In my last marketing blog, I shared how to create tracking links so you can see where your website visitors are coming from. If you haven’t read that post yet, I recommend starting there first so you know how to create those links.
The next question is: How do you see the tracking link data?
When you’re a marketing data geek like me, this is where things get super fun! (Yes, I really mean that – data can be fun!) Once your website is connected to Google Analytics, it collects and stores a lot of useful information about your website visitors.
One of the most helpful things it shows: Where your website visitors found you.
They can come from a lot of different places: Search engines, like Google or Bing; Social media platforms, like Facebook or Instagram. Also paid ads or even other websites or blogs that share a link to your site. The good news is that Google Analytics tracks much of this automatically, even without tracking links.
When you start using tracking links, you get some extra helpful details.
When someone clicks on one of your tracking links (or scans a QR code with a tracking link), the information from that link is sent to your Google Analytics. This allows you to see not just where a visitor came from, but which specific post or campaign they clicked on.
Why are tracking links so useful?
When used correctly, tracking links help you see clearly which of your marketing efforts are actually bringing visitors to your website. No more guessing or hoping that your post links or email links are actually working.
You can even go a step further and see what people do once they land on your website. How long did they stay, or how quickly did they leave? Did they look at other pages on your website? Did they book an appointment or make a purchase? All of this information is available inside Google Analytics.
Today we’re going to focus on one of the most helpful reports: The Traffic Acquisition Report
Where to Find The Tracking Link Data
Once your tracking links are being used, Google Analytics automatically records and stores the data from every link click. The easiest place to view this data is the Traffic Acquisition Report inside Google Analytics.
This report shows you how visitors arrived at your website and which marketing channels are sending visitors your way.
Step-by-Step: Find the Traffic Acquisition Report
Step 1: Log in to Google Analytics
Open your Google Analytics account. If you have more than one website, choose the website property you want to review. You should land on a Google Analytics “home” page, which will show you an overview of your analytics, including some details about your website visitors.
Note: In Google Analytics, your website visitors are called “users.” We’ll use that term moving forward so it matches what you see in the reports.
Step 2: Click on Reports
On the left-hand side of the screen you’ll see a few icons. By hovering over them a menu will slide out. Click on the one called Reports.
If your account is newer or hasn’t been used much, you may land on a section called “Reports snapshot” which allows you to, “Create a reports snapshot” according to your preferences. There should be three templates for you to choose from: User behavior, Sales and revenue, and Marketing performance.
This feature is designed to help you customize your reports dashboard and can be a super useful tool! But for now, we’re going to focus on locating one specific report: Traffic Acquisition.
Step 3: Open the Acquisition Report
Google Analytics can look a little different, depending on your set-up. I’ll walk you through a few ways to find the report we’re looking for.
Option 1: (Most common)
- Click on “Life Cycle”
- Select “Traffic acquisition”
Option 2: (If you don’t see “Life Cycle”)
- Click on “Business Objectives”
- Select “Generate leads”
- Click “Traffic acquisition”
Option 3: (How to customize the Reports menu)
- Click on “Library” at the bottom of the left-hand menu
- Find the option for “Life Cycle”
- Click the three dots (⋮) and select Publish
- Now you can follow the steps in Option 1
Note: You can also use the Library to remove any reports menus (like Business Objectives) that you don’t want to see. Follow the same steps from Option 3, click the three dots (⋮) and select Unpublish instead. You can also create a custom menu in the Library, once you know which reports you will use regularly.
Step 4: Viewing the “Traffic Acquisition” Report
This report shows you all the different traffic sources that brought visitors (users) to your site.
At first glance, you’ll see general categories like these:
- Organic Search: Users who found you through search engines like Google or Bing (organic means: not ads)
- Direct: Users who typed in your website URL directly
- Organic Social: Users from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube (organic means: not ads)
- Referral: Users who clicked a link to your website from another website
These are helpful, but they don’t show your specific tracking links yet. To find those we’ll need to dig a little deeper.
Step 5: View More Specific Details
At the top of the data table (on the left) you’ll see a dropdown menu that likely says: Session primary channel group
Here’s one way to get more detailed tracking link data:
- Next to the “Session primary channel group” you will see a blue + icon
- Click the blue + icon
- Select “Traffic source”
- Then choose “Session source / medium”
Remember those tracking links? When you created them, you added a source, medium, and campaign name specific for each link. By adding the “session source / medium” you can now see those extra details. This allows you to see exactly which links and marketing efforts are bringing people to your website.
Sorting the Data to See What’s Working
One of the easiest ways to analyze this report is by sorting the data – usually by Sessions or Engaged sessions. Click on one of these columns to sort from highest to lowest.
This quickly shows you:
- Which marketing efforts are bringing the most users to your website
- Which campaigns are performing well–and which may need improvement
- When you sort by Engaged sessions you will not only see which campaigns brought people to your site, but also which ones kept them their longer
This is the same method I use when I create weekly marketing reports–for both my own business and my clients.
A Quick Note About Timing
If you just created your tracking links recently, you might not see the data right away.
First, people actually need to click on the links. Second, Google Analytics can take 24-48 hours to fully process new data. So don’t worry if things don’t show up immediately–just give it a little time and check back again later.
Why This Information Matters
Once you get comfortable with this report, your marketing starts to make a lot more sense! Instead of guessing, you can start answering questions like:
- Which Google posts bring the most visitors?
- Does Facebook or Instagram send more traffic?
- Are people actually clicking your blog links?
- Did anyone scan the QR code on the flyers you sent out?
I recommend choosing a regular rhythm for reviewing your analytics.
It helps a lot if you can check your analytics and track them in a report on a regular basis. For myself and my clients, I use a weekly marketing report. This can mean that every Monday you log into Google Analytics to review the previous week’s data.
After a few months, you’ll start to notice patterns. Over time those patterns will become trends. Trends can help you pinpoint slower seasons.
This can help you decide when to:
- Create new campaigns
- Increase your marketing efforts
- Run strategically timed paid ads
If you’re not currently tracking your marketing like this, don’t worry—this is a really great place to start!
Don’t Overcomplicate It
Google Analytics can feel overwhelming at first. There are a lot of charts, numbers, and reports. But you don’t need to understand everything right away. Once you focus on where your visitors come from, you’ll have valuable insights to build on.
The most important thing: Start simple and start today! (Don’t wait for “one day”)
Wrapping Up the Google Series (For Now)
Over the past few blogs, we’ve talked about several ways Google can support your small business—from setting up your business page, to posting updates, to tracking where your website visitors come from. These tools are powerful, and when used consistently, they can make a big difference!
What’s Next?
In future marketing blogs, we’ll start branching out into other topics like using social media as a small business, and why I believe storytelling plays such an important role in marketing.
As always, if you’d like help setting this up or making sense of your marketing data, please reach out. It’s my passion to help small businesses build an online presence that feels meaningful—and actually drives growth. I’d love to work with you!