Skip to main content
May 13, 2016
Question

Original Referrer & Anonymous Leads

  • May 13, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 5531 views

We are working on some reports based on Original Referrer field, but we were curious if this was the original referrer after the form fill/lead create or if this field tracks anonymous data as well.

Does anyone know the answer?

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.

1 reply

May 13, 2016

Its for the first time they hit the sight, whether anon or known

May 13, 2016

Thank you, Jamie!!

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
May 13, 2016

Jamie's answer is not always correct.  Depending on the way the lead navigates to/through your site, the Original Referrer may mark the page they are viewing when they become known by filling out a form. In this case, it's the junction point between Anonymous and Known.  It is not the first time they hit your site.

Another point I'm obliged to make is that if your site is not running over , you cannot reliably obtain referrer information. This is because any links to your site from sites (such as secure search engines or any other SSL site) will only pass their referrer to you if you too are running .  Otherwise, your browser will see no referrer and analytics will mistake the traffic for Direct.  I can't emphasize this point enough because people think Marketo is sometimes "losing" the referrer, when it's the browser itself that doesn't have this information due to longstanding browser security rules.