by clicking the “+” in the dimensions column going into traffic source -> First user source/medium
If you fail to find it you can use the top bar to search for it.
This will then show the data in an accurate scatter plot graph, allowing you to see the success of different revenue sources like direct traffic, PPC campaigns and Google ads, and organic results from SEO.
Overall, GA4’s revenue attribution modelling by source and medium is a powerful tool for any online business. Once set up, business owners can gain valuable insights into where their revenue is coming from and understand which marketing strategies are working for them.
Hopefully, this article has provided a clear, step-by-step process on how to set up your custom attribution model in GA4. With these marketing analytics, you can optimise your marketing strategies, improve ROI and continue to grow your business.
What’s next?
- check out the Shopping Behaviour Analysis report
- check out the Customer Acquisition report
- look at all of our GA4 Reporting articles