High Volume of “None” Marketing Channel Despite Tracking Code in Web SDK | Community
Skip to main content
M
MaxWo2
Level 2
July 4, 2025
Question

High Volume of “None” Marketing Channel Despite Tracking Code in Web SDK

  • July 4, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 1665 views

Hi all,

 

I’m encountering a challenge with marketing channel attribution in an implementation using Adobe Web SDK, Adobe Analytics, and A4T, and I’m curious if others have seen similar behavior or have best practices to share.

Here is the situation:

My questions for the community:

  • Has anyone experienced similar issues with “None” channels despite having tracking codes in a Web SDK + A4T environment?

  • How have you ensured that the marketing channel is correctly attributed and not showing as “None”?

  • Is it possible or recommended to pass the tracking code explicitly into the Target activity data, such as via the decisioning.propositionDisplay event?

  • If so, how do you implement that in Launch or Web SDK to ensure the tracking code flows through to Analytics and the data feed?

I appreciate any insights or examples you can share.

Thanks in advance!

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies.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

4 replies

bjoern__koth
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
bjoern__kothCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
July 4, 2025

Hi @maxwo2 

 

are you using Adobe Launch to deploy the Web SDK? Have you considered using the "Common Web SDK Plugins" extension's "getValOnce" function to make sure to not inflate the data and sending the tracking code in marketing.trackingCode (see automatic mapping of XDM fields to Adobe Analytics). 

 

I would opt for sending this information as part of the standard XDM schemas instead of using processing rules to make sure this data gets sent to other (Adobe) tools as well.

Cheers from Switzerland!
M
MaxWo2Author
Level 2
July 7, 2025

Hi @bjoern__koth,

 

Yes, we are using Launch to deploy Web SDK. No, we don't have a data element that uses "Common Web SDK Plugins" extension's "getValOnce" function.

 

For the mapping, the marketing.trackingCode is mapped to the XDM data element fields but this is only for pageView.

 

When you say "I would opt for sending this information as part of the standard XDM schemas" and based on the above screenshot, what should the "Type" be? But by doing so, wouldn't this be a duplicate for "Web Webpagedetails Page Views" again since I already have one XDM data element for page views?

 

Thanks.

bjoern__koth
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
bjoern__kothCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
July 8, 2025

Hi @maxwo2 

what you're doing is so far all good, the getValOnce could be an extension for cleaner data to avoid double-counting, but nothing that really stands out.

In general, when you have rules with "Tracking Code exists" and not checking for the parallel existence of the query params that fill the tracking code, this will also double-count when the user comes back next time as long as the Tracking Code is persisted. So, this would likely also inflate your numbers.

 

But none of the above explains the "None" values. 

I would for sure add the generic "catch all" that @jennifer_dungan mentioned. Maybe this sheds some more light on the issue.

Cheers from Switzerland!
EurosIMS
EurosIMS
Level 3
July 4, 2025

As simplistic as it sounds, the reason you have 'none' is because there are hits/visits where no channel rule applies. If all of the rules are set with '1st page of visit' along with another condition, then either side of that equation doesn't apply for the hits with 'none'. The last channel rule should, ideally, always be Direct which would be something like '1st hit' & 'referrer doesn't exist'. That should ensure all visits have at least the direct channel. 

    Jennifer_Dungan
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    Jennifer_DunganCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    July 4, 2025

    Yes, I agree... having "first page of visit" on all the rules is going to be problematic... Often users will have multiple channels in the same visit, so restricting your rules to only look at the first "page" (which actually presents more like first hit), can cause issues....

     

    Now, this isn't the full issue, since we can see that many of those URLs have campaigns on the first hit... so they should be read...

     

    I think to understand more what might be happening, we may have to see your Marketing Channel Rules to help diagnose deeper

      M
      MaxWo2Author
      Level 2
      July 7, 2025

      Thanks @eurosims and @jennifer_dungan,

       

      This is the configuration for the Direct channel plus in the Marketing Channel Manager, Direct channel is not set to override last-touch channel:

      The reason why we went with first hit is because we did not want reassignment of marketing channels to keep occurring in the reports.

