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What is Cross Network in Google Analytics?

Cody Schneider•

Seeing "Cross-network" pop up as a traffic source in your Google Analytics reports can be confusing. It doesn't sound like a real channel, and it often appears with significant traffic and conversion numbers, leaving you wondering exactly what it is and what to do about it. This article breaks down what the Cross-network channel means in GA4, why you're seeing it, and how you can get more detailed insights from the campaigns it represents.

What is 'Cross-network' in Google Analytics?

The "Cross-network" channel in Google Analytics 4 is a default channel grouping that bundles traffic coming from Google Ads campaigns that run across multiple Google networks. Simply put, when a user interacts with your ads on more than one network (like Search, Display, and YouTube) as part of a single journey, GA4 can't attribute the session to a single, specific channel like "Paid Search" or "Paid Video." Instead of guessing, it groups this traffic into the "Cross-network" bucket.

The primary reason you'll see this channel is because you're running Performance Max (PMax) and, to a lesser extent, Smart Shopping campaigns in Google Ads. These campaign types are designed to be "all-in-one" solutions that automatically place your ads across Google's entire portfolio of advertising properties, including:

  • Google Search & Shopping

  • YouTube

  • Google Display Network

  • Gmail

  • Discover Feed

  • Google Maps

Because PMax uses automation to find customers wherever they are, a single conversions-focused campaign might serve ads to a user on YouTube, then retarget them on a partner website via the Display Network, and finally show them a Shopping ad when they search for your product. Since that journey spans multiple networks, GA4 categorizes the resulting website visit as "Cross-network."

Is 'Cross-network' Traffic a Problem?

Seeing a growing amount of "Cross-network" traffic isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does present a significant reporting challenge. It’s more of a reporting inconvenience than a critical tracking error.

The Challenge: A Loss of Granularity

The main problem with "Cross-network" is that it’s a black box. Your high-intent traffic from keyword searches is lumped in with lower-intent traffic from Display or YouTube ad views. You can't use the standard GA4 Traffic Acquisition report to easily answer basic questions like:

  • Is my PMax Search traffic converting better than my PMax YouTube traffic?

  • Where are most PMax-driven users coming from?

  • Should I allocate more of my creative budget toward video or static images?

This lack of detail makes optimization difficult. It obscures the true customer journey and forces you to rely almost entirely on Google's automation without a clear picture of what's happening behind the scenes.

The Upside: A Sign of Correct Integration

On the flip side, seeing "Cross-network" traffic means your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are correctly linked and auto-tagging (GCLID) is working as intended. It’s evidence that you're using modern, sophisticated Google Ads campaigns that leverage automation. While the data may be bucketed inconveniently inside GA4, rest assured that the raw, detailed performance data still lives inside your Google Ads account.

How to Investigate and Analyze Your 'Cross-network' Traffic

Although GA4 groups all this data together by default, you aren't completely in the dark. You can use secondary dimensions to peel back a layer and identify exactly which campaigns are driving this traffic.

Step 1: Go to the Traffic Acquisition Report

In your GA4 property, navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. This report shows your performance broken down by the default channel groupings.

Step 2: Add a Secondary Dimension

Locate the "Cross-network" row. To find out what's causing this traffic, you'll need to add a secondary dimension. Click the small blue "+" icon next to the "Session default channel group" column header.

From the dropdown menu that appears, search for and select one of the following dimensions:

  • Session campaign: This is the most useful dimension. It will show you the exact name of the campaign in Google Ads that is being classified as "Cross-network." In almost all cases, you'll see your Performance Max campaigns listed here.

  • Session ad group name: This provides the next level of detail, showing you which specific PMax asset group is driving the traffic.

  • Session Google Ads campaign ID: This provides the unique ID number for the campaign, which is another foolproof way to identify it in your Google Ads account.

Step 3: Analyze the Results

Once you apply the secondary dimension, your report will expand to show you exactly which campaigns are being bucketed under "Cross-network." You can now see the users, sessions, conversions, and revenue associated with each specific PMax campaign.

This tells you which campaigns are the source, but not where within those campaigns the traffic came from. For that, you need to turn to Google Ads.

Comparing GA4 and Google Ads for PMax Performance

GA4 is excellent for understanding the overall user journey and seeing how different channels interact. However, when it comes to optimizing an active PMax campaign, Google Ads is your source of truth.

After identifying your PMax campaigns in GA4, log into your Google Ads account and navigate to those campaigns. While PMax famously restricts placement data, you can still find valuable pockets of information:

  • Asset Groups: Analyze the performance of different asset groups. If one is outperforming others, it might be due to the ad copy, images, or videos resonating better with the audience.

  • Listing Groups: If you're an ecommerce advertiser, the Listing Groups tab will show you which product categories and individual products are generating clicks and conversions. You can use this data to exclude poor-performing products.

  • Insights & Reports: The "Insights" tab in Google Ads often surfaces search term categories that are triggering your ads, which can give you a clue about the search side of your PMax traffic.

Remember that you will almost always see discrepancies between GA4 and Google Ads conversion data. This is normal, as each platform uses a different attribution model. Use Google Ads to make real-time bidding and creative optimizations, and use GA4 for a higher-level view of how your PMax efforts fit into your overall marketing mix.

Strategies for Better Visibility and Reporting

If the limited reporting of "Cross-network" is a major pain point, there are a few advanced strategies you can use, but they come with tradeoffs.

1. Restructure Your Performance Max Campaigns

Instead of running one large PMax campaign that covers all your business goals, consider creating multiple, more focused campaigns. For example, you could create a campaign that targets only previous customers or a campaign focused exclusively on acquiring new customers. While this doesn't separate the networks, it allows you to analyze performance for distinct audience segments, giving you clearer data buckets.

2. Analyze Placement Data with Google Ads Scripts

For those comfortable with a bit of technical work, you can use Google Ads Scripts. Scripts are small pieces of JavaScript that can automate actions in your account. There are several community-provided scripts available online that are specifically designed to poll Google API data and export your PMax placement reports to a Google Sheet. This allows you to see the websites, YouTube channels, and apps where your ads appeared — visibility you cannot get from the standard Google Ads interface.

3. Use Final URL Suffix with ValueTrack Parameters

This is an advanced technique and should be used with caution, as it can potentially interfere with your tracking if misconfigured. You can add tracking parameters to the Final URL Suffix at the PMax campaign level to get more network detail into Google Analytics.

A string like the following could append the network and placement type to the URL:

utm_term={keyword}&amp,network={network}&amp,placement={placement}

If you're using this, you'd be able to see these parameters appended to your landing page URLs within GA4, giving you clues about performance. However, always exercise caution and ensure that auto-tagging (the gclid) remains your primary method of connecting Ads and Analytics.

Final Thoughts

The "Cross-network" channel in Google Analytics 4 is essentially Google's default bucket for traffic from PMax and other multi-network campaigns. While this aggregation makes channel-level analysis a challenge, you can use secondary dimensions like "Session campaign" to identify the source and then pivot to Google Ads for more detailed performance insights and optimization.

We know how much time is wasted jumping between platforms like Google Analytics and Google Ads, trying to stitch together a coherent story of your performance. That constant back-and-forth drains your time and makes it hard to see the full picture. With Graphed, we connect your data sources directly, so you can stop manually exporting CSVs and build a unified dashboard in seconds. Simply ask for what you need - like, "Compare my PMax conversions in GA4 to my campaign spend in Google Ads" - and get an instant, real-time report that updates automatically.