Every GA4 CM360 dimension, explained — site name, placement, creative, rendering ID
When Campaign Manager 360 is linked to GA4, a set of CM360 dimensions appears in your reports — advertiser, campaign, placement, creative, each in two variants. The naming is where people get stuck: "First user CM360 advertiser name" and "CM360 advertiser name" are not the same dimension, and picking the wrong one quietly changes what your report means.
The scope distinction that trips everyone up
| Prefix | Scope | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
First user CM360 … | User-scoped, first touch | Which CM360 ad first brought this user to the site, ever |
Session CM360 … | Session-scoped | Which CM360 ad drove this particular session |
What each dimension family covers
- Advertiser — advertiser name and advertiser ID, the top of the CM360 hierarchy.
- Campaign — campaign name and campaign ID.
- Placement — placement name, placement ID, and placement cost structure (how the placement was bought).
- Site — site name and site ID: where the inventory was bought, as opposed to where on the page the ad sat.
- Creative — creative name, creative ID, creative type, creative type ID, creative version, creative format and rendering ID.
- Source / medium — the CM360 source/medium pairing, in both user and session scope.
First user CM360 … (user-scoped) and once as Session CM360 … (session-scoped). So you are choosing along two axes: which entity, and which scope.Every CM360 dimension, and what it actually tells you
The names are close enough to each other that the wrong one looks right in a report. This is the lookup table — each row exists in both a First user CM360 … and a Session CM360 … form.
| Dimension | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| CM360 site name | The site the advertising space was bought from — the publisher or property, not the position on the page. |
| CM360 site ID | The identifier for that site or app. |
| CM360 placement name | Where on the site the ad ran. A placement belongs to a site, which is why these two get confused. |
| CM360 placement ID | The identifier for that placement. |
| CM360 placement cost structure | How the placement was bought — CPM, CPC, flat rate and so on. |
| CM360 creative name | The creative's name in CM360. |
| CM360 creative ID | The creative's identifier. |
| CM360 creative type | The kind of creative — display, video, rich media. |
| CM360 creative type ID | The numeric form of the same thing. |
| CM360 creative version | Which iteration of that creative served. Useful when a creative is edited mid-flight. |
| CM360 creative format | The format the creative was served in. |
| CM360 rendering ID | Identifies the specific way a creative was rendered — the level below creative ID, and the one people reach for when two versions of a creative look identical in reporting. |
| CM360 account name | The CM360 account the advertiser sits under — one level ABOVE advertiser, and the level most people forget exists. |
| CM360 account ID | The identifier for that account. |
| CM360 advertiser name / ID | The advertiser inside that account. |
| CM360 campaign name / ID | The campaign the placement belonged to. |
| CM360 medium / source / source-medium | The CM360 equivalent of GA4's own acquisition pairing. |
Why they show (not set)
This is the other half of the search traffic these dimension names attract, and it usually comes down to the link rather than the dimension.
- The CM360 ↔ GA4 link isn't configured, or was configured on a different property than the one you're reporting on.
- Floodlight tags aren't firing on the pages in question, so there's no CM360 exposure to attribute.
- The session had no CM360 exposure at all — organic, direct and non-CM360 paid traffic will legitimately be (not set) on these dimensions. This is correct behaviour, not a bug.
- You're looking at a date range before the link existed. These dimensions don't backfill.
The six dimensions people look up most, one at a time
Almost everyone arriving here is checking one dimension, not reading a reference. These are the six that get looked up most, each answered on its own.
CM360 site name is the site the impression was bought from — the publisher or property that owned the inventory. It answers "whose audience was this", not "where on the page did the ad sit".
CM360 placement name is where on that site the ad ran. A placement belongs to a site, so site name and placement name are a hierarchy rather than alternatives: one buy on one site can hold many placements.
CM360 creative type is the broad category of the creative — Display, Tracking, and the other classes CM360 sorts creatives into. It is the coarsest of the creative dimensions.
CM360 creative format is the specific layout the ad was served in, one level finer than creative type. Google's own wording overlaps here — its documentation sometimes calls formats "types" — which is exactly why both terms get searched, and why a report can look right while grouped by the wrong one.
CM360 creative version is which iteration of a creative served. It matters when a creative is edited mid-flight: the name and ID stay the same, the version does not, so this is the dimension that separates before and after.
CM360 rendering ID identifies the specific way a creative was rendered, below creative ID. It is what distinguishes two servings that group together under one creative name.
First user CM360 … for the ad that first brought the user to the site ever, and Session CM360 … for the ad that drove the session you are looking at. Picking the wrong scope changes the answer without changing how correct the report looks.The DV360 dimensions sitting right next to them
If Display & Video 360 is linked to the same property, GA4 shows a second family with the same two-scope structure — First user DV360 … and Session DV360 … — and people reach for the wrong one constantly, because CM360 and DV360 both say "advertiser", "campaign" and "creative".
