Marketing channel performance analysis of the Google Merchandise Store using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) demo data, visualized in a Looker Studio dashboard.
This project analyzes the marketing channel performance of the Google Merchandise Store using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) demo data and visualizes the findings in an interactive Looker Studio dashboard.
The goal is to answer the following business questions:
- Which marketing channel drives the most traffic?
- Which channel brings the most engaged users?
- Which channel generates the most revenue?
- Which channels are underperforming and why?
- What should the business do differently?
Data Source: GA4 Demo Account — Google Merchandise Store Analysis Period: January 13, 2026 – April 12, 2026 (90 days)
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 (GA4) | Data source & exploration |
| Looker Studio | Dashboard & data visualization |
The interactive Looker Studio dashboard contains 6 pages:
- Summary & Trends — Overall KPIs and user trends
- Device & Countries — Audience segmentation
- Top Traffic Sources — Session source breakdown
- Top Pages — Most visited content
- eCommerce — Purchase funnel & revenue trends
- Marketing Channel Performance — Core analysis page ← custom built
🔗 View Live Dashboard (add your Looker Studio share link here)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Sessions | 265,690 |
| Total Active Users | 196,300 |
| Total Revenue | $473,710 |
| Average Order Value | $162 |
| Overall Engagement Rate | 39.83% |
| Total Purchases | 3,000 |
| Purchase Conversion Rate | 1.2% |
| Rank | Channel | Sessions | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Direct | 151,680 | 57.09% |
| 2 | Organic Search | 48,823 | 18.38% |
| 3 | Unassigned | 28,971 | 10.90% |
| 4 | Referral | 10,986 | 4.13% |
| 5 | Paid Search | 10,490 | 3.95% |
| 6 | Cross-network | 9,899 | 3.73% |
| 7 | 5,500 | 2.07% | |
| 8 | Organic Social | 2,428 | 0.91% |
| 9 | Organic Shopping | 770 | 0.29% |
| 10 | Organic Video | 25 | <0.01% |
Key Observation: Direct traffic dominates at 57% of all sessions, which is unusually high and warrants further investigation.
| Rank | Channel | Engagement Rate | Avg. Session Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Referral | 79.02% | 1m 13s |
| 2 | Cross-network | 78.50% | 1m 39s |
| 3 | Organic Shopping | 78.18% | 1m 09s |
| 4 | 78.07% | 1m 17s | |
| 5 | Organic Social | 72.24% | 1m 11s |
| 6 | Paid Search | 67.93% | 1m 21s |
| 7 | Organic Search | 64.92% | 57s |
| 8 | Direct | 26.84% | 37s |
| 9 | Unassigned | 5.11% | 45s |
Key Observation: Despite leading in traffic volume, Direct has one of the lowest engagement rates (26.84%). Meanwhile, Referral and Email deliver far superior user quality.
| Rank | Channel | Revenue | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Direct | $230,847 | 48.73% |
| 2 | Organic Search | $97,151 | 20.51% |
| 3 | Paid Search | $40,349 | 8.52% |
| 4 | Referral | $35,841 | 7.57% |
| 5 | Cross-network | $27,414 | 5.79% |
| 6 | $22,151 | 4.68% | |
| 7 | Unassigned | $11,230 | 2.37% |
| 8 | Organic Social | $6,136 | 1.30% |
| 9 | Organic Shopping | $2,591 | 0.55% |
| 10 | Organic Video | $0 | 0.00% |
Direct traffic accounts for 57% of sessions but only has a 26.84% engagement rate and 12.8% conversion rate. This suggests a large portion of direct traffic may be:
- Misattributed traffic (dark social, email clicks without UTM tags)
- Bot or automated traffic
- Returning users with low intent
Implication: The business may be overestimating the health of its direct channel. Proper UTM tagging across all campaigns would reduce the "Unassigned" and inflated "Direct" buckets.
Organic Search brings 18% of traffic but generates $97,151 (20.5% of revenue) — outperforming its traffic share. With a solid engagement rate of 64.92%, this channel delivers high-intent users who are ready to buy.
Implication: Investing in SEO content and product page optimization would yield strong ROI given organic search's demonstrated conversion quality.
Email (78.07% engagement) and Referral (79.02% engagement) have the highest user quality of all channels, yet represent only 2.07% and 4.13% of sessions respectively.
Implication: These channels are significantly underinvested. Growing the email subscriber list and building referral partnerships could deliver outsized returns given their proven engagement quality.
Paid Search drives $40,349 in revenue at a 67.93% engagement rate and 32.85% conversion rate — solid performance. However, cost efficiency is unknown without ad spend data.
Implication: Paid Search is performing well on quality metrics. A/B testing ad creatives and landing pages could further improve conversion rates.
Nearly 11% of sessions are "Unassigned" with only a 5.11% engagement rate — the lowest of all channels. This is a significant data quality red flag.
Implication: The business needs to audit its GA4 implementation and ensure proper UTM parameters are in place across all campaigns to correctly attribute traffic.
Out of 246,600 session starts, only 2,900 completed a purchase — a 1.2% conversion rate. The biggest drop-off is between viewing an item (22.6%) and adding to cart (5.3%).
Implication: The product pages may not be compelling enough to drive cart additions. Improvements to product imagery, descriptions, pricing display, and trust signals could significantly improve this step.
| Priority | Recommendation | Expected Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 🔴 High | Implement UTM tagging on all campaigns to fix "Unassigned" and "Direct" misattribution | Better data accuracy |
| 🔴 High | Invest in SEO — Organic Search shows highest revenue-to-traffic ratio | +Revenue |
| 🟡 Medium | Scale Email marketing — highest engagement rate at 78% with room to grow | +Engagement & Revenue |
| 🟡 Medium | Build more referral partnerships — 79% engagement shows high-intent users | +Quality Traffic |
| 🟡 Medium | Optimize product pages to improve add-to-cart rate (currently only 5.3%) | +Conversions |
| 🟢 Low | Test Organic Social content strategy — currently low traffic and revenue | +Brand Awareness |
| 🟢 Low | Investigate Organic Video potential — only 25 sessions, $0 revenue | +Future Growth |
### Page 7 — Revenue by Channel
Azar Taheri
This project uses publicly available demo data provided by Google Analytics. Data source: Google Analytics Demo Account