Hi everyone,
I recently started leading the Paid Ads at a new agency and inherited an account in the midst of transitioning from GA to Adobe Analytics. Initially tried leveraging Google's UTM auto-tagging, but nothing was populating in Adobe; we hardcoded the UTMs to the ad URLs and finally had data populating in Adobe.
If the hard-coded UTMs are set up properly, the only idea I have is whether there is an issue with landing page code, which may take this in a different direction. That's because the company was moving away from conversion tracking, and I know they were looking to use eVars, so I'm not sure if having no landing page code could cause this? From our conversations with the company's IT/webmaster, it sounded like they were trying to use Adobe and eVars to avoid having to add tracking code in order to be compliant.
CURRENT ISSUE
The problem now is that the ad URLs with the UTM parameters are coming up as referrals and not counting as pageviews. The client's IT rep/webmaster inquired as to whether we were setting all the landing pages to the homepage (most ads are not doing that) and attaching the UTMs, which he thought may then redirect the users to "pages on the website" (aka not the homepage).
I don't have enough experience/insight to troubleshoot or provide more context, other than what the webmaster is telling me, so I apologize for that. However, if anyone does have any insight they can share, it would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Let me know if there is any specific info/context needed and I will certainly see if I can provide it.
RESEARCHING THE ISSUE
When I try to research the topic, Google AI mentions the info below, but I'm not comfortable just relying on AI.
"If your Adobe Analytics data shows pages with UTM parameters as the referral page instead of the actual landing page, and these page views aren't counted towards paid ad performance, it's likely because your tracking is set up to interpret the UTM parameters as a separate "referrer" page, rather than just tracking data associated with the actual page the user landed on; this often occurs when the UTM parameters are not properly integrated into the page URL itself during tracking."
Follow-up question: Since we hard-coded the UTM parameters to the ad URLs, could this cause the UTM parameters to not be properly integrated into the page URL during tracking? If not, what could that be potentially [if not a loaded question]? Between this and the webmaster inquiring as to whether we were setting all the landing pages to the homepage and attaching the UTMs, which he thought may redirect the users to "pages on the website" (most ads are not driving traffic directly to the homepage/"pages on the website").
Some of the [troubleshooting] options the Google AI mentions include:
Incorrect UTM parameter implementation
If your UTM parameters are not correctly appended to the final destination URL when creating campaign links, the analytics tool might interpret the URL with the UTMs as the "referrer" instead of the actual page visited.
Context follow-up:
An example of a hard-coded ad URL (anonymized domain) with UTMs is:
subdomain.domain.edu/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=fertility_treatment&utm_content=ivf
UTM parameter as a separate hit
Tracking code may be sending a separate hit for the URL with UTM parameters, registering it as a "referral" page view instead of associating it with the actual landing page view.
Data processing settings
Check your Adobe Analytics data processing rules to ensure they are correctly associating the UTM parameters with the relevant landing page and not treating them as a separate page altogether.
How to fix this:
Properly append UTM parameters to URLs:
Make sure your campaign links are constructed with the correct UTM parameters appended directly to the final destination URL.
Review tracking code
Check your website's tracking code to ensure it is correctly sending the UTM parameters along with the actual landing page URL in the page view hit.
Adjust data processing rules
In your Adobe Analytics setup, review data processing rules to ensure they are correctly associating UTM parameters with the relevant page views and not creating separate "referral" page entries.
I sincerely apologize for the length but is generally due to our lack of experience/insight. If anyone is able to provide some assistance and/or insight, I would really greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
John
