How to fix (organic) and (not set) generic campaign names in Google Analytics 4

Have you noticed that your GA4 reports aren't displaying campaign names correctly? Instead, a significant portion of traffic, purchases, and value might be attributed to "(organic)" and "(not set)" campaign names. Here's how you can easily resolve this issue.
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Marek Turnhofer
September 6, 2024

Consent mode is causing the problem

This problem primarily affects accounts with Consent Mode activated. Due to stricter privacy regulations, Google Ads is unable to share all the necessary information with other services, such as Google Analytics. 

(Not verified) On reddit, one specialist shared his reply from Google:

​​Please be informed that our technical team has worked on this issue. This issue was caused by the DMA (Digital Markets Act) and has affected numerous customers, resulting in inaccurate reporting and potential revenue loss. A fix was deployed on June 27th, but it appears the issue persists for some users. While the issue is now closed, the conversation reveals concerns about the lack of a permanent solution as it is an intended behavior.

How to check if your account is affected

Even if you aren't aware of the issue, your account might be impacted. For accurate future reporting, it's important to address this. The first step is to check campaign names in Google Analytics 4. If your custom reports use campaign names for filtering, they may be broken. To be completely certain, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Traffic acquisition report.If you don’t have one set up, use the default report found in the Library.
  2. Change the primary dimension to “Session source/medium”
  3. Set “Session campaign” as the secondary dimension

If you see "(organic)" and "(not set)" among the campaign names, read the fix below.

Fixing the issue

Basically, you can significantly reduce this issue by adding UTM parameters to your campaigns. Automatic tagging alone is not enough to pass the campaign information, so we need to take a step back and manually add UTMs, as we did a few years ago. Depending on how big your campaign structure is, there are two possible ways how to fix this:

1/ Manually add UTM parameters to all active campaigns

  1. Navigate to each of your campaign settings.
  2. Open “Campaign URL options.”
  3. Set the UTM parameters to “Tracking template” field. For example: {lpurl}?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CAMPAIGN_NAME

An example of a UTM parameter set

2/ Add an UTM auto-tagging script

If your Google Ads account contains dozens of campaigns or your campaign structure is automated (via platforms like Dotidot), consider using the script developed by Jan Zdarsa, czech e-commerce analyst. This script will automatically generate UTM parameters for all your campaigns.

The main part of the script that does the trick
The Github link for the script >>

The script should now fix all Search, Performance Max, Shopping, and Display campaigns. However, keep in mind that the script cannot process Video campaigns, so you'll need to handle those manually.

Setting up scripts in Google Ads

  1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
  2. Click on the Tools icon and head to Scripts under BULK ACTIONS.
  3. Hit the + icon to add a script.
  4. Copy and paste your script code into the editor area. Most of the scripts listed here are ready to use.
  5. When it asks, click AUTHORIZE so the script can do its thing on your account. 
  6. Click PREVIEW to give the script a test run: You'll see the results in the CHANGES / LOGS panel.
TIP: If you are using Dotidot, we recommend setting the Script run frequency to match your Dotidot campaign synchronization schedule.

And that's it! Follow these steps, then check GA4 a few days later to see if the solution worked for you.

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Marek Turnhofer
PPC specialist & Content Creator
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