What is Display in Google Analytics?

Seeing "Display" in your Google Analytics traffic reports might seem straightforward, but it represents a distinct and powerful type of marketing effort. Understanding what this channel group means is the first step toward accurately measuring the impact of your visual advertising campaigns. This article breaks down exactly what the Display channel is, where to find it in GA4, and how to analyze its performance to make smarter marketing decisions.

What Exactly is 'Display' in Google Analytics?

In Google Analytics 4, 'Display' is a default channel group that consolidates traffic from users who clicked on your banner ads or other visual advertisements on websites and apps. Think of it as the category for your display advertising campaigns, most commonly from the Google Display Network (GDN) but also including other display ad platforms if they are tagged correctly.

Unlike search ads where users actively look for a solution, display ads are shown to people while they are browsing content, watching videos, or using apps. As a result, the primary goals for display traffic are often tied to brand awareness, reaching new audiences, and remarketing to previous website visitors, though they can also be powerful drivers of direct conversions.

Where to Find and Analyze Display Traffic in GA4

Finding your display traffic data in Google Analytics 4 is simple once you know where to look. This information is housed within the acquisition reports, which tell you how users found your website.

Here’s the step-by-step path:

1. Navigate to the left-hand menu in Google Analytics 4.
2. Click on Reports.
3. Under the "Life cycle" collection, expand the Acquisition tab.
4. Select the Traffic acquisition report.

By default, this report groups your traffic by the Session default channel group. You'll see a table with rows for "Organic Search," "Direct," "Paid Search," and, if you're running display ads, "Display."

In this view, you can see key metrics for your Display channel, such as:

• Users: The number of unique users who started at least one session from a display ad.
• Sessions: The total number of sessions initiated from your display campaigns.
• Engaged sessions: The number of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, had a conversion event, or had at least 2 pageviews.
• Engagement rate: The percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions.
• Conversions: The total number of conversion events (like purchases or form submissions) attributed to the Display channel.

How GA4 Identifies Traffic as 'Display'

Google Analytics doesn't just guess where your traffic came from. It uses a set of rules, primarily looking at the source and medium information sent with each click. Knowing these rules is key to ensuring your data is accurate and correctly categorized.

Here’s how GA4 categorizes traffic into the "Display" channel:

1. Google Ads Auto-Tagging: If you've connected your Google Ads account to GA4 and have auto-tagging enabled (which is highly recommended), a unique click identifier (gclid) is added to your landing page URLs. Google Analytics automatically recognizes sessions from the Google Display Network (GDN) and places them in the "Display" channel group. This is the easiest and most reliable method for Google-based campaigns.
2. Manual UTM Tagging: For display campaigns running on other networks (like Criteo, AdRoll, or direct media buys), you need to manually tag your URLs with UTM parameters. GA4 will categorize a session as 'Display' if the utm_medium parameter is one of the following:

A properly tagged URL for a non-Google display ad might look like this:

https://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=adroll&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=retargeting_q3

Display vs. Other GA4 Traffic Channels

Context is everything in data analysis. Understanding how 'Display' differs from other common channels helps you appreciate its unique role in your marketing mix.

Display vs. Paid Search

This is one of the most important distinctions. While both channels fall under paid advertising, their function and user intent are vastly different.

• Paid Search: This channel captures traffic from text ads on search engine result pages (e.g., Google, Bing). Users are actively searching for a product, service, or answer, signaling high intent. This is "pull" marketing.
• Display: This channel captures traffic from visual ads shown on websites, videos, and apps in a network. Users are passively browsing content, and your ad appears based on their demographics, interests, or past behavior. This is typically "push" marketing, focused on generating awareness.

Display vs. Paid Social

This can be confusing because both often use visual ads. However, GA4 separates them based on the platform.

• Paid Social: This channel includes traffic from ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), etc. GA4 recognizes social media domains as the source.
• Display: This channel is reserved for ad networks that place ads on a broad collection of third-party websites and apps, not within the newsfeed of a social media site.

Even if an ad on Facebook is a banner, if it comes from facebook.com and is tagged with a paid medium, it will be categorized as "Paid Social," not "Display."

Display vs. Organic Search

This comparison is simple: paid vs. free traffic from search engines.

• Organic Search: Users clicking on your site from unpaid, standard search engine results. This traffic is earned through SEO efforts.
• Display: Users clicking on ads on websites that you paid to place there.

Display vs. Direct

Display reflects a known marketing touchpoint, while Direct means the source is unknown.

• Direct: GA4 couldn't identify a specific source. This happens when a user types your URL directly into their browser, uses a browser bookmark, or the referring source information is lost.
• Display: GA4 knows precisely which advertising platform and campaign drove the visitor to your site.

Actionable Tips for Analyzing Display Campaign Performance

Simply knowing how much traffic comes from display ads isn't enough. You need to dig deeper to understand if those campaigns are delivering value.

1. Look Beyond Sessions and Focus on Conversions

Because display ads are often aimed at awareness, they might not immediately result in a purchase. However, they should still contribute to valuable actions. In your Traffic acquisition report, analyze the Conversions column for the Display channel.

You can even customize the report to focus on a specific conversion event that’s important for brand awareness, like newsletter_signup or download_resource. To do this, click the small dropdown arrow next to "Conversions" and select the event you want to analyze.

2. Assess User Engagement Holistically

Don't be alarmed if the engagement rate for Display traffic is lower than for channels like Paid Search or Organic Search. This is normal, as Display audiences are often colder and less intent-driven.

Instead, look at the big picture. Are new users from display campaigns returning later through other channels? A display ad might introduce your brand, and the user might search for it and convert via "Organic Search" a week later. This is a crucial reason to analyze attribution paths beyond just the last click.

3. Drill Down with a Secondary Dimension

To see which specific campaigns are driving performance, add a secondary dimension to your report. In the Traffic acquisition report, click the small "+" icon next to the primary dimension (Session default channel group).

• Type in “Session campaign” and select it. This will break your traffic down by individual campaign names.

Now you can filter your table to only show the "Display" channel and see a performance comparison across all your active display campaigns. This helps you quickly identify your top-performing ads and campaigns that may need optimization.

4. Triage Inaccurate Data

If you suspect one of your display campaigns is being miscategorized (e.g., showing up under 'Unassigned' or 'Direct'), the problem is almost always inconsistent UTM tagging. Audit your ad URLs to ensure they all use a designated display medium like utm_medium=display.

• Good Example: utm_source=google&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=summer_sale
• Bad Example (will be categorized as Paid Search): utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_banner

Final Thoughts

The 'Display' channel in Google Analytics is your window into the performance of visual ad campaigns that build brand awareness and reach new audiences. By understanding how this traffic is defined, where to analyze it, and how it compares to other channels, you can get a much clearer picture of your marketing ROI and make better decisions about where to invest your ad spend.

While reports in Google Analytics can show you how users from display campaigns behave on your site, connecting those insights to data from other platforms - like your ad spend from Google Ads, lead data from your CRM, or actual revenue from Shopify - can be challenging. At Graphed, we automate that entire process. You can connect your data sources in seconds and use simple, natural language to get answers, build reports, and create real-time dashboards that show the full picture of your performance without any manual work.