As you must have seen, Google’s AI Overviews (Google AI Mode) show up across search results. As is true with any new Google update, it has made marketers and businesses wonder with numerous questions. One of the questions is Does GA4 Show Google AI Mode as Referrer? Well, a quick answer to this question is “No.” GA4 does not presently display Google AI Mode as a distinct referrer. You usually see the traffic being generated from AI-based results included in the Organic Search or sometimes called direct traffic.  

Let us go further and analyze why this is happening and what is the right way to more effectively assess AI-based traffic.  


Does GA4 Show Google AI Mode as Referrer? 


Presently, Google does not allow you to see AI Mode traffic separately labeled in Google Analytics. Let us quickly go over 4 important points: 

  1. Links embedded within a Google AI mode results often have an attribute called non-referrer.  
  1. This implies that that referrer data has been veiled. This makes Google Analytics incapable of differentiating whether the traffic came from organic search or Google AI Mode.  
  1. Thus, all the traffic from Google AI Mode is included in the organic search traffic or Direct traffic.  
  1. Most importantly, Google has even said that this is a bug, and they are working on resolving this problem quickly.  

What Is the Impact of This Problem on the Marketers?  


Now, since AI has become an integral aspect of all online search, incapability to differentiate between AI or organic traffic poses various problems: 

  • Marketers will not be able to find out whether the traffic came from the conventional search results or AI overviews.  
  • It is difficult to accurately track the ROI of SEO strategies and formulate accurate GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) strategies. 
  • Businesses who manually track AI referrals get a competitive advantage.  

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So, How to Monitor AI Traffic in Google Analytics 4? 


While GA4 does not have a separate label for AI referral traffic, you can still track the referrals from other platforms such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini. The below-mentioned four points showcase how you can do that:  


Leverage Traffic Acquisition Report 


  • In GA4, select reports, and then choose acquisition, and then traffic acquisition.  
  • Add a new dimension “Session source/medium.”  
  • Filters for distinct AI domains include perplexity.ai, chat.openai.com, copilot.microsoft.com, gemini.google.com.  

Using Regex Filters 


  • In GA4, select “Explore” and then choose “Bank Exploration.”  
  • Same as before, add a new dimension “Session source/medium.”  
  • After that, you can use any regex filter. An example of a regex filter is as follows: 

(chatgpt\.com|gemini\.google\.com|openai\.com|copilot\.microsoft\.com|perplexity\.ai|claude\.ai|bard\.google\.com|bing\.com/chat) 

What this regex filter does is consolidate all AI referrals into a single dataset.  


Establish Custom Channel Grouping


  • Proceed to visit the “Admin” section and then choose “Data Display” and “Channel Groups”. 
  • Create a copy of the default channel groups.  
  • Then, create a new channel and name it as AI traffic.  
  • Add regex conditions that include all AI sources.  
  • Smartly choose the placement of this new channel. Preferably, you can place it above “Referral.” 

UTM Parameters 


Through UTM parameters, you can track if any of your links show up in ChatGPT answers or AI summaries. Adding UTM parameters allows Google Analytics to attribute them correctly. Here is a UTM example for Google Gemini: 

?utm_source=gemini&utm_medium=ai_search&utm_campaign=brand_awareness 


When Will Google Show Google AI Mode as a Referrer? 


At the moment, there is no feature in GA4 that lets you see Google AI Mode traffic as a separate label. However, Google has clearly revealed that it is a bug, and marketers and businesses can expect to see a separate label for AI Mode referrals in future. For the time being, you can either consider AI referrals in your organic traffic or use the manual methods described above. For more details, you can keep an eye on more Google’s updates.  


Conclusion


So, a lot of digital marketers and businesses have been asking: Does GA4 Show Google AI Mode as Referrer? As the blog clearly explains, you cannot see GA4 Google AI Referrals separately yet. However, it does not mean that you cannot manually track AI traffic. You can track referrals from platforms like Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. You can also use manual methods like custom channel groups, regex filters, and UTMs to track AI mode traffic in GA4. Soon, Google is expected to fix this problem and show AI Overview referrals as a separate label.  

With the increasing prominence of AI-powered search and GEO, tracking AI-based traffic is important for SEO professionals and marketers.  

For more technical blogs related to SEO, explore our website.