       

      Question, does it make any difference using Tracking Code or Query String Parameter when setting up the marketing channel rules?

      EurosIMS
      EurosIMS
      Level 3
      July 7, 2025

      Hi @maxwo2,

      Agree with @jennifer_dungan, we need to see the other 24 rules unfortunately! If the hit is getting all way to rule 25 & rule 25 isn't applied, that means the hit has a referrer (or it isn't the 1st hit- but that's probably less likely) so it's dropping out of all the other rules as they are too specific, & being assigned no channel. 

      Regards the other question, it makes no difference to the rules if you use query param or tracking code, but the reporting may be inconsistent if you are switching between both rather than only ever using one. 

        M
        MaxWo2Author
        Level 2
        July 9, 2025

        Just for the record, I don't advocate for "one rule per channel"... I am on the "make the rules for the scenarios you need" side.... 

         

        For multiple channels, I have different rule sets to capture the needed granularity... the rules really don't allow for combinations of "X AND Y" OR "W and Z"... if you try to put those in one rule, you might end up with "X and Z" or "Y and W", etc... not ideal... also, in some cases, based on the rules, I need to set different "detail" values... 

         

         

        So, that said... looking at your rules.

        • Rule 1 - I would remove "Is First Hit of Visit" (this is going to prevent mid-visit paid searches from being detected
        • Rule 2 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit" 
        • Rule 4 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit" 
        • Rule 5 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
          (I would also change your rule from looking at "Page URL" to looking at Query Parameter utm_medium (like rule 3 is using)... I am not sure if Marketing Channels are processed before or after query params are removed from the URL... so best to be safe
        • Rule 6 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
          Also, personally, I would change the rule to look at your query params over looking at Tracking Code... I don't know if these rules look at the instance, or the persisted value of Tracking Code.. I defer to the safest option....
        • Rule 7 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 8 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 9 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
          Also, I don't think you really need the logic for "Tracking Code" does not exist...  
          Next, have you confirmed that your Paid Search Detection rules are set up correctly? This is key to ensuring that Paid and Natural Search are properly determined
        • Rule 10 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 11 - Why are you looking for utm_medium on your organic social? Organic by most definitions will not have UTMs... the exception to this is if you have specific "share" links that add UTMs (or if you add UTMs to your own posts that aren't paid)... if this is the case, sure, this will work - and since it's "ANY" this shouldn't cause problems.....
        • Rule 12 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
          And again, I don't think you need any logic for Tracking Code to not exist here....  
        • Rule 13 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
          and again, I don't think you need the logic for Tracking Code like in Rule 12...
        • Rule 15 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 16 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 17 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 18 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 20 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 21 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 22 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"
        • Rule 24 - same, remove "Is First Hit of Visit"

         

        I noticed you don't have any generic "catch all" for URLs with UTMs (that aren't specifically defined)... this probably should be added between rules 24 and 25.... 

         

         

        From your first post, it looks like a lot of the failures are on your salesforce links... which should relate to rule 6

         

        This is the rule I suggested switching to look specifically at the UTMs and not Tracking Code...

         

        So I would try the rule:

         

        ANY

        Query String Parameter utm_medium equals "email"

        Query String Parameter utm_source equals "salesforce"

         

         

        I am assuming that you have the default 30 day attribution on your Marketing Channels.... so you have two options... make the change, and watch for improvements, but know that you could still have issues for retained channels over the next 30 days... or force a reset of all channels (but this basically nukes everything that is working).... 

         

        Usually, I just let it run out naturally... 


        Thanks @jennifer_dungan for taking the time to go through the rules and will update the rules based on your feedback. Yes, both the marketing channel and tracking code are set to expire within 30 days.

         

        Another question, besides email tracking codes falling into None, I am also seeing both generic and branded paid search tracking codes falling into both None and Organic Search channels. It baffles me that if the current rules with "Is first hit of visit" is set for both generic and branded paid search rules, how does the tracking code still fall into None or Organic Search? I even looked at a specific ECID and the first time this user visited our site, the user entered via a paid search but it still got assigned under Organic Search.

          Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

          Loading footer...