Creating Custom Social Media Dashboards & Reports for Google Analytics 4 Left Navigation

[@GrowthLearner]

If you're customizing a new report and adding a filter as explained in 3:49, the dropdown for session medium currently doesn't give you a list of values. Instead, choose the dimension, set Match Type to "contains", and type in "social".

[@saanvisen848]

Hello there at time Stamp 3:49 in my Analytics Dashboard, I'm not getting the drop-down of Social. What should I do?

[@GrowthLearner]

That's odd. There are a lot of bugs but you'd expect the drop-down to show options there. It may mean you don't have data for that dimension but that shouldn't be the case for medium. Are you using session medium or another dimension?

[@TheBeautybound]

@@GrowthLearner Same problem. It doesn't look the same- It offers Dimension, but that "Include" dropdown shown to the left of Dimension is no longer there. Once you select Session medium, it asks for Match Type (contains, exactly, etc.), then Value. It doesn't give you anything to check off.

[@GrowthLearner]

Looks like it grandfathered the setting in for me as Google's been updating GA4. I removed the filter in the configuration, tried adding it again, and I'm seeing the same thing as everyone else. Instead use the "contains" condition and type in "social".

[@TheBeautybound]

@@GrowthLearner Thanks for updating, but it doesn't produce any results. I know I have social traffic, it shows before I try filtering it. When I apply the filter I get no results.

[@MarcIson]

Just as in your other (1 year ago) video, "Social" is not selectable in "Value" for Session medium, at all, as mentioned in other comments and many times in your other video's comments. I have over 30 GA4 accounts, and none of them have that choice. Why /how does that appear in your interface...Is this an older video that was just recently uploaded/edited? I also checked that some of my social posts have medium=social in the utms, but those aren't showing either it seems. I'm testing that now with one of my client's posts.

[@GrowthLearner]

Looks like it grandfathered the setting in as Google's been updating GA4. I removed the filter in the configuration, tried adding it again, and I'm seeing the same thing as everyone else. I had to use the "contains" condition and type in social. The last issue you mentioned is odd. Sounds like a bug. In my video, I remember using UTMs for some of the links. Let me know what you find.

[@adriavalexander]

It doesn't pull all social media platforms. My report only shows FB, but I know there's traffic coming from other platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.

[@GrowthLearner]

Thanks for watching! That is likely because GA4 is classifying that traffic as referral traffic because it looks at the hostname if the URL isn't tagged with campaign parameters. There are a couple things you can do: 1) Create a card with a source dimension and a source filter. Then, select your sources with LinkedIn, Twitter (t.co), Pinterest, or other hostnames. Make sure the detailed report doesn't have a medium filter only for social. 2) Create an exploration report that uses a regex for those social media platform hostnames. This will be available in the Explore section but not in the Reports left navigation. 3) Tag your URLs with campaign parameters appropriately so GA4 will classify that traffic as social rather than referral. Let me know if you want the video links to 2) and 3). Don't hesitate to ask questions. I'll do my best to respond.

[@michelbryant2668]

You should take the video down if KEY feature in your instructions is NOT available. The cost of wasting the time of others is an expense to you as well.