Displaying Full Referrer URL in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google are transitioning Analytics users to GA4, which has a different type of reporting. Previously it was very easy to see a list of referrers with their full URL. In GA4 it doesn’t seem possible, but I found a reasonable workaround.

Use the Explore tab to create a new Exploration with the following settings:

Variables

  • Dimensions: Page referrer
  • Metrics: Active users

Tab Settings

  • rows: Page referrer
  • show rows: 500 (optional)
  • values: Active users (or New users)
  • cell type: Heat map (optional)
  • filters: (exclude any URL patterns here)

Then minimise the Variables and Settings panels.


This will give you a long table of full referrer URLs along with the number of users that came from there. In my case most are domain names, but a handful are full URLs pointing to a page.

PNG

It remains to be seen if this can be done more easily or more comprehensively.

Originally posted answering my own question at stackoverflow.

--
Comments: @gingerbeardman