The difference is what each system is. CM360 is the ad server: it recorded the serve and the click, whoever bought it. DV360 is the buying platform: it recorded the bid, and it knows things the ad server has no word for.
| DV360 dimension | What it is | CM360 equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| DV360 advertiser | The advertiser in the DV360 hierarchy | CM360 advertiser — different ID space |
| DV360 campaign | The DV360 campaign that bought the impression | CM360 campaign — different ID space |
| DV360 insertion order | The budget and flight container under the campaign | None — CM360 has no insertion order |
| DV360 line item | The targeting and bidding unit that actually bid | None — closest is placement, but it is not the same thing |
| DV360 exchange | Which exchange the impression was won on | None — the ad server does not see the auction |
| DV360 creative ID / name / type / format | The creative as DV360 knows it | CM360 creative ID / name / type / format |
Using them without living in the UI
The practical problem with these dimensions isn't understanding them once — it's that reconciling CM360's own numbers against GA4's is a recurring job. CM360 is the ad server's view; GA4 is the site's view; they will not match exactly, and knowing which dimension scope you queried is half of explaining why.
An agent connected to both can pull them in the same run and explain the gap rather than making you export two reports and eyeball them — see CM360 reporting automation, or put the reconciliation on a self-refreshing dashboard so it's current whenever someone asks.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "First user CM360 advertiser name" mean in GA4?
- It is the user-scoped version of the CM360 advertiser dimension — the advertiser whose CM360 ad first brought that user to your site, ever. "Session CM360 advertiser name" is the session-scoped twin and reflects the ad that drove the specific session instead.
- What is the difference between "First user CM360" and "Session CM360" dimensions?
- Scope. "First user" dimensions are user-scoped and attributed to the user first touch ever; "Session" dimensions describe the session in front of you. Both are correct, they answer different questions, and mixing them in one report is why numbers fail to reconcile.
- Why are my GA4 CM360 dimensions showing (not set)?
- Most often the CM360-to-GA4 link isn't configured (or is on a different property), or Floodlight tags aren't firing. It's also legitimately (not set) for any session with no CM360 exposure — organic, direct and non-CM360 paid traffic included.
- Which CM360 dimensions are available in GA4?
- Advertiser, campaign, site (name and ID), placement (name, ID and cost structure), creative (name, ID, type, type ID, version, format and rendering ID) and CM360 source/medium — each in both a First user and a Session variant.
- What does "First user CM360 site name" mean?
- The site the advertising space was bought from — the publisher or property — attributed to the CM360 ad that first brought that user to your site. Site is who you bought from; placement is where on that site the ad sat.
- What does "First user CM360 placement name" mean?
- The placement — the specific position on a site — that served the CM360 ad which first brought that user to your site. Placement sits below site: one site can hold many placements, so grouping by placement name splits what grouping by site name combines.
- What is CM360 creative format in GA4?
- The specific layout the creative was served in — one level finer than creative type. Google's own documentation sometimes refers to formats as types, which is why both get searched; if a creative report looks plausible but does not reconcile, check which of the two it was grouped by.
- What is CM360 creative type in GA4?
- The broad category of the creative — Display, Tracking and the other classes CM360 sorts creatives into. Creative type is the coarsest creative dimension; creative format is finer, and CM360 creative type ID is the same classification expressed as a number.
- What is the difference between CM360 creative type and creative format?
- Creative type is the category (Display, Tracking); creative format is the specific layout served within it. The terminology genuinely overlaps in Google's own material, so the safe habit is to name which one a report used rather than assume the reader infers it.
- What is CM360 creative version in GA4?
- Which iteration of a creative served. When a creative is edited mid-flight the name and ID stay the same and the version changes, so this is the only creative dimension that separates performance before and after an edit.
- What is CM360 account name in GA4?
- The CM360 account the advertiser belongs to — one level above advertiser in the hierarchy, and the level most people forget exists. It is available as both First user CM360 account name and Session CM360 account name, along with the matching account ID.
- What is CM360 rendering ID in GA4?
- It identifies the specific way a creative was rendered, one level below creative ID. It is what distinguishes two servings that look identical when grouped by creative name.
- What is the difference between CM360 site name and placement name?
- Site is the publisher or property the inventory was bought from. Placement is where on that site the ad ran. A report grouped by the wrong one still returns plausible numbers, which is why the mistake survives.
- Will CM360 dimensions backfill after I set up the link?
- No — they populate from when the link is active onward, so date ranges before the link was configured will show (not set).
- What is the difference between GA4's DV360 and CM360 dimensions?
- CM360 dimensions come from the ad server — it recorded the serve and the click. DV360 dimensions come from the buying platform — it recorded the bid. They share names like advertiser, campaign and creative but use different ID spaces, and DV360 adds insertion order, line item and exchange, which CM360 has no equivalent for.
- Which DV360 dimensions are available in GA4?
- Advertiser, campaign, insertion order, line item, exchange, and creative ID, name, type and format — each in both a First user and a Session variant, the same two-scope structure as the CM360 family.
- What is a DV360 line item in GA4 reporting?
- The targeting and bidding unit that actually bid on the impression, one level below the insertion order. It is the dimension to group by when the question is which buying unit produces the traffic that converts — no CM360 dimension answers that.