The Explorations section of GA4 is where you build custom reports that go beyond the standard dashboards. Think of it as your personal analytics workbench.

1. Log in to your Google Analytics 4 property.
2. In the left navigation, click Explore (the compass icon).
3. On the Explorations home screen, click Blank to start fresh.
4. At the top of the panel, click the default name and rename it something descriptive — for example, Traffic Source Report.

Dimensions are the labels that describe who your visitors are and where they came from. For a traffic source report, you’ll need these three:

1. In the Variables panel on the left, click the + next to Dimensions.
2. In the search box, type and select each of the following:
   Session source
   Session medium
   Session campaign
3. Click Confirm to add them to your workspace.

Metrics are the numbers — they tell you how much activity each source is generating on your site.

1. Click the + next to Metrics in the Variables panel.
2. Search for and select both of the following:
   Active users  (shows as “Users”)
   Screen page views  (shows as “Page views”)
3. Click Confirm.

Now it’s time to arrange everything into the expandable, drilldown table that makes this report so powerful.

1. In the Tab Settings panel (center column), set the Technique dropdown to Free form.
2. Drag Session source into the Rows box. This becomes the top level of your hierarchy.
3. Drag Session medium below it in the Rows box — this is the second level.
4. Drag Session campaign below Session medium — the third level. The order matters: it creates the expandable hierarchy you’ll click through in the report.
5. Drag Active users and Screen page views into the Values box.

The last step is scoping the data to the time period you care about.

1. At the top of the Variables panel, locate the date range selector and choose the period you want to review — last 30 days, last quarter, or a custom range aligned with a campaign flight.
2. Optional: Add a filter to remove internal traffic if your team visits the site frequently.
   • Click +Add filter in the Tab Settings panel.
   • Filter by IP address or use a custom dimension if internal traffic exclusion is already configured in your GA4 data stream.

Once built, your report will look something like this — with each row expandable to reveal the medium and campaign underneath